Infographics in Illustrator Basic Techniques

Circular Bar Data

Cathy Grundy: Here I am referencing Paul Butt an experienced infographic designer.http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/adobe-illustrator/design-magazine-infographic/#5This is a good reference for many more examples of illustrator tutorials. You can add clip art or your own graphic instead of the dalek, that’s up to you.

This tutorial is about creating the central infographic using basic Illustrator techniques, demonstrating clipping masks in particular.You can add the other details by following the full tutorial from the link.

Later we will consider the graph features in Illustrator, but here we practice the foundational features and how to streamline procedures.

Preparation and planning is key. Try to sketch out any idea before picking up the mouse. For this graphic, the semi-circular-shaped head of the Dalek gives a good effect with the data wrapped around it. Splitting up the data by Doctor seemed the obvious choice.

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Infographics in Illustrator Basic Techniques

Create a new document in Illustrator: 200mm square at 300dpi in CMYK.

In the View menu, turn on Rulers (Cmd/Ctrl + R), Grids (Cmd/Ctrl + “) and Guides (Cmd/Ctrl + ;).

In Illustrator’s Preferences, set the grid to lines every 5mm, with 10 subdivisions.

Drag vertical and horizontal guidelines into the exact centre of the artboard, then click and drag from the top-left corner of the rulers to the centre of the artboard.

Create a new document in Illustrator: 200mm square at 300dpi in CMYK. In the View menu, turn on Rulers (Cmd/Ctrl + R), Grids (Cmd/Ctrl + “) and Guides (Cmd/Ctrl + ;). In Illustrator’s Preferences, set the grid to lines every 5mm, with 10 subdivisions.

Drag vertical and horizontal guidelines into the exact centre of the artboard, then click and drag from the top-left corner of the rulers to the centre of the artboard.

Draw a rectangle two grid-segments wide (1mm) that starts from the centre of the artboard to just past the top of the doughnut. This will be our separator. With it selected, press R for the Rotate tool and click on the centre of the artboard while holding Alt. Enter 20° and press Copy.

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Infographics in Illustrator Basic Techniques

Now press Cmd/Ctrl + D to duplicate the lines round the circle until they match up. Select all the rectangles and use the Unite tool in the Pathfinder panel to merge them into one object. Then select both the doughnut and the new star shape and use Minus Front as before

We only need 11 segments for the 11 Doctor Who actors, so rotate the whole group of bars 10 degrees around the centre so that two of the breaks sit exactly horizontal, then delete the bottom seven segments. This creates our basic frame.

Create a data scale on a new layer using the Line Segment tool (\). You can save time by creating one section and duplicating it.

Duplicate the original layer of circular segments by moving it in the Layers panel whilst holding Alt. Fill the top layer with a solid colour, as this will be our data layer.

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Infographics in Illustrator Basic Techniques

For each segment, draw a circle from the centre of the artboard holding Shift and Alt to constrain proportions. Make sure you have Snap to Grid (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + “) turned on and size it according to the value. Then select both the circle and the segment and right click > Make Clipping Mask.

Repeat Step 9 for all segments. The temporary scale can now be rotated to the end of the part-circle, having done its job in helping us build the graphic.

Create label boxes for each segment using the same method as in Steps 3-6, but creating a larger doughnut around the outside of our existing segments. Add a coloured background, and colour your elements if necessary.

Create a circle from the centre of the artboard that runs out to the label boxes. Then use the Type on a Path tool to create labels. Double click the tool in the toolbar to change alignment options. When you’ve done the first one, you can rotate and copy it 20 degrees to create the rest – then go about editing the names afterwards at your leisure.

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Infographics in Illustrator Basic Techniques

Use the same technique to create the data labels – in this case, the number of TV episodes. Resize each one in turn so they sit one grid mark above the relevant bar.

When you do this, the font size will change, so it’s best to align the type to the Baseline. You can then adjust the font size of the whole layer at the end without them shifting position

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