Midterm Project Brief, Part Two: Infographic and Copy

MIDTERM PROJECT BRIEF (PART TWO)

Directions: This brief is on Part Two of your Midterm Project, which is new work, as opposed to revisions on your existing work. This project brings together the lectures on the infographic and copywriting, so make sure to watch those lecture videos, look at the samples that are there, and read the questions and analyze the bad samples that are on our Instagram account—those are supposed to show you what does not work.

Instead of one project for infographic, and another one for copywriting, we are merging this together into one project. You can choose an issue or advocacy that is important to you, or take from your feature article. I’m also providing existing research and sources for specific topics for those of you who cannot decide.

What are you doing next? You are creating an infographic set that focuses on a very specific issue that is, as with everything you’ve written so far, based on a very clear stand on it. The stand is important for you to create copy that will work, given your chosen topic.

How do I pick a topic?

There are only three things to consider: (1) Is it relevant? Is it important to the bigger nation, as opposed to just a small group of people? (2) Is it current? Is it something that’s being discussed, or is important to discuss, in the present? (3) Is it urgent? Is it information that few people know about, or is it information that has drowned and disappeared into our social media feeds?

Remember that you will need to do research that you will base your content on. You are not doing direct quotes. You are re-writing credible data, to suit the infographic you want to put together on a specific issue.

NOTE that you are fleshing out this issue, tearing it apart into bits and pieces that allow us to explain how this issue has unfolded. What did government do, or not do? What happened after that? And then what incidents followed? What is our stand on this issue and why?

What if I cannot think of a topic?

If you are overwhelmed by the amount of information out there, and need some sort of direction, here are some options for you.

Real State of the Nation Numbers. Base source: http://bit.ly/RealSONA2020. You would need to update this, given that it was put together for the July 2020 State of the Nation. You also need to choose just a specific topic on this list because it’s close to impossible to do all this content on a 10-card infographic.

National Budget Numbers. Base Source: https://bit.ly/NationalBudget2021. Click on the excel sheet and you’ll find that it’s divided into four different sheets, depending on its particular focus. You can pick one, do more research on it, and flesh that out into an infographic set.

The Terror Law. Base Source: http://bit.ly/TerrorLawToolKit. This needs to be updated but might inspire you to do an update on what’s happening with the Terror Law. Currently, there are over 15 petitions with the Supreme Court requesting that it be reviewed and junked; the government has also already released its Implementing Rules and Regulations.

The Jeepney Phaseout. Base Source: https://bit.ly/KeepOurJeeps. Again, this also needs to be updated, but there are enough links in this document and a general sense of what’s wrong with refusing to allow jeeps back on the road to give you ideas about how to proceed.

You know your topic, and have your data. What next?

Now’s the time to start thinking of your copy. What are the best words you might use to sell what you want to say about this issue? Take note of the following:

Your audience is YOU. What would you say to get your peers and friends and classmates, people from your generation, interested in this topic? How would you sell the truth, so that they might stand with you on this issue?
This copy will appear on the first card of your infographic set. That first card is also called the Title Card.
If you were posting this infographic set on Instagram, this is the first card people see. Good copy would make them want to swipe left.
All the information on the other cards will use the same tone and language that you use in the copy for your Title Card. Consistency is key.

Note that technically, given the limited space you have to talk about this issue, you are doing copywriting for practically all the text in this infographic set. What does this mean? It means that based on your main copy for the Title Card, you will have to make sure you’re delivering data, in the shortest, most concise, most creative way possible, that will keep your audience swiping left until the last card.

REMEMBER: You are also designing these cards. This doesn’t need to be complicated. The more important task after all is to get those words right. But you are being made to think about how it’s supposed to look on those cards in terms of typography, color, and layout. Here are some questions you need to ask:

How much data do you put per card?
How does one card relate to the next one, how do all the cards look together?
How do the design elements on the card (typography, color, layout) contribute to the way in which the information is delivered?

I am overwhelmed. Where can I look for inspiration or good samples?

Here are some Instagram accounts that do their infographic sets well.

And if you need inspiration in terms of copywriting and design: Art Not Terrorism. ***