How to Make a Good Infographic in Less Time it Takes to Finish a Meeting

9 min readJul 4, 2019

Wondering if it’s possible to make a good infographic in 45 minutes?

The short answer is yes!

Picture this.

You’re in a meeting with the marketing team and someone suggests using infographics as part of your visual content strategy. You open up your Visme dashboard and make an infographic before the meeting is over.

The team adds it to the social media calendar, it gets plenty of backlinks and drives traffic to the company website and the rest is infographic history.

Sounds too good to be true, but this is exactly where Visme can help you out. If you follow the tips in this guide, you’ll learn how to make a good infographic in less time it takes to finish a 45-minute meeting.

1. Make Use of Content on Hand

There is no time to create content from scratch when you need to make a good infographic fast. You need to make the most of existing content.

Here are some ideas for content that you might already have on hand:

The company’s About page
A listicle blog post
Instructions on how to use your product
Safety instructions for a product you sell
Your onboarding process
A step-by-step explanation of how your team works

Once you have figured out what content you want to base your infographic on, it’s time to quickly get it ready for design.

Start by opening up the content and skimming it quickly.

Then, open up another document to sort out the copy for the infographic and follow the steps below to do that fast:

Step 1: Copy/paste the title

Step 2: Copy/paste the Heading and first two lines of each section

Step 3: Copy/paste the URL of the published content

2. Pick the Right Template

Using a template is the best way to make an infographic on the spot. But scrolling to find the right template can be time-consuming.

Thankfully, some infographic templates are just right and don’t require a ton of customization apart from inserting your own content.

To help you out with your search, we picked out some of the best Visme infographic templates in four different categories:

1. Informational Infographic Templates

Tips for using an informational infographic template

Organize your informational templates with the help of content blocks.
Use the editing controls on each content block to adjust the height, position and background color.
If your text outline has more sections than the template, duplicate existing blocks to make the infographic longer.
If you have less content, simply delete blocks from the template.

2. List Infographic Templates

Tips for using a list infographic template

Organize your list infographic templates with one content block per one or two list items.
Customized each content block by adjusting the height, position and background color.
If your list is longer than the infographic template, simply duplicate existing content blocks and continue the list.
If it’s shorter, simply delete the extra blocks to make the infographic shorter.

3. Timeline Infographic Templates

Tips for using a timeline infographic template

Timeline infographic templates are not all built with content blocks, especially if the timeline is horizontal.
A timeline infographic template with content blocks will have elements that visually connect and the timeline will be vertical.
Use the flowchart maker or a series of connected icons.
If your content is shorter than the timeline in the template, simply delete some elements.
Adjust the text to fit better by dragging the text box corners.
To add more elements, just copy and paste elements and expand.

4. Flowchart Infographic Templates

Tips for using a flowchart infographic template

A flowchart is a diagram that fits inside one content block.
Building a flowchart in your infographic is easy with the intuitive flowchart maker.
Adjusting the sections of the flowchart is only a matter of dragging and moving around.
Try and stick to an easy-to-follow hierarchy when using a flowchart.

3. Stick to the Existing Format

It can be tempting to adjust a lot of things in your template, but if you want to make an infographic fast, stick to the existing formatting.

Instead of changing the elements and messing up the design, simply insert the right amount of content in the given spaces.

For quick fixes due to lack of space, try experimenting with the font size. Or do some quick editing like taking out a few words.

For a more productive workflow, have the concise outline open in a tab right next to your Visme editor and highlight the parts you have already copied. Going back to fix mistakes over and over again is a waste of time!

4. Add Premade Content Blocks

Even when making an infographic quickly, you might need to adjust the amount of content. For example, if the template needs just a bit more content, you can add pre-designed content blocks.

Visme gives you two options:

To add a full content block from the content library, click on the popup in the top left corner of any section and press the + button. Look through the categories on the left so you don’t waste too much time scrolling.

To add small content snippets, just look to the left bar where the ‘Basic’ tab will offer ‘suggested content’ in four categories. Choose from Header & Text, Stats & Figures, Graphics & Text and Diagrams.

5. Use Proven Font Pairings

Any designer will tell you how much time they spend choosing the right fonts for their infographic projects. But we want you to save time making this infographic before everyone leaves the meeting!

Don’t waste time looking for the perfect fonts. Stick to the ones in the template, or use one of these popular font pairings:

Just stick to font pairings that work and stop wasting time experimenting with new fonts and trying out things on your own.

6. Find Icons Using the Search Bar

This infographic has to make it off your computer soon and scrolling to find the right icon can take ages. Visme offers over 10,000 vector icons in different styles, so use the search bar to find the right one fast.

To find what you need, type in the exact keyword in the search bar. If that doesn’t give you results, try a similar term.

When you find the icons, you can either drag and drop them on to your template or simply select an existing icon and click on “Replace” to add the new icon in the same exact place.

7. Customize the Data Widgets

It’s likely that you have a Google or Excel spreadsheet as part of your presentation or report. You can insert this data in your infographic faster than it takes to read through the entire thing.

All you need to do is click on the data tab on the left-hand panel in your Visme dashboard and open the graph engine.

Import the spreadsheet and then simply choose which graph you’d like to use. Insert it into the infographic either using an existing space or in a new content block. It really is that easy!

For visualizing smaller data, such as statistics and percentages, you can also use Visme’s intuitive data widgets that include:

Radial counters
Arrays
Percentages
Digital Dials
Vertical Meters

8. Use Visme’s Color Themes

Another time-suck when making an infographic is choosing the right colors. The color combination in the template works most of the time, but if you want to change it up, use the color theme tab on the left side of the canvas.

Visme offers pre-designed color themes that you only need to click on once to change the entire color scheme of the infographic. Try out a couple and choose your favorite.

Don’t go crazy on the colors because that can take up too much time. It’s best to just stick to proven color combinations.

9. Use the Draggable Vertical Bar

Infographic vertical space is valuable real estate.

That’s why Visme has a practical vertical bar that lets you change the length of your infographic fast. Simply scroll to the bottom of your infographic design and you will see a grey button that you can drag up or down.

This tool helps you refine the space when the change needs to be subtle or if you need to add more connected modules to your flowchart.

It also saves you tons of time because you don’t have to insert new dimension values in the canvas until you get it right.

10. Add a Map to Your Infographic

If your quick infographic needs an extra visual touch, Visme’s map engine offers an easy way to add a map to your design.

Simply choose the country or region and select the data that you want to show. You can also import data from an Excel or Google spreadsheet.

Place the map in a prominent location on your infographic where it can stand alone and get noticed.

11. Crop Photos into Frames

If you’re making a quick infographic about the people in your company, you can add their profile photos along with their information. To make the photos look good fast, use shaped frames, like circles or diamonds.

Cropping photos into frames will make them all have the same size and look great with the rest of the content and design.

12. Don’t Forget the Footer

The footer holds all the important information about your infographic, its content and your company. Place your logo and contact information first and then cite the sources of where you got the information.

If it’s a page on your website, then place the URL. Adding a footer to your infographic is the best way to take ownership of your content.

Ready to Make a Good Infographic in Less Than 45 Minutes?

Good job! Now you know how to make a good infographic in less time than it takes to finish a meeting.

These hacks are especially useful when you need to share engaging content on your socials fast, want to spice up your blog with visuals or present a great idea to your boss while the meeting is still going on.

If you have a Visme Business account, you can even save the infographic you made as a company template and use it again for other content in the future to ensure that your branding looks consistent.

The original version of this post first appeared on Visme’s Visual Learning Center.