Early cinema, in black and white, required the actors to use heavy makeup to accentuate their features. Dark lipstick, heavy eye liner, thick white face powder; even the men. Movie stars looked glamorous as they staggered under heavy layers of make-up; you would not have recognised them in the street. They set a standard of beauty that was unachievable. As cinema quality improved so did the need for movie stars to look better, younger and more perfect. Todays HD quality now shows every line, bump, wrinkle and crease. It was inevitable that plastic surgery would become an essential part of the beauty routine.

In quick pursuit of celebrity culture plastic surgery has now become mainstream with liposuction and boob jobs being in the top five of surgical procedures for women. In the last 10 years there has been a 277% increase in cosmetic surgery in the UK – I can’t imagine what that figure is like for LA.

The Great British Surgical Stats infographic from The New Birkdale Clinic shows the figures for all plastic surgery carried out in the UK in 2014. The read is pretty fascinating. Liposuction is the biggest mover up the scale and abdominoplasty the biggest fall (I believe that is where you have a fake six-pack sculpted instead of going to the gym).

The design is clear, clean and elegant – my favourite kind. A Soothing Turquoise, green and dark blue colour palette accentuates the clean illustrations. Each stat is well highlighted and all information is clear and easy to read. Good use of typography. The banner is well designed and leads you into the graphic. A socially interesting topic combined with good design.

Overall The Great British Surgical Stats infographic gets an 8 out of 10.