The greatest Infographic ever made

That's right. The above image is considered by many to be the greatest Infographic ever made and it's by Charles Joseph Minard. The guys over at one of my favourite YouTube channel's, Numberphile, have deconstructed the image to show just how clever it is in conveying it's message. It does this quite well actually. You can view it on YouTube here.

• Starting from the left it shows the original size of Napoleon's French army (brown line) as they move to invade Russia. 
• It shows the number of troops he began with and also maps the various locations they traversed as they chased the retreating Russian ranks. 
• This image is quite beautiful because of the different directions the line takes as it shows that columns of troops broke off from rank to rejoin Napoleon later. 
• It also shows the changing average temperature over time as the troops travelled further into the Russian winters. 
• Finally, the black line shows the eventual retreat of the French and the eventual size of their dwindling numbers arriving back home

There are 6 variables tracked here and quite a vivid image painted when you see the width of the bars that show the original versus the eventual army size. 

There's quite the raging industry when it comes to Infographics and whether there is software that just creates these or artists and designers are used, the point to it all is that it should convey a clear message or story. The image itself is considered one of the first moments in the history of the analytics and it is mentioned in my article about the "THE EVOLUTION OF ANALYTICS - PART 1". 

Next time you're creating a report or chart or even Infographic, take heed from the lessons you can take from Charles Joseph Minard's work and see if you too can tell a story.