What Information is Beautiful does

Information is Beautiful is an independent London-based collective founded in 2008 by David McCandless that distills data, information, and knowledge into infographics, interactive visualizations, and data-driven narratives. The company's core product is a high-authority content website publishing 567+ original visualizations across science, politics, health, climate, and culture, supported by three HarperCollins-published bestselling books (Information is Beautiful in 2009, Knowledge is Beautiful in 2014, Beautiful News in 2021) translated into nine languages, and the Beautiful News daily Creative Commons sub-brand. The proprietary VizSweet tool, built and maintained by the in-house technical team, powers the site's interactive graphics and represents the company's primary technology asset.

The business operates across six revenue streams: book royalties, public ticketed workshops (in-person and virtual, 50–100 participants per session, running globally through 2026), private enterprise consulting and training (clients include Google, Microsoft, Apple, Salesforce, Delta, JP Morgan, Accenture, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), DTC fine-art prints via the IIB store, ticketed IIB Live performance events, and the Information is Beautiful Awards program (since 2012, in partnership with The Data Visualisation Society, $20,000+ prize pot). Distribution is multi-channel: Amazon and global retailers for books, Eventbrite/Ticket Tailor/BuyTickets for events, the IIB e-commerce storefront for prints, and direct outreach for enterprise engagements.

Customer segments are horizontally diversified across data journalists and communicators, corporate teams seeking data-communication training, writers/researchers/academics, designers and visual thinkers, and data/code practitioners. Marketing is driven primarily by McCandless's personal brand (TED Global speaker, Cambridge Gates Distinguished Lecturer, featured in The Guardian, Wired, BBC, Vogue) supported by an extensive blog, monthly newsletter via Flodesk, and active presence across Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, Threads, BlueSky, and Mastodon. The company is bootstrapped and privately held with no external institutional investment.

Name

Information is Beautiful

Legal name

Information is Beautiful

Website

https://informationisbeautiful.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Information is Beautiful is a London-based independent collective, founded by David McCandless in 2008, that publishes data visualizations and bestselling infographic books, teaches data visualization workshops, and runs the global Information is Beautiful Awards program for designers and data practitioners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Data Visualization & Information Design Services

NAICS

Graphic Design Services (541430), Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services (5416), Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers (71151)

SIC

Miscellaneous Publishing (2741), Services-Mailing, Reproduction, Commercial Art & Photography (7330)

akta.pro primary industry

Data Storytelling & Collaborative Analytics (HDAEAMAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

Self-Service BI & Data Visualization (HDAEAMAA)

Keywords

• Data visualization services
• Infographic design
• Data storytelling training
• Information design
• Visual analytics workshops

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Book Sales: Sale of infographic books published by HarperCollins — 'Information is Beautiful', 'Knowledge is Beautiful', and 'Beautiful News' — available in print (multiple editions: UK, US, and international translations) and Kindle/digital formats. Books are sold through Amazon and other retailers globally in nine languages.
2. Data Visualization Workshops & Training: Live in-person and virtual workshops (2 half-days or full-day formats) taught by David McCandless. Discounts available for students, self-employed, health workers, veterans, and individuals in lower-income countries. Pre-recorded streamable training also available for on-demand purchase.
3. Private Talks & Consulting: David McCandless is available for private virtual online talks and interactive training seminars in various formats and durations. He has worked as a creative consultant on visualization projects for major corporations.
4. Print Store (E-commerce): Sale of fine-art posters and prints of select visualizations through the IIB store (e.g., 'Left vs Right' posters). Creative Commons licensed content (Beautiful News images) also available for free download.
5. Live Shows (IIB Live): Ticketed public and private live performances by David McCandless, featuring data-driven visual tours across diverse subjects. Events held in cities globally (LA, NYC, London, etc.).
6. Information is Beautiful Awards: Annual awards program celebrating the best infographics and data-visualizations globally. Run in partnership with The Data Visualisation Society. Prize pot of $20,000+ distributed among winners.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Information is Beautiful is an independent collective that distills data, information, and knowledge into infographics, interactive graphics, data stories, and live performances. Its core commercial offerings are three bestselling infographic books (Information is Beautiful, Knowledge is Beautiful, Beautiful News), data visualization training workshops (live and virtual), the IIB Live performance series, an annual global awards program, and an e-commerce store for fine-art prints. The work is grounded in founder David McCandless's concept-driven visualization methodology and the proprietary VizSweet tool.

Product overview

Information is Beautiful is an independent collective that distills data, information, and knowledge into beautiful infographics and visualizations. The core offering consists of the Information is Beautiful website platform publishing interactive graphics and data stories, supplemented by three bestselling infographic books (Information is Beautiful, Knowledge is Beautiful, and Beautiful News), the VizSweet visualization tool, data visualization workshops taught by founder David McCandless, and the annual Information is Beautiful Awards program. The Beautiful News sub-brand provides daily positive news visualizations under Creative Commons license.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Beautiful News: A daily positive news visualization project charting beautiful facts and positive developments from around the world, launched around 2019-2020.
• Information is Beautiful Awards
• VizSweet

Products and services

• Information is Beautiful Book Inaugural bestselling infographic book (2009) by David McCandless, published by HarperCollins, featuring colorful graphics exploring twenty-first century obsessions. Available in print and Kindle via Amazon and global retailers in nine languages.
• Knowledge is Beautiful Book Second bestselling infographic book (2014) by David McCandless, published by HarperCollins, containing 196 new visualizations across art, science, health, and pop culture. Available in German, French, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese editions.
• Beautiful News Book Third bestselling book (2021) by David McCandless, published by HarperCollins. A 256-page book featuring beautiful facts and rigorous data visualized in colorful charts and infographics, focusing on positive trends and breakthroughs in the modern world.
• Workshops are Beautiful (Data Visualization Training) Data visualization training seminars taught live by founder David McCandless using his concept-driven process and method. Offered in-person (London, San Francisco, Vancouver) and online via Zoom in 2 half-day or full-day formats, covering concepting, visualization design, and data storytelling. Pre-recorded on-demand streaming also available. Discounted tickets offered for students, self-employed, health workers, veterans, disabled, furloughed, and lower-income country residents.
• IIB Live (Live Performance Shows) Ticketed public and private live performance shows by David McCandless, featuring data-driven visual presentations on diverse subjects in a 'performance journalism' style. Held in cities globally (LA, NYC, London, etc.) and also available for private company or event bookings.
• VizSweet Proprietary data visualization tool developed by the IIB technical team (Tom Evans, Paul Barton) that powers the creation of interactive data visualizations on the Information is Beautiful website. Described as 'our private dataviz tool. For you.'
• Information is Beautiful Print Store (Art Prints & Posters) Direct-to-consumer e-commerce store selling fine-art posters and prints of select Information is Beautiful visualizations (e.g., 'Left vs Right' posters, 'Beautiful News' prints). Creative Commons licensed content also freely available.

Quantifiable outcome

• 567+ visualizations created and published since founding
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• HarperCollinscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorHarperCollins is the publisher of all three Information is Beautiful books — 'Information is Beautiful', 'Knowledge is Beautiful', and 'Beautiful News'. They handle global distribution across multiple editions (UK, US, international) in print and digital formats, making the books available through major retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Waterstones.
• The Data Visualisation SocietycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Data Visualisation Society serves as the professional home and community for those working in data visualization. They are a key partner in running the annual Information is Beautiful Awards, providing community credibility and reach for the awards program which received over 1,200 entries in 2025.
• VizSweetcoreTechnology or IntegrationVizSweet is the company's proprietary data visualization software tool, used to power interactive graphics across the IIB website. Developed internally by the IIB technical team (Tom Evans, Paul Barton). Described as 'our private dataviz tool. For you.'

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• PolicyViz: PolicyViz provides data visualization consulting, training, and workshops for organizations, closely mirroring IIB's concept-driven training and enterprise engagement model.
• Storytelling with Data (Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic): Founded by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, Storytelling with Data offers bestselling books, in-person and virtual workshops, and corporate training on data storytelling — directly parallel to IIB's book-plus-workshop-plus-training model.
• Visual Capitalist: Visual Capitalist publishes data-driven infographics and visualizations on economics and markets, sharing IIB's content-led model for monetizing visualizations through publishing and brand partnerships.
• Edward Tufte: Edward Tufte is a foundational dataviz author and educator who sells books and delivers one-day workshops on information design — a long-standing reference point in the same niche IIB occupies.
• The Pudding: The Pudding is a digital publication that produces data-driven, visually rich interactive stories on complex topics — the editorial cousin of IIB's concept-driven visualization approach.

Broad incumbents

• Tableau: Tableau is the dominant self-service BI and data visualization platform used by the same enterprise buyers (Google, Microsoft, Salesforce ecosystems) that engage IIB for training, and increasingly offers AI-assisted visualization creation.

Others

• Data Visualization Society: The Data Visualization Society is IIB's partner in running the annual awards and serves as the professional community for the same global dataviz audience that IIB addresses.

Emerging players

• Flourish (Canva): Flourish is a data visualization and storytelling platform owned by Canva that targets journalists and newsrooms — an emerging tool-layer competitor to the bespoke visualization work IIB produces.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/infobeautiful
• Facebookfacebook.com/informationisbeautiful
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/information-is-beautiful
• Instagraminstagram.com/infobeautiful

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Information is Beautiful