In my day job, I'm marketing director for a financial services firm specializing in multifamily housing.  Yesterday, my boss passed around a great graphic on property values this decade, showing that we've dropped back to the values of early 2004, and that the $2.2 trillion of properties acquired or refinanced since that point have lost value.  Four graphs, locked together in time, with crisp annotations, give you the story (though I could have used the years at the top, as well as at the bottom, to orient me).  Bravo to Real Capital Analytics for creating it.  And using it to market their expertise and services, which I can only admire.

The subject might be of interest to you or not, but I'm asking you to admire the way the information is presented.

I think good informational graphics are getting more common, with, for example, a lot of comment about the work of Megan Jaegerman, here as presented by Edward Tufte, for a long time the best-known proponent of improved informational graphics.  He has made a great living going around the country presenting his observations and recommendations.

The books are good, though not great.  He tends to be unsystematic, so you don't really learn any techniques to create your own.  People who have taken his class tend to find it unsatisfying, because there is no content that is not already in the books.  But, as pretty much a text person, I've learned a lot about what's possible, and what not to do, from him.

I'm putting a piece together to promote a new product (a green capital needs assessment for existing multifamily buildings) and am trying to work out graphics that show its benefits.  I'll let you know how I do.