Thinking Visually
As a design team whose work includes research, analysis and leading workshops, as well as the creation of reports, presentations and meetings to convey our findings, we at Inquisition know that it’s vital to be able to express ideas and insights in a clear and organised manner. Visualising our work, whether it be for internal communication or for clients, gives us the power to easily communicate our ideas.
That’s why we’ve been focusing on practicing and strengthening our Visual Thinking and Visual Literacy muscles. Don’t be intimidated by these Fancy Capitalized Terms; we’re re-interpreting these concepts and essentially just doing some focused drawing and visualisation practice. We’d love to take you on this self-empowerment journey with us. If you can draw, you have the power to really make people listen to you — and the good news is that everyone can draw.
This post is the first of our mini-series on visual communication. Check back soon for our post on sketching tips and how-tos, and for our introduction to some different kinds of visual thinking (storyboards, charts, user experience maps, and so on and so on) and when to use them.
Visual Thinking and Visual Literacy, or How to View Images
Visual Thinking (VT) and Visual Literacy (VL) are primarily methods used to teach people how to view and discuss everything from art to media images. The term Visual Thinking was developed by Rudolf Arnheim, who describes it as “the clarification of visual forms and their organisation in integrated patterns.” Visual Literacy, a term and program developed by Philip Yenawine and Abigail Housen, is described as “… the ability to find meaning in imagery… Many aspects of cognition are called upon, such as personal association, questioning, speculating, analyzing, fact-finding, and categorising.”
Essentially, these concepts emphasise the need for training your viewing, comprehension and analysis skills. While both VT and VL focus primarily on the consumption of images, their main points translate superbly to what one should keep in mind during the actual act of drawing and sketching. You’ll find it much easier to translate your ideas into visuals if you’re able to quickly recognise patterns and connections in the world.
Sketching and Talking, or How to Multi-Task without Fear
I firmly believe that being able to draw out your ideas on the spot, especially while talking, gives you an enormous amount of power. Think about the last time you were in a meeting, discussing something with a co-worker, or talking to a potential client. Now imagine that, instead of your spoken words vanishing once you’ve shared them, your core ideas are simultaneously being translated into visuals. The person you’re talking to can now react to your visualised statements, instead of having to try and remember what you just told them. Making ideas visual can make discussions incredibly productive.
An especially empowering aspect of sketching while talking is that people really listen to you and focus on what you’re saying. This is similar to what happens when people move their hands and make eye contact while they talk; others focus on your physical actions. Your sketches can go a step further by acting like a presentation or report that’s being created in real-time to reinforce your spoken ideas.
The key to sketching while talking, like with most things, is practice and building confidence. A couple of things to keep in mind:
- Don’t feel like you have to sketch everything you say. Just capture the most important points.
- It’s okay for you to talk slowly, or have a moment of silence while you’re drawing. Don’t feel forced into babbling just because you’re finishing up an image.
- Keep your visuals simple and don’t be afraid of mistakes. People will be impressed that you’re confident and certain enough in your idea to draw it out — they won’t be judging (or even notice) your drawing style or inaccurate perspective.
Congratulations — You Can Draw!
If you’re the kind of person who had a flash of anxiety while reading about talking and drawing at the same time (“What kind of crazy multi-tasking is this?”) you’re very likely in the majority. Unless they’re good at what we think of as “art”, most people you ask would say they can’t draw at all. I used to be one of them and am still trying to get out of this self-deprecating habit.
After having seen so many people go through this same realization, I now firmly believe that everyone can draw, or to phrase it more accurately, can convey ideas visually. The style, detail, and realism that we associate with “drawing” shouldn’t scare you. The most important thing when drawing to convey ideas is that you can combine straight and curved lines; if you can do that, you can draw.
The below TedX talk by Graham Shaw is a great example of the “everyone can draw” mindest — be sure to keep watching until the end to see how Graham helps stroke victims with limited speech express themselves through visuals.
Join Us on our IQ Drawing Week Challenge
I was formally introduced to drawing in grade school, but only truly began to understand the power it gives me during my time in the design program at the University of Washington in Seattle. In my intro to drawing class, our professor Ahn Sang-Gyeun started us off by drawing straight lines on giant pieces of paper… over and over and over. Ahn’s teachings have deeply informed the drawing experience I’m taking our team on.
At Inquisition, we’re starting off by practicing our formal drawing skills to gain confidence in our abilities. We’re practicing moving our hands to create straight lines, learning to draw perspectives (mostly) accurately and creating simple shapes and stories. Our goal is to empower everyone on our team to feel confident sketching our ideas and thoughts, not only in front of one another, but also in front of clients and partners.
To reach this goal we’ve put together some internal drawing homework for ourselves, inspired both by my former design professor and by the many incredible people who have developed practices and insights in the realm of visual thinking. We encourage you to practice along with us by completing our Week of Drawing exercises. If you’re as excited about this as we are, tag your drawings with #IQIDrew and share them with us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or the social platform of your choosing (if it’s really obscure, why are you on it and please tell us where to find you). Good luck and have fun!
