{"id":103133,"date":"2021-05-01T11:55:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-01T15:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/?p=103133"},"modified":"2026-03-30T04:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T08:21:07","slug":"how-to-identify-what-core-message-to-visualize-in-an-infographic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/how-to-identify-what-core-message-to-visualize-in-an-infographic\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Identify What Core Message to Visualize in an Infographic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>One of the most difficult parts of creating an infographic isn\u2019t creating the design. It\u2019s summarizing your content and really identifying what the core message is that you want to visualize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I often find myself looking at infographic examples for inspiration on style and layout, and the ones that stand out the most aren\u2019t necessarily using evolutionary design elements. They aren\u2019t interactive or littered with cool effects, but rather, they manage to successfully reveal the core message through the appropriate use of visual additions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What do I mean by this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, a great infographic should have one purpose, and that is to make complex information more engaging and more digestible. This doesn\u2019t mean simply condensing long-form text and prettying it up with a cute color scheme and nice fonts \u2013 it means enhancing that information and complementing it with relevant imagery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Infographic marketing is a great way to enhance your <a href=\"https:\/\/linklab.site\/resources\/digital-business-card\">digital business card<\/a>, but only if you make it right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Granted, nice colors and fonts are important if you want your visuals to stand out, but it\u2019s not the main goal of <a href=\"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/best-infographics\/\">infographic marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today I\u2019m going to cover two main problem areas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Summarizing your long-form text to find the message that matters<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Identifying how to visualize that message using verbal imagery<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ll go over a couple of different examples, and hopefully, by the end of this article, you will have a better idea of what it means to make your information more engaging to a wider audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How to Summarize Text and Find the Core Message<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s start with an example. I\u2019m going to assume that you\u2019re all familiar with the story of <em>Little Red Riding Hood<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If I were to ask you to tell me briefly, what a summary of this story is, you\u2019d likely say something along the lines of, \u201cWell it\u2019s about a little girl who goes to visit her grandmother. She has to take a dangerous path through the woods and encounters a Big Bad Wolf who keeps trying to eat her\u2026\u201d etc. Right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While giving this summary, you actually cut out a lot of details \u2013 some might even be considered very important. But the <em>core<\/em> of the story is still there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, here is an excerpt from the introduction of the tale, and we\u2019re going to <strong>trim the fat<\/strong> and only pull out the information that is most important for our readers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a village near the forest. Whenever she went out, the little girl wore a red riding cloak, so everyone in the village called her Little Red Riding Hood.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>One morning, Little Red Riding Hood asked her mother if she could go to visit her grandmother as it had been a while since they\u2019d seen each other.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThat\u2019s a good idea,\u201d her mother said. So they packed a nice basket for Little Red Riding Hood to take to her grandmother.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>When the basket was ready, the little girl put on her red cloak and kissed her mother goodbye.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cRemember, go straight to Grandma\u2019s house,\u201d her mother cautioned. \u201cDon\u2019t dawdle along the way and please don\u2019t talk to strangers! The woods are dangerous.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cDon\u2019t worry, mommy,\u201d said Little Red Riding Hood, \u201cI\u2019ll be careful.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ok, so here\u2019s the challenge- how do you condense this passage into just one sentence?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s do this again, but now cut away some of the more \u201cflowery language\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is what we are left with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>There was a little girl who lived in a village near the forest<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The little girl wore a red riding cloak, so everyone in the village called her Little Red Riding Hood<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>One morning, Little Red Riding Hood asked her mother if she could go to visit her grandmother<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They packed a nice basket for Little Red Riding Hood to take to her grandmother<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cRemember, go straight to Grandma\u2019s house,\u201d her mother cautioned. \u201cThe woods are dangerous.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cDon\u2019t worry, mommy,\u201d said Little Red Riding Hood, \u201cI\u2019ll be careful.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, if we were to paraphrase all of this into one or two sentences, what would we get?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Probably something along the lines of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cLittle Red Riding Hood was preparing for a trip through the dangerous woods to visit her grandmother and bring her a nice basket.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Simple, right? All we did was:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Trim the fat<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Paraphrase the main message<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>And we didn\u2019t lose any of the context. The reader still walks away with the same information. Consider this exercise a way to recap your content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, let\u2019s assume we\u2019ve done this for the entire story, and we\u2019re planning on <a href=\"https:\/\/venngage.com\/ai-tools\/infographic-generator\">making an infographic<\/a> that summarizes this story effectively for someone who has absolutely no context or prior knowledge of the fable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How would we go about figuring out which visuals to use that would get the whole story across without requiring too much reading?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is where verbal imagery comes in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Using Verbal Imagery to Visualize Your Content<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>What is <em>verbal imagery<\/em>? In a nutshell, it\u2019s the use of language that leaves you with a mental image. In other words, it\u2019s descriptive language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For instance, if I were to tell you to \u201cstep down,\u201d the left \u201caural\u201d side of your brain understands the words and the right \u201cvisual\u201d side creates a mental picture of a person stepping down. This is an example of verbal imagery in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So our goal is to draw as many \u201cverbal images\u201d from the story of Little Red, as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Take 20 seconds to quickly think of all the images that come to mind when you imagine the story of<em> Little Red Riding Hood<\/em> (just focus on that initial excerpt we looked at before). What do you get?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s a list that I came up with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Red cloak<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Basket<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Kiss<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Grandma<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dangerous woods<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>House<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You can see them already, can\u2019t you? The red cloak, the basket in her hands, and the kiss that is planted on her cheek. These are visual cues that you can use to guide how you lay out the information on your infographic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is the summary of the introduction that we put together again:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cLittle Red Riding Hood was preparing for a trip through the dangerous woods to visit her grandmother and bring her a nice basket.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From this, a key phrase that stands out is \u201cpreparing for a trip\u201d. These few words give us a lot of visual ammunition. We can imagine bags or luggage being packed, shoes being put on, or waving goodbye to our loved ones- all actions that we ourselves take when preparing to leave for an extended period of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The truth is, identifying your core message and figuring out how to visualize it effectively is not a hard process. The first few times you attempt it, it might take you a bit longer to get the hang of things. Eventually, using verbal imagery will become second nature to you, and your infographics will be more engaging and more informative than ever!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When it comes to summarizing your information and presenting it to your audience in an easy-to-digest and engaging manner, remember that your goal is to only share the most important parts of your content with your audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eliminate any flowery language that pulls away from the core message. Then use verbal imagery to help identify which visuals to incorporate in your infographics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most difficult parts of creating an infographic isn\u2019t creating the design. It\u2019s summarizing your content and really identifying what the core message is that you want to visualize. I often find myself looking at infographic examples for inspiration on style and layout, and the ones that stand out the most aren\u2019t necessarily [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[193],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/how-to-identify-what-core-message-to-visualize-in-an-infographic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How To Identify What Core Message to Visualize in an Infographic - Venngage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the most difficult parts of creating an infographic isn\u2019t creating the design. 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Ann has been into Internet Marketing for over a decade, she is the former Editor-in-Chief of Search Engine Journal and contributor to prominent search and social blogs including Small Biz Trends and Mashable. Ann is also the frequent speaker at Pubcon and the host of a regular Twitter chat #vcbuzz.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/author\/annsmarty\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/how-to-identify-what-core-message-to-visualize-in-an-infographic\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How To Identify What Core Message to Visualize in an Infographic - Venngage","og_description":"One of the most difficult parts of creating an infographic isn\u2019t creating the design. 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