Pearls always remind me of the outstanding novel Papillon, when Henri Charrière escapes from prison and enters the Guajira peninsula, he is taken in by the native americans who happen to be pearl divers. He marries one of the girls and she spends her days bringing him a supply of beautiful pearls. For some reason he decides to leave this paradise which always left me wondering why anyone would want to go back to civilization after experiencing such an idyllic culture.

Pearls are not something I know much about apart from the prolific racks of fake strings of pearls which look like plastic beads sold on the high street.

Understanding pearls, everything you need to know infographic by The Pearl Source has been submitted for my review and has taught me more about the lustered jewel than I ever knew previously. You can get white, black, gray, golden pink, lavender, green and blue pearls. Imitation pearls are smooth against your teeth whilst natural and cultured pearls have a slightly rough texture. Natural pearls can only be separated from cultured pearls by having an x-ray to reveal their inner structure.

The design of the infographic is reasonable: the second half being much better than the top. I would have liked to have seen a better use of typography on the banner and top half of the graphic which is text heavy. A typeface which better represents jewels – the script used on the words luster, imitation and natural in the mid section would have been an ideal choice and I’m surprised it wasn’t used more. The illustration of the pearl necklace at the top is unfortunately a little weak and could have been improved. The graphic at the bottom of the open shell works well and I think more use of scallop shells in the banner would have helped. It almost feels like one person designed the top and another the bottom part.

Overall I think Understanding pearls, everything you need to know infographic is a reasonable effort and worth a 6 out of 10.