Workshop "Dare to Dream Together!"

Last Friday, I joined a New Book Release event in a harbor restaurant in Amsterdam. There were several presentations present by co-authors and one "Dare to Dream Together" workshop. In the workshop, JAMmers helped the participants to draw a business with their own hands. For most of them, it was the first time to do some small hand drawings themselves (probably it's just too old to remember). Neverthaless they relly liked it and were so involved in this process...

It is a great experience to see the participants to be fully engaged in the process. You can check their works and smiles in the on-line album. This workshop started with a presentation to describe how the drawings in the book were created and how Visual Design Process worked in JAM. Then in warm-up session, participants followed guidance with JAMmers to draw small objects, such as a car, a tree, a building, a starman, and etc. JAMmers went on asking them to draw each others' business model and suggested them to use the objects they just drew in the warm-up.

Amazingly, all of them were immediately engaged in the process to discuss and to draw. They really used the objects in the warm-up and created the model in their style even though most of them were not trained drawer. They seemed really enjoyed!!

I think one of the reason is that the warm-up session indeed paid off because the objects they drew were fully useful in the following drawing session. They therefore can be more confident to draw. Another reason could be that participants can simply follow a basic model (business model) instead of coming up with a new one. So with the basic structure, they can focus more on the parts they choose and the linkages between parts.

One of the participants thought it's a good way to communicate because the hand drawing is more open to interpret. Then people would not jump into the conclusion so quickly. Applying this drawing in a given discussion can offer people chances to explore new solutions. And he also wanted to use the drawing next week in his company.

Workshop: Visual Communication in TU Delft

Intro
Last 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!!