IntroLast Friday, May 15th, I participated in an interesting workshop in TUDelft drawing course. The facilitators are Jan and Joost who are both from JAM. The purpose of the workshop is to explore how visualization can help people to communicate better. The task of the workshop is to use graphics to compose his/her own study plan for a future master degree. (more photos are on flickr)
Warm-up
The warm-up started with rough and quick drawings. Participants are asked for drawing random objects, and animals, such as clock, car, cat, etc. and some abstract word, such as belief and trust. It ran so fast that everyone collected dozens of post-it within several minutes.
Jan and Joost explain three basic elements in a visual planning, which are time, action, and space. Then they started to categorize all the drawings in these three group on the blackboard.It turned out a beautiful huge collage and a sea of post-it!
I think it is a very dynamic and interesting warm-up. Participants started with freehand drawings and brainstormed a little bit with the subjects. Then, finally they came together to build up a wall of post-it. Through these processes, I believed they not only warmed up their hand and mind but also shared the happiness of building an impressive work, which can therefore inspire them to go on exploring.
Assignment 1: Visual Planning to going to cinema
It is a 5-minute assignment, kind of short test to compose a visual planning.
I took notes during the discussion about how to improve the visual planning. First, choosing a good metaphor is important because it would catch people's eye and build a center theme of the story you want to express in the drawing. Secondly, you might start from a draft drawing of elements involved in the planning, and compose them later. Besides, a good structure is also relevant for composition and communication. After you apply a number of elements, you will need a good structure to guide audience but not to leave a chaotic drawing to them and yourself. Furthermore, text can play an important role in a visual planning, so do not avoid using text but make a good use of it. Using color to highlight the picture is also good for communication. Last but not least, the arrows can be quiet relevant to guide the audience.
Assignment 2: Master study planning
Everyone got an assignment to do a visual planning for future master studying planning.
Assignment 2: Discussion
Here are some examples which might shed some light on what good visual planning will be.
Above, this is a good example to use colorful and eye-catching metaphor in a visual planning. It does not only list some must-dos in the future but possibilities and potential hinder. This planning can therefore arose audience's interests on it. 
Above, sometimes, too many elements and details will hinder audience's interpretation and imagination about what you want to communicate. It might be good to have some "layers" or "hierarchy" here for the elements. So audience can learn the planning logically instead of feeling lost in it.
Above, it is a good example for giving "layers" or "hierarchy" in a drawing. First, the octopus helped to set a center theme of the drawing. Its tentacles represented the second layer of the drawing.
Above, this drawing can be appealing but lack of the guidance for a following story. It did not create a clear coherence between the elements and in the story.
Above, it showed a strong metaphor with a big question mark and cleverly implied the start and the end of planning.
Above, personally, I like this planning very much because it showed a clear vision in the near and far future. It led the audience, step-by-step, to his dream, saving the earth. That is something I felt very important to see in a visual planning. Instead of listing some boring routines, the meaning of the visual planning should lie on a drawing which can motivate and inspire yourself to go on.To sum up
A good visual planning, in my opinion, should content a strong metaphor and a clear story. A good visual planning should be storytelling, which implies a clear structure and hierarchy in its elements. Make coherence with the storyline and make interesting details. Therefore the audience can follow the story without feeling bored.
Last but not least, while drawing, always leave some space for playing, for the ideas coming from nowhere!!
great report Po!
ReplyDeleteI would have liked to see your main discoveries put on post-its and clustered...a little likes Jan's summmery.
...maybe you could still add that?
Dennis
Thanks for your comment!
ReplyDeleteIf I didn't get you wrong, you were suggesting me to conclude my own findings in a single poster which is also more "visual", right?
I will try to do it. Then I will revise the post and add it on.
Po-Chih
I am very familiar with meetings that result in a wallful of postits. The big question is, does this get you anything? Sometimes it does, sometimes it does not, and the only result is some profit for 3M.
ReplyDeleteWhat was your impression of the first exercise? Was it just warmup or did people walk away with something new in their heads?
Hello Walter
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I would say that it's not that inspiring although the "sea of post-its" is really impressive in its enormous size. Maybe it is due to a lack of discussion on "Why we categorize things in this way for making a planning?" or "How you sort your drawings to match the categories? and why?".
To some points, I think, in the process, the purpose of the warm-up phase was dwarfed by the overwhelming outcome, the sea of post-its. We might be too satisfied with it to really reflect on "Why we have to do this?"
That is why I did not say much about this phase in this post.