You can spend a lazy summer afternoon in Visual.ly’s virtual gallery of infographics. This San Francisco-based startup is building a veritable info-Louvre. And there already appear to be a few Old Masters for this new media.
The work of David Foster and David McCandless are just few of the data artists whose work we like. For a taste of their info-art on Visual.ly, check out McCandless’s When Sea Levels Attack.
You practically end up gasping for air after following the rising water-level over the timeline in this McCanless piece.
Of course, with all infographics, you should question the source of data and analyze the raw numbers directly. On that point, it would be nice if Visual.ly had links to databases and spreadsheets–similar to what Google has done with its Public Data Explorer.
In any case, Visual.ly recently announced they are evolving the site into a marketplace where patrons can commission their own infographic. They’ve just added some social networking features–i.e., an activity feed of who’s look at what–and will soon provide a way to connect with its pool of designer, programmers, and researchers for custom work.