We address the problem of realizing communicative plans in graphics. Our approach calls for mapping communicative goals to conceptual tasks and then using task-based graphic design for selecting graphical techniques. In this paper, we present the mapping rules in several dimensions: data aggregation and selection, task synthesis, and task aggregation. Those rules have been incorporated in AutoBrief, a research system for multimedia explanation. Keywords Data graphic design, communicative plans, conceptual tasks 1. INTRODUCTION Visualizations are used in narratives, arguments, explanations and other communicative genres to succinctly convey complex relations or to organize a large amount of information. Such presentations are planned to achieve communicative goals (e.g., the user believes that insufficient airport capacity is the cause for some late cargo). Communicative planning involves reasoning about communicative goals, user's beliefs, and information about the domain, in order t...