Alberto Lucas López has located, catalogued, and analyzed approximately 3,000 infographics in the NatGeo archives. In this SND47 Berkeley Workshop session, he presents his findings.
Date: April 24, 2026
Location: Logan Media Center, North Gate Hall, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
The 47th Edition of the Society for News Design’s Creative Competition, SND47, takes place April 20–24 with a week of events. The week closes with workshops in Singapore and Berkeley. This session will take place at the Berkeley workshop.
About this session
To date, more than 3,000 journalistic infographics have been published in 1,596 issues of National Geographic Magazine. Some of these infographics have become universal references in visual journalism and reflect the institution’s long-standing commitment to informational rigor.
Alberto Lucas López, Senior Artist – New Narratives at National Geographic Magazine, has located, catalogued, and analyzed each of these visual pieces, classifying and hierarchizing them according to their structure and content within the framework of his doctoral dissertation, Infographics as a Tool for Arts-Based Educational Research: National Geographic Magazine as a Generator of Knowledge, Critical Thinking, and Critical Attitudes, at the University of Granada (Spain).
In the absence of a digitized catalog, over the past three years, Alberto has devoted his personal time to working among stacks of magazine issues at the National Geographic archives. Beginning with the first issue printed in 1888 in New Haven, Connecticut—priced at 50 cents and bound in brown paper without the characteristic yellow border, which would not appear until 1910—through to last December’s issue, he has examined nearly 250,000 pages to locate and classify each visual piece. Infographics, maps, illustrations, and photo compositions have all been included in his detailed analysis, providing both a comprehensive overview and a personal engagement with the magazine’s visual history.
This lecture-presentation examines the evolution of infographics while uncovering remarkable visual pieces that have been largely forgotten over time.
About the speaker
Alberto Lucas López is a Spanish-born journalist who, since 2016, has served as Senior Artist – New Narratives at National Geographic Magazine. In this role, he specializes in the development of innovative approaches to visual storytelling and graphic journalism. His individual work has been honored with more than 200 international awards. Prior to joining National Geographic, he was Graphics Director at Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Society for News Design and, in recent years, has devoted a significant portion of his time to doctoral research in Arts and Education. He also regularly delivers international lectures and leads workshops on visual storytelling.
SND47 Berkeley is sponsored by American City Business Journals, the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
