Picture This: EU Councils

When studying European politics, one point of frustration might well be the overabundance of organizations with the word “council” in their names. The EU has two alone (the European Council, and the Council of the EU), not to mention the Council of Europe, which is a human rights organization, and actually is not an EU institution. Add to that the formal and informal names for these institutions (the Council of the EU is also called the Council of Ministers, or just “the Council”), and you might be wanting to schedule a study break!

If you — as many of us have been — are a little confused by all this, do not worry! CES has your back. Understanding that learning about the EU is not always a walk in the park, we have commissioned a set of infographics from one of our undergraduate students to help clear up some of the mystery around EU institutions. Attending skill-focused workshops with UNC Data and Visualization Services Librarian Lorin Bruckner and brushing up on their EU knowledge, our student is developing a series of infographics entitled “All About EU,” which break down core concepts of EU institutions in a visually-compelling format. See below for their most recent project, and a short account of their creative process.

When trying to make an infographic — or any argument, for that matter — it can be difficult to decide how much information to give our audience. For example, though I might be arguing for the benefits of wearing red shoes, it would not help my argument to regale my audience with my epic, lifelong love for the color. People would get bored and leave. I’d get bored and leave.

The point is, we are immersed in information every second of our lives, and sometimes, we need a break. This is why space is so important to an infographic. Not only a metaphor for having time to relax and digest data, there are tangible elements of any argument that do make space. For instance, I spend a lot of time balancing the objects in designs, to make sure that there are not major irregularities in the work. Sometimes I do this with columns, or templates. Similarly, I make sure that my text has a nice amount of space surrounding it. This is most apparent in the large, empty swaths of color that I place around my titles, and the borders that I try to make around body text.

Another example of giving space can be in our choice of colors. Sometimes we might want to use a palette with many different colors, but this is not ideal for a number of reasons. For one, it is exhausting to go through and make sure that all your colors agree with each other, and that they’re accessible for all your audience. On the audience end, too many colors can be distracting. It can be a sensory overload, in a way, as having lots of colors can sometimes disrupt the visual hierarchies we try to create.

Finally, there’s the decision of how many points to include in your discussion. The differences of between the European Council and the Council of the EU are many (despite what some political science teachers on campus might say), but not everyone needs to know the minutiae of each and every one. This is why it is important to think of your audience, and try to match your argument to the type and quantity of evidence that they need.

While there are a lot of considerations to be accounted for when making arguments, it really all boils down to one point: consider your audience. If you do not, you will likely end up talking to no one, or maybe having a very different conversation than the one you had envisioned.

Interested in reading more about the work CES students do? Check out the Students tab on our blog!

Curious to see our other infographics? Head over to the Infographics tab on our blog!

This post was produced by EURO major Brett Harris.

This post’s production was supported by a 2018–2021 Jean Monnet Center of Excellence grant from the European Union.

The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.