Le Geste — the antidote to standardisation in visual thinking?

This post emerged from an interesting conversation with Ivan Seymus about all things visual but there was one idea that stuck in my head — the beautiful French idea of le geste.

In our chat we were referring to ‘le geste’ as the movement of your hand that creates your unique signature.

Initially I was going to write up, or more accurately draw, a post about our discussion. Then I thought it would be interesting to see how Ivan and I took this topic and visualised it…then we thought we would open it up to anyone who is interested…wouldn’t it be interesting to look at the unique interpretations of the ideas.

I know that some of you prefer to read a post while other may prefer to watch a video and listen along while you sketch it out.

So you can either read the post or watch this video:

So what is ‘le geste’ and what does it mean for visual thinking and communication?

On a larger scale you can say that le geste stands for non-verbal communication. Like in the way someone points or pinches his chin with his hand to indicate he is thinking. By the way, it is no surprise that the stylish French lifestyle has a word for it. On your next visit to Paris don’t forget to observe how the fashionable ladies carry their shopping bags!

Embracing imperfection

But for now lets limit our focus to the movement of the hand that makes a mark. On paper, a computer screen, a whiteboard or in sand on the beach for that matter. When you take a pen or stick in your hand to make that mark, you are communicating something. Expressing yourself in your own unique way. And it is visible in the character of that mark. The thickness, the pressure applied, the speed, are all signs of how you approach what you want to say.

The importance of le geste as the element to render our work ‘human’ is most visible in the way drawing apps on our tablets handle it. In the beginning all lines were made equal. The resulting sketches were dull, flat and mechanical. The evolution has given us pressure sensitive styluses and even if you don’t poses such an advanced tool, the applications have build in randomness to mimic le geste. For example, according to the speed of drawing with your finger a line becomes thicker or thinner. This way lines become ‘humanised’. Those little imperfections in our analog ways of mark making have become logarithms. Fascinating!

Visual Vocabulary

Now let’s place this is a wider context of visual thinking and communication.

I have been thinking a lot recently about the idea of visual literacy and how building a “visual library” can move this forward, and potentially hold it back. If you have spent any time around a self proclaimed visual thinker (I include myself in this camp) you will have heard this term and been advised to work on developing one..

The ability to create and communicate visuals is a core part of visual literacy and one that is sorely lacking in the adult population.

Starting with building a visual library is a good starting point, particularly to overcome the all too common obstacles to drawing and to speed up your thinking and learning.

Also, if you are a graphic facilitator/recorder/consultant capturing ideas and thoughts in the moment you need a visual library to help you to keep up and easily articulate abstract ideas and metaphors.

The idea of a visual library isn’t right or wrong, we all have a visual library whether we are aware of it or not.

I do however feel that we have to proceed with caution and awareness.

My concern is that we focus too much on standardisation and all start to think and communicate in the same way and it restricts our creativity.

It is really important to grow and develop as a visual thinker…you must develop your own style. Your visual vocabulary must grow and evolve.

This is where the idea of le geste comes in, it offers a nice tension between the standardisation and artistic freedom.

If, in the end, we should work towards a standard set of symbols in our visual libraries for the sake of communicating the idea clearly, it is possible that through le geste we, sketchers, can make it just that little bit different from others in leaving our mark. The digital age is upon us and the difference will be in the details.

It is, however, all about context.

When you are graphically recording a meeting in the moment is not the right time to experiment with ideas, but if you don’t take the time to step out and experiment you’re visual language will very quickly become stale.

We need to feel comfortable enough to step out of our comfort zone and experiment.

Communicating with passion & energy

We can see businesses embracing visual thinking all around us, from animated explainer videos to a graphic recording of a conference or important meeting. However, they are in need of the unique identity that comes from embracing and exploring le geste, not more of the same generic out of the box symbols and logos.

Is the client asking you because it is cool to have a sketcher on stage and because it makes his event more hip? Or is he really into the visual communication of ideas and does he rely on you for a better communication?

In this ever more social world people want to be able to stand out and distinguish themselves from others. Why not with a simple ‘geste’?

As with everything I have discussed there is no right or wrong, good or bad. It is just something to be aware and wary of.

I will leave it completely up to you how you would like to express the ideas

Analog or digital.

The whole post or just part of it

A big factor in the form that your note takes will be whether it is intended for your own personal consumption or intended to be read and understood by a wider audience. Neither one is right or wrong, it would be nice to see a variation.

Either drop me an email at scott@fluxinsights.com or tag myself (@scottorrance) or Ivan (@ivanseymus) on Twitter and we will post all the images we receive after a week or so. Or you can use the respond function in Medium ☺