How to use an infodiscographic to show the uniqueness of a product (your favorite musician)

What a pleasure to go to a restaurant and see your favorite musician play! Of course, this becomes an impossible mission as soon as they get famous and produce in front of thousands of fans, all over the world. However, we have a simple solution to achieve the same result in the comfort of our home.

Did you ever try to imagine your favorite artist’s discography as a restaurant menu? Here is a practical tool called info-disco-graphic.

How to visualize a musician’s discography

Your best friend in studying an artist’s evolution is Wikipedia. Take the example of Neal Morse (one of my favorites musicians). In the article describing his rich discography, we can find the list of bands he was part of, albums recorded each year, live recordings, as well as other productions (books, videoclips, DVDs etc.).

Take a sheet of paper and write down each year and each production throughout the artist’s career. You can also use PowerPoint, OneNote, Canva or any other visual software. Here is Neal Morse’s discography drawn using Balsamiq.

1. Research and raw data

Neal Morse's discography - raw version — Add timeline, different bands, as well as studio and live recordings.
Use the same colors for a band’s albums.

2. Data distillation

Neal Morse's discography - chronology — Bring the chronology forward. Start creating parallels between the various bands.
Move closer all information relative to a band to give more consistency to each timeline.

3. Show parallel timelines

Neal Morse's discography - parallel lines — Add colors to give more weight to each timeline with background rectangles for each period spent in the same band.
Link parallel lanes with thin arrows to show the artist’s evolution.

4. Reflect on the content

Neal Morse's discography - concept albums — Label each period with the respective musical style. Reflect on produced albums and the number of releases for each period. Look closer at each recording’s music style. Concept albums can be easily noticed in Neal Morse’s discography.

5. Events

Neal Morse's discography - exceptional events - conversion — What are the remarkable events in an artist’s career? For Neal Morse, his conversion as “born again” around 2002 also marks a radical change in his musical evolution. Use background colors to distinguish periods before and after these events.

6. Add more contrast between the parallel lanes

Neal Morse's discography - parallel timelines — Try to integrate labels with each line’s content to bring them closer to it.
Enhance background color shades for a better contrast between the parallel lines.

7. Add a frame around your visual

Neal Morse's discography - frame — Create a frame around your infographic to give it a coherent aspect. The frame allows you to add titles, to focus the reader on the graphics, and to separate annotations (in this example the right-side musical styles legend).

8. Add the legend

Neal Morse's discography - legend — The legend presents the different symbols used in the infographic: studio or live albums, books etc. It also allows bringing forward the music kind you consider as the artist’s uniqueness (in our example, concept albums). Try more than one location to place the legend.

9. Add the title (and whitespace)

Neal Morse's discography - title — The title is essential to indicate the graphic’s purpose. Your favorite artist’s “restaurant” menu proposes a call to action – listen to the artist’s albums. Depending on everyone’s musical taste, different choices are possible.

10. Try alternative visual shapes for the same content

Neal Morse's discography - as a menu — Neal Morse’s “restaurant” menu offers a complete musical choice: a book, Beatles and 70s covers, classic prog rock, to progressive pop-rock. And house’s specials: concept albums.

Using discography and restaurant menus as marketing tools

The offer of a company having some history can also be presented as a discography. Research your history timeline, distil past changes, and mark up events having an impact on the company’s evolution. Add parallel lines for different products (or for competition’s products). Bring forward unique takes and main differences between the parallel timelines.

The same offer can be presented as a restaurant’s menu. When clients knock on your door, what menu do you show them? Do you have appetizers, smaller products easier to “taste” and to try? What are your main dishes/products? Do you also have a dessert, maybe some intriguing bonus features? Do not omit to bring forward your uniqueness, the dish that makes you different from the competition and wins your clients’ loyalty.

Info-disco-graphics reveal an artist’s uniqueness

There is no need to look up infodiscographics in your dictionary, it is a made-up word. However, you could use the tool described in this article to understand your favorite musician’s menu, their evolution, and – why not – to find their musical uniqueness.