Toronto Infographic

Client Background:

Toronto has a skyline that sets it apart from any other city in the world. The City of Toronto has some of the tallest buildings in Canada and the CN tower is one of the most iconic land marks in Canada. The history of architecture in Toronto really starts in the 1800s when the population started booming in the city. Infrastructure needed to improve and so did it’s buildings. In the 1850s a railway was built that connected New York City, Toronto and Montreal. Toronto was made the Capital of Ontario in 1867 and in the 1920s suburban development started to kick into high gear. When Toronto’s population soared past 1 million in the 50s, bigger buildings were needed to house the growing population. A subway system was created in 1949 which helped connect the 5 boroughs and helped expand the city even more. In 1998 the megacity of Toronto formed. Today Toronto has buildings that keep getting taller in order to keep up with the rise in population. It’s interesting to see the growth of Toronto as a city and where it’s projected to grow in the future.

I moved to Toronto in 2015, being from New York I had a natural interest in buildings and architecture within cities. Not knowing much about Torontos architectural history when I moved here, it was interesting to research the buildings that dot Toronto’s skyline. The buildings within a city make up it’s character, and tell a story of the people who have inhabited it. To fully understand the city that I had moved into I thought that I need to learn the different areas of the city and the components that made up it’s architectural landscape.

I wanted to create an infographic that anyone moving to the city could use to learn more about the ins and outs of Toronto. When I moved to Toronto I could’ve used an infographic like this to help better understand different neighborhoods and landmarks within the city. This could help people better acclimate to their new surroundings and be more comfortable in the moving process.

Create a infographic that explored a topic related to Toronto or Ontario. We were told to look on the ‘City of Toronto’ website for inspiration. After that you will expand the infographic into a project of your choosing. The project must go into more detail about the original infographic and help elaborate on other topics related to it as well. You can include statistics or more visual explanations of the data.

The first step of my research process was to figure out what I wanted my initial infographic to be about. I was thinking about when I first moved to Canada and what information I would’ve like to have. This made me think that my first infographic should be about the buildings in Toronto. When first doing research I read an article about how the height of buildings are increasing and that in 2017 there will be a ‘new tallest building’ in Toronto being built. I thought that this could be en interesting topic to explore in my infographic. I started determining what the tallest buildings in Toronto were and five of the tallest buildings that were scheduled to be built after 2016 (when I did this assignment).

The next step was creating a digital representation of the data that I had found. I decided to show the buildings on a graph to show more comparison between them. I also thought to show the CN tower on the graph, even though it’s not technically a building and more of a structure. On the left side of the scale I had buildings already constructed in Toronto, I had their heights listed in ft. next to the buildings. On the right side I had buildings that were projected to be built. I thought that this was a good way to show this data because you are able to see what the buildings actually look like. When you’re walking in downtown you can easily point out the different buildings from the graph. I also thought it was very easy for people to compare the heights of the buildings when they are right next to each other.

My first regret after making this infographic was not giving it more of an artistic style. The infographic did give the information that was needed but I thought that the facts could be presented in a nicer manner. So when we had to expand our data I decided to give the infographic a different style so I could match it to the rest of the infographic project. I worked hard to make sure that I was careful as to not take away from any of the buildings iconic looks.

We then had to move on to design the rest of the expanded infographic. I knew I wanted the whole expanded project to be about Toronto as a city. I wanted to make a procure you could give people so they could learn all about Toronto. I started brainstorming what you needed to know when you first set foot in Toronto.

I then started working on fitting all the information I had gathered onto the brochure that I had designed. I knew that this was going to be the most challenging part of the whole infographic. Also because the brochure was going to be so big when it folded out, finding a good middle ground with how much data I needed to add was key. I experimented with the location and size of everything.

The final infographic ended up with a nice flow to all the information. I tried to cover topics that tourists would want/ need to know about Toronto. These included the original topic that I did the infographic on (heights of buildings). I also added sections on the prices and sizes of average apartments in Toronto. I has a map that showed the location of all the tallest buildings in Toronto and also the most populous areas in the GTA. I has a section that listed important statistics about Toronto such as vacancy rate and the average income you need to have to afford a home in Toronto. The last section of the infographic was a timeline that listed all the major neighborhoods in Toronto, when they were founded and a little description about them. This part of the projects is when I changed a major error I felt I had with the roughs before which was the colour choice. I think the green background helps make the blue buildings pop more. All together I think this is a great pamphlet that you could give someone who is new to Toronto and wants to learn more about the city.

I think that concept and the design that I came up with work really well for what the project needed. The colours and imagery that I used helped to illustrate the topic of the infographic. I bold font and clear graphic help the viewer not only understand the information but makes the infographic look visually pleasing as well.

“Create a infographic that explored a topic related to Toronto or Ontario. We were told to look on the ‘City of Toronto’ website for inspiration. After that you will expand the infographic into a project of your choosing. The project must go into more detail about the original infographic and help elaborate on other topics related to it as well. You can include statistics or more visual explanations of the data.”

I think that I made a very informative infographic that covered everything that I wanted to achieve. This project started with a simple infographic about the heights of buildings in Toronto but evolved into much more. I created a pamphlet that could be given to someone who is new to Toronto. When I moved here I think it would’ve been nice to have something like this because it tells you basic information that everyone who is new to a city would like to know.

This is a pamphlet that I think every city should have some variation of. If someone is new to your city you want them to know the most basic and important information. That can include: what neighborhoods have what and what the average price of rent is. This could be an amazing way to help people get accustomed to a new place and also know more basic facts about the city.

While working on this project I learned that less is more, you need to be able to organize your data in order to get the most information across. Colour is important because it can make or break someone understanding your data. Over all this project was a great learning experience on how to make a successful infographic.

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