Information graphics, or infographics, are a creative way to convey information with words and eye-catching images. Infographics can be very important and vital to a marketing campaign, giving businesses a significant boost when used properly. Infographics typically convey complex concepts using icons, figures, or graphs to help users process the information communicated.

Good information design will help users understand the information conveyed through reading and seeing. In Internet marketing, infographics are used to take arguments or data that may seem abstract and render them in a way that’s more accessible to a reader using creative techniques. Bright, vivid colors and concepts can be used to create fun and easily interpreted information.

Once good recognition is established, people will be able to see a symbol and automatically relate to its intended meaning. The infographic is a very useful tool in Internet marketing. Marketers or companies who use infographics can gain customer recognition on their websites as well as other web pages where they have information posted. Good infographics can also be used as a “click through” device, leading people to click on the infographic to find out more information or possibly even make purchases from the company.

Infographics can also be a part of a complete marketing campaign and lead customers back to a particular website. Good infographics will grab the attention of the user or customer as well as keep a particular concept or idea ingrained in a person’s mind. In the end, infographics can help build a company’s brand.

To learn other Internet marketing principles and techniques, consider enrolling in an Internet marketing degree program.

This article is presented by IADT-Online. Contact us today if you’re interested in developing marketable knowledge and career-relevant skills with an industry-current degree program from IADT-Online.

Fashion merchandising is an exciting field-- right at the intersection between fashion and business. People with a passion for quality fashion often pursue fashion merchandising degrees to learn fashion sales concepts used by fashion buyers and retail outlet owners. 

A retail merchandising management degree, however, may provide more opportunity for developing skills that apply to many different industries. This article from IADT Online explains the differences you may find between a fashion merchandising and retail merchandising management degree. Key takeaways:

• Fashion merchandising focuses on one industry, and concentrates on product development in addition to retail management, visual merchandising, and sales techniques.
• Retail merchandising management is designed to apply across industries. It focuses less on product development, but digs deeper into visual merchandising and the retail sales business.

Learn more about online Retail Merchandising Management degrees with IADT Online by clicking here.

Graphic Design degree programs have evolved quickly over the last fifteen years. While many programs still include traditional skills for print-based media design, most of the emphasis is on desiging for and with computers.

So there's some overlap now between a graphic design degree and a web design and development degree. However, as the programs progress, things quickly become different.

Click here to read an article by IADT Online that compares and contrasts the two program options.

Easter is just around the corner. Many people who celebrate this holiday take time to decorate eggs, which are a symbol of rebirth. If you're looking for interesting new design elements, there are plenty of traditional and contemporary Easter egg design techniques that could get your creative juices flowing.

Whether you want to make some show-stopping eggs of your own, or use the shapes, colors, and patterns found in egg decorations for other graphic and digital designs, here are three places to start:

Pysanka: Several Eastern European groups decorate eggs using a method that involves layers of hot wax and successive dye baths. The Ukranian version, known as pysanka, is shown above, with strong geometric designs and bold colors in intricate patterns.

Lace Eggs: From Martha Stewart Living, here's an example of using objects to block dye transfer and create beautiful, delicate images on your eggs. In this case, the object is lace.

Marbled Eggs: Combining dye with oil leads to swirly, smoky patterns on eggshells. Here's a simple how-to.

Love to create? Consider pursuing professional training in a design field with IADT Online. Click here to learn more about this online design school.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia user Lubap

IADT cannot guarantee employment or salary.

Great animation and interactive features may dazzle, but at the end of the day, your design project can be made or broken by a very old-fashioned element: typography. You need to consider:

• Emotion: does this font "feel" right? A loopy, freehand script typeface might not look right on a technical website, while a tight, sans-serif font may feel too cold for a formal wedding invitation.
• Needs: does the typeface have all the symbols, weights, and special variations you're going to need, such as small capitals?
• Legibility: Will the text be easily read in the context you have planned for it?
• Browser compatibility: a font that looks terrific in one browser can be a mess in another. If your favorite font isn't widely supported, you may need to find an alternate.

See more tips for picking a typeface here at Smashing Magazine.

Click here to learn more about design training options, including graphic design and web design, at IADT Online.

Congratulations to IADT Online students Susan Sowers Teterud and Demetri Poulikidis, who both received recognition from the American Advertising Federation at a recent regional Addy Awards ceremony in Tampa Bay. Susan and Demitri both took home Silver Student ADDYs. 

Here's a list of their awards:

Susan Sowers Teterud

• Award: Student Silver ADDY
• Category: Sales Promotion: Packaging
• Title: Honey Dew Bath
• Award: Student Silver ADDY
• Category: Elements of Advertising: Illustration
• Title: Self Portrait

Demetri Poulikidis

• Award: Student Silver ADDY
• Category: Interactive Media: Website
• Title: Portfolio Site

To find a list of all winners, click here.

To learn more about the kind of educational offerings available at IADT Online, click here.

CareerBuilder.com's blog recently posted an article about ways to make a career comeback after being unemployed.

There's plenty of practical advice for interview prep-- how to explain your absence and make hiring managers focus on what you have to offer-- but some of the best advice is to "stay active". Even if nobody's hiring, you can:

• Keep up with industry news and press
• Join industry trade associations and attend meetings or participate online
• Volunteer in your field, or try to find an internship
• Take classes or pursue a degree related to your career

Online education is a great way to tackle that last strategy. If you're looking for career-focused training in creative fields, IADT Online provides online education that's flexible and convenient. So when you land a new job, you can keep pursuing your degree. Click here to learn more.

The iPhone was introduced in 2007. This new smartphone (and the competitors that quickly followed) gave users an entirely new way to interact with and customize their phone capabilities through the use of small software programs known as "apps".

By buying or downloading apps, users can do anything from find out which planets are visible from their location that night, whether the shoes they want to buy are in stock locally, or even use their phone as a level for hanging a picture. Billions of apps have been downloaded and installed over the past five years.

Apps aren't just fun and useful for smartphone owners. They're also responsible for a boom of new jobs: Mashable reports on a study sponsored by tech industry advocacy group TechNet that reveals how the new "app economy" has contributed to job growth since 2007.

In "Where The Jobs Are: The New App Economy", the lead researcher reveals that nearly 500,000 new jobs have been created by the emergence of apps, from software developers to marketers to support and business teams.

This is one of the great things about the Internet: it creates new career opportunities constantly. If you want to pursue opportunities in the new "app economy", you can develop marketable skills with training in web design and development, game design, or even Internet marketing.

And you can do it on your own schedule with convenient online study. IADT Online offers career-focused degree programs you can complete from home, from a military deployment-- or even with your smartphone, using one of our IADT Mobile apps.

Click here to learn more about IADT Online today.

IADT cannot guarantee employment or salary. All trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Congratulations to the student winner and runners-up up of IADT's first-ever Design Challenge Scholarship competition!

Cedric Poole, a graphic design student at IADT-Detroit, took first place and earned a $5,000 IADT scholarship! The runners-up, who each earned $1,000 scholarships, were Raynier Badua of IADT-Las Vegas, Kaylie Price of IADT-Seattle (entry shown above), Kristina Torres of IADT-Sacramento, Gallagher Scott of IADT-Seattle and Don Gier Jr. of IADT-Sacramento. Click here to see all of the winners and runners-up! 

Last week Apple announced iBooks2 - its latest attempt to re-shape an entire industry through online sales and distribution. iTunes changed the way people buy and use music, TV, and movies. iBooks2 aims to change how students use textbooks while boosting sales of the company's iPad tablet computer.

The interactive textbooks planned in collaboration with publishers such as McGraw-Hill certainly look to be more in line with how today's younger students and college students, who are considered "digital natives", study, read, and learn. And the new format should present plenty of opportunities for designers with digital media skills to create engaging, informative content.

If you're interested in learning digital design skills for interactive media, or in a comprehensive online graphic design program that embraces the lastest technology developments, don't wait-- visit IADT Online today.