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Thinking Visually, The Movie

Watch Thinking Visually, David Armano, Critical Mass  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

OK, so it's not "the movie" but above is a video from my talk the the Motion Graphics Festival a few months ago. To be honest with you, I'm just so pleased that I had the opportunity to talk about something besides social networking, user experience or brands. I firmly believe that thinking and communicating visually will be an increasingly important skill for all of us as we navigate through complex times. The talk was outlined as follows:

Effective communication is everyone’s job—whether you are trying to sell in a concept or convince a client. Visual Thinking can help us take in complex information and synthesize it into something meaningful. In an increasingly fragmented and cluttered world, simple imagery, metaphors and mindmaps can get people to understand the abstract and make your ideas tangible. Find out why thinking visually may be one of the most sought after abilities of the 21st century.

Hope you find it helpful.

Thinking Visually

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: synthesis storytelling)

Next Thursday I'll be giving a talk MG Fest (Motion Graphic Festival) in Chicago. It's a great opportunity to talk about one of my true passions, using visuals in the thinking and communicating process. The talk will be a 20 minute "Ted style" presentation (which is why the number of slides is under 25).  Below is how I've framed it:

"Effective communication is everyone’s job—whether you are trying to sell in a concept or convince a client. Visual Thinking can help us take in complex information and synthesize it into something meaningful. In an increasingly fragmented and cluttered world, simple imagery, metaphors and mindmaps can get people to understand the abstract and make your ideas tangible. Find out why why thinking visually may be one of the most sought after abilities of the 21st century."

Though I do quite a bit of talking/writing etc. about the intersection of marketing, design and technology—I really enjoy the process of thinking visually. Chances are, it's why you started reading this blog in the first place. If you are new here, you can browse a fairly comprehensive collection of my own "brand" of visual thinking which I've created over the past 3 years. The presentation reflects my own process as opposed to the "right way" to think visually. So if you like what I do, at a high level, the presentation actually outlines HOW I do it.

Do you have a functioning brain and at least one working eye?  Then you can do it too. If you are really willing to work at it, and not give up.  I still have a few days before the presentation so if you have feedback, feel free to leave a comment here and I'll take a look.

Slide of the Day

From A recent post I wrote on Experience Matters:

I’ve thought about this as well being someone who lives and breaths much of the evolution we see on the Web—there is a real opportunity to become “digital anthropologists“—to gleam insights into the minds of consumers via leveraging social technologies. However, these insights will never be obtained and traditional ROI is allowed to take out the potential before we have a chance to learn something from it, and organizations may have to experience a cultural evolution before things can change.

The Corporate Social Media Curve

Venn Economics

Sketching Is A State of Mind

That's my Moleskine notebook. I take it everywhere I go and use it to sketch out ideas as they pop into my head. I'm constantly sketching on paper, napkins—you name it. Sketching with simple tools like a pen and paper is the fastest way for me to explore different ideas, concepts and designs.

The above statement is mostly a lie.

Well OK, it's partially true. That's my Moleskine and I occasionally use it to sketch out ideas and jot things down—however you would be surprised out how FEW drawings I have in it.  It's actually quite pathetic for someone who "thinks visually". Since sketching is the new black right now, I'd like to offer up a personal perspective that comes at this topic a bit differently.

Sketching and drawing are not the same thing.

Allow me to elaborate on this personal opinion. For me personally, drawing on paper actually has some downsides. I find that when I draw, I'm tempted to render things. Rendering (making things look nice) gets in the way of my thinking process and as much as I try to ignore how things look, I find that the physical drawing part limits me. Sometimes I actually enjoy the drawing part so much, that my brain slips into "doodle" mode which is very relaxing but a essentially puts me into a semi-trance, as opposed problem solving mode. Again, this is a personal opinion but I have found that the act of "sketching" actually has nothing to do with drawing whether it be paper, or white board. Now to be clear, I am not saying that a pen and paper aren't useful tools—they are. But here's a few things to consider.  They work for me and might work for you, especially if you are uncomfortable with "drawing" but want to sketch more. 

1. Sketch in your head
Since you most likely have eyes, it means you are capable of thinking visually. When you have a visual idea, make up a name for what that idea is and write it down. Then take a mental snapshot of the what's in your head. I do this all the time, especially because in reality I don't carry a sketchbook with me at all times and often times, just naming something is enough for me to recall the idea when I'm ready to make it visual.

2. Use the tool that you are most comfortable with
If you like the feel of pen and paper then this article might not be for you. For me, I am very comfortable sketching digitally. My tool of choice is adobe illustrator because the vector art lets me move things around as quickly as I can. In fact, I actually embrace the limitations of tools such as Powerpoint because it helps me focus on the idea—not the rendering of it. It's difficult to get things to look perfect in Powerpoint, so it forces me to keep things simple. Plus, both tools let me copy and paste any image I can find on the internet—again this bypasses the temptation to render. Bottom line is that sketching does not have to be separate from digital.  Actually, I consider most of my images to be digital sketches and didn't draw on paper for most of these.

3. Think in color
Paper and pencil sketching doesn't allow you to express your thoughts in color—and for me personally, I think in color and shapes! Again, there are lots of digital tools that allow you to quickly color items, select shapes and edit rapidly. Print out versions of digital sketches that you think are getting at something, use color to create visual hierarchy in your ideas. For me personally, color helps me think.

While I think the act of sketching is essential—I think there needs to be a distinction between the tools and the act of sketching itself, as well as drawing. Sketching isn't better when it's analog, or when it's digital—it's better when we are in the right frame of mind. For me, this includes resisting the urge to make things look too pretty and working with tools I feel comfortable with. For me, the tools are a combination of digital, mental and visual. No Moleskine or white board required.

So just get out there and sketch. But don't feel like you have to draw. Work in a medium that lets you move forward rapidly and doesn't get in the way of your ideas.  That could very well be a sharpie and napkin—but it doesn't have to be.  Sketching is really a state of mind.  Oh, try a good beer when you sketch, that helps me too. ;-)

L+E Visual Thinking on Flickr

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I've decided to put a few choice samples of the visual thinking I've done over the past few years on Flickr.  The set can be viewed here. If you've been a regular reader, then you know that the visuals are what helped me build a following—they are my "purple cow" so to speak. I encourage their use in presentations, blog posts etc. as long as clear attribution is provided.  Many of you have done this, and it's why I continue to share the artifacts digitally.

The consolidation on Flickr is where I'll continue to upload what I think are some of the best in .jpg format.  At some point, I'll figure out what to do with them—I have a few ideas but not enough time.  Any ideas from you?

Thanks again for listening, reading and referencing my stuff.  Hopefully the aggregation is useful and helps you in some way.  If you're not a fan of my "brand" of visual thinking, that's totally OK, there are lots of others who play in this space and I recommend the folks at Xplane, or Dan Roam for different approaches.

Twitter in Plain English (and Visual Thinking)

This is by far the BEST description of Twitter I have ever come across.  Though it leaves out many of Twitter's other uses such as link sharing and the fact that some use it as a chat client—it serves as a great "de-mystification" of the service.  It's also a wonderful example of the power of visual thinking—a method who's day has arrived big time.

How To Reference an L+E Visual

There are a couple of things you should know regarding the visuals on this blog:

1. I create the visuals myself using Adobe Illustrator, my brain and a little synthesis.
2. The visuals are designed to be shared, distributed and used outside of this blog.
3. I not only appreciate credit, I know that when it's given it benefits everyone.

To that last point, I frequently get e-mails that look something like this:

"Dear David, I was recently at a conference where a prominent speaker was using several of your visuals in their presentation without any credit whatsoever.  I thought you should know."

I also get an occasional e-mail like this:

"David, today I was asked by a supervisor to trace over one of your visuals, so that we could make it our own.  I have an issue with this".

Here's the deal.  The visuals here are "free" for everyone to use.  They are my "purple cow"—it's why most of you are readers of this blog in the first place.  And I respect that—which is why I freely give them away.  But when you take what's free and bury the source, it actually effects your own credibility more than you know.

Take this for example.  One of the most popular visuals on this blog is the experience map.  It was one of my first and I was naive enough not to put my name on it.  No doubt some folks have taken advantage of that fact.  But Google tells another story.  Thanks to the Long Tail, if you type in "Experience Map"—my visual is the #1 result.  That's better than any copyright I can throw on a graphic.

So take this advice if you like.  If you want to use a visual here without credit—it's your choice.  I can't force you to do so.  But this blog is out there—it's highly visible and it's very likely that someone who viewed your presentation with my visual will eventually find the source here.  And that affects your credibility, not mine.

For those of you who have been generous in your transparency—thank you.  I owe the success of this blog to all of you.  I've given a lot away here, but you've given me much more.

Thinking Visually

I'm thinking about visual thinking.  I'm not the only one.  Next week, the first of it's kind conference on visual thinking is kicking off in San Francisco.  It's called Vizthink.  If you are in the area and interested in the topics of design thinking and synthesis—I suggest you go.  I wanted to, but the timing didn't work out.

So what is visual thinking anyway?  Well, let's go to Wikipedia for a few interesting tidbits:

"Thinking in pictures, is one of a number of other recognized forms of non-verbal thought such as kinesthetic, musical and mathematical thinking. Multiple thinking and learning styles, including visual, kinesthetic, musical, mathematical and verbal thinking styles are a common part of many current teacher training courses.Visual thinking has been found to be the most common thinking style, accounting for up to 60%-65% of the general population"

"As dyslexia is believed to effect up to 17% percent of the population and Visual thinking is predominant in around 60%-65% of the population, there is no clear indication of a link between visual thinking and dyslexia. As visual thinking is the most common mode of thought, it might be expected that the incidence of visual thinking in the dyslexic community would be reflective of that in the general population, around 60%-65% of each population."

"Visual thinkers describe thinking in pictures. As approximately 60%-65% of the general population, it's possible that a visual thinker may be as likely as any human being to also have good spatial-temporal reasoning or visual spatial ability without the two having any necessary direct relationship. Acute spatial ability is also a traits of kinesthetic learners (those who learn through movement, physical patterning and doing)"

Interesting?  Indeed.  So, as you've probably figured out by now—I'm a visual thinker.  I'm also a very specific kind of visual thinker.  The way I approach things is to look for a few choice nuggets of an abstract concept and I focus on those using ultra simple visuals to help communicate the idea I am looking to expand on.  I also leave a great deal open for interpretation.  My visuals are thought starters.  Catalysts.  They are meant to instigate further thinking.  They usually do. 

There are all types of visual thinking—from complex diagrams that lend themselves to info graphics to simple visualizations of ideas and thought.  In a digital age of complexity—I forsee visual thinking as playing a key role in business—an effective way to get people to understand complex problems and begin working on solving them.  I view visual thinking as a tool.  A versatile tool that could fall under the catagory of design thinking.  As you can see by this post, I've created a new category here as this is something I hope to be writing more about.  Stay tuned—more to come.