Infographics are getting hot these days and, riding this trend, the Economist launched a juicy advertising campaign showing us, once more, how to be effective without using stunning images and talking to a selected audience.
And if you want to know more about the possibilities of visual information beyond the classical field of diagrams, take a look at DATA FLOW, an inspiring book, published by Gestalten, concerning complexity, simplification and readability solutions in information design.
Take a look at ths representation of data: http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/