Drawing as a Superpower
Originally published in the Turn The Page Issue 61, July 2017
“Back in the days, I was the kid that was drawing in the back of the class. At first I had to stop drawing so I could listen to the teacher. After a while, I learned to listen and draw at the same time. That is pretty much what I do as a job now: listening and drawing.” When you see him, it is not hard to imagine Willem to have been the dreamy, creative boy of the class. With contagious enthusiasm, he and Nathan show us around and tell us all about their jobs at Jongens van de Tekeningen.
Following the question if they can describe their typical day at the office, Willem and Nathan laugh and let me know that for them, there is no such thing as the typical working day. What is clear, is that the employees of this company do a lot more than just drawing. It ranges from meeting people at their own office next to Rotterdam Central Station, to visiting a company on the other side of the country, to detailing a drawing. However, many people still conceive Jongens van de Tekeningen as people who just draw. The opposite is true. The company facilitates processes, clarifies complexities and asks the questions the client does not dare to ask. All this happens with drawing as a tool, not so much as a final goal. To bring this across to their clients, Jongens van de Tekeningen decided to renew their brand to Flatland, aiming to go more international and to focus even more on the strategic side of the job. “We don’t want any more phone calls of companies asking if we can make them a Christmas card.”
If we have to believe Nathan and Willem, their job is super rewarding. “When we start a session or workshop, people mostly say: “I can’t draw”. Basically, what they are saying is that they don’t dare to draw. But in the end, people are full of enthusiasm and energy. Months later, a lot of clients still communicate through drawing.”
At first sight, their office looks just like any other. Now when you take a better look, the 22-inch Wacoms on the desks and the drawings on the walls catch the eye. “Drawing is a superpower,” Willem says, “when I’m in a room with a bunch of serious men, I just pick up my marker and start drawing. From that point, I have their attention.” The company is growing rapidly; since they started, the number of employees has doubled each year.
This year they celebrated their five year anniversary with a team trip to Slovenia. “‘Great food for thought’ has been a strategic theme for many years. Our team trips went to farmers that use drones to analyse their land to exclusive restaurants to experience their hospitality. Our promise to the team was to visit a world class restaurant when meeting our goals. That is why we went to Hisa Franko in Slovenia. It was a time to celebrate, reflect and look forward,” Nathan says.
“It marked a turning point in many ways for our team — we’re only at the beginning of what we’re aiming to do with the company, in terms of how our services are delivered, expanding our capabilities and making an impact across the globe with our new brand, Flatland.”
Over time however, their ambition and idealism has certainly not vanished. “In the ideal situation, our company would not have to exist anymore,” Nathan says as I ask for his ultimate goal, “we want drawing to be an essential means of communication, just like writing and speaking.”
Flatland is taking off as our new international label and main platform to grow the coming years.
Our aim is to make visual thinking and design methodology an essential part of how people work together and make decisions. Having the knowledge and skills of a designer is a great power to help people and teams move forward; cutting through complexity, forming strategies and activating change.
In our projects we help them to tap into this resource and with our academy we take our responsibility to empower people to make use of it themselves.
Same team, same values, different brand.
Follow us on blog.flatland.agency.
