Doing charts is a almost a daily business for any graphic designer. Most of them don't need to be super-fancy, but some spice can always help. Creating a 3D Effect is quickly done with the standard tools we all use - rectangles, lines and gradients. But if you have to do many charts (for an annual report) then this options can really slow you down. Unless you use a tool to speed up the process. Why not use the 3D Tools provided by Illustrator. The positive side effect is that you don't have to worry about the shading and you can apply text on the surfaces (the trick here is to convert the Text into symbols). The best part is that you start from the 2D versions of the charts - easy to change and to manage. The examples I show here are neither fully styled or finished, but should give you a hint about what you can do.

[lightbox_image big_image_url="http://frankie.bz/files/2011/05/chart_illustrator.jpg"]http://frankie.bz/files/2011/05/chart_illustrator-608x321.jpg[/lightbox_image]

Download the sample Illustrator file to get an idea behind the example given. This is a great starting point and you can dress the result up and quiet easily.

[download_box]Click here to download the example Adobe Illustrator File[/download_box]