How do you make a good infographic? Focus on the data and you’re halfway there.

After successfully stumbling into this visual marketing thing with Lemon.ly, our team thought it was a great time to start a blog to share our thoughts and provide more background into the infographics we make and how they come to be.

Lemon.ly reached three months old at the beginning of December, so we’re enjoying startup mode making mistakes and learning new things every single day. But we also think we’ve done a few things right since launching at the beginning of September. Most of this success is attributed to a commitment to finding good data.

When making an infographic or visualization if you have a compelling dataset, then you can make a successful graphic. The data doesn’t have to be complex, large, or even consist of numbers, but it needs to make comparisons, show patterns, or illuminate history. You want the data to jump off the paper like Jonah Hill sees baseball stats in Moneyball (this won’t be the last baseball reference from me)

Just like a good infographic starts with good data, I believe a good startup starts with a good team. A good team is the only reason Lemon.ly exists today. We had a great designer who makes great visuals, a nerd who loves studying data, and a hustler who helps clients create understanding. Lemon.ly’s data is its team.

I often get asked how to make a good infographic, my answer is simple, it is the title of this blog post. There is not a formula for great visualizations, but the first step is the data. So I thought this would be a fitting first step in the new Lemon.ly blog.