VisualsSpeak blog

Story of Stuff

A nod to David Sibbett from Grove Consultants for pointing out a link to an effective use of simple line drawing to convey a complex message.

The Story of Stuff is a 20 minute video about our consumer society done with a combination of filming Annie Leonard talking with simple line drawings to illustrate what she is saying. It’s worth the time to take a look.

These are drawings for communication, not drawings for art. They are simple, some might even go in the category of not quite right, but they do an exceedingly good job of emphasizing the message.

We have been environmentally conscious for a long time, but just when we think we are making a good choice, another perspective comes along to make us wonder.

We really had a tough time when we created the VisualsSpeak ImageSet. Here we are buying green energy, recycling, making donations, reducing our use of stuff and creating training tools laminated in plastic. However, our other choice was to make training tools that fell apart after a short while and would need to be replaced. Did we pick the right path? We’re still not sure, but we are planning to make other alternatives available, so when you don’t need the durability of a plastic coated photograph, you’ll be able to purchase something else.

I wish there were easier answers. Guess we just do the best we know how at the time, and be willing to change as we learn new things. Do you see other options?

We have a local health food supermarket, New Seasons Market where we do most of our shopping. They have special organic and free range meats for the holidays. I noticed something called a turducken on the list of options over a year ago, but they were sold out. I was curious, just what was this turkey-duck-chicken thing?

It was expensive for a turkey at $4.99 a pound. Next holiday, it was sold out again. Which made me wonder more. Just what made this thing worth so much, and why did so many people want them? So this year, I got online and ordered one early before they sold out.

Just before Christmas we went to pick it up, not really knowing what we were getting. We had a number of interesting discussions around just how did they get a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey? We asked our friends and family. No one knew, but there was curiosity. And we had to promise to tell the story of what we discovered. So here it is, our nine hour day in a two and a half minute video. (It’s the first one we’ve done on Camtasia, so we still need to learn about getting good audio. There is also the part where the cat is biting the microphone….)

All the best to you and yours for your celebration of choice. We’re grateful for the journey we share and the myriad of ways our lives intersect. We look forward to the crossing of our paths in the future.

Christine and Tom

What we can learn about visual language from Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0

I watched the VizThink webinar yesterday, How is visual thinking related to e-learning? where Tony Karrer was asking Dave Gray questions. (The recording is now available here). A couple of things jumped out at me. First Dave talked about drawing pictures in his classes in high school. He was already making sense of the world through drawing, and finding value in being able to go to the teacher and ask if his depiction was correct.

I too was drawing all over my papers in high school, but I was drawing elaborate patterns in the margins. My images reflected what the topic ‘felt’ like. The common thread is we were using drawing as a means to process information early, and doing it a lot. The difference is Dave was drawing things that were more literally descriptive, where I was capturing essence. Which makes sense, I went on to study textile design, and have focused on using visuals as a process and connector.

The other thing that jumped out is how frustrating this visual stuff can be for people. Tony is a highly respected e-learning professional who knows the value of visuals. I could really hear the frustration in not being able to make the leap from where he is to where he wants to be in producing visuals to enhance his messages.

What does web 1.0 versus 2.0 look like?

Tony mentioned he has been struggling with illustrating how the world is shifting relative to e-learning. He referred to his chart of e-learning 1.0, 1.3, 2.0.

Here is a screencast where I describe an image I created using the VisualsSpeak ImageSet. For the purpose of illustrating my point, I made an image based on how I understand the transition that is happening from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, which is similar to what Tony mentioned as an example. This will help you see how you can discover some of the essential qualities of visual language that will make your visuals more effective.

(Left- Web 1.0 transitioning to Web 2.0 on right)

So What? How does that help me create a visual?

My description of the collage in the screencast reveals my impressions, my story of how I see the transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. In this kind of process you can discover a lot of the content you want to get across.

But there is another story in the visual language that can unlock the essence of what you want to communicate visually. You can look at the overall arrangement of the images. The left side that describes Web 1.0 is more gridded and ordered. The edges of the images are aligned to each other. When you move into web 2.0 the images are fanning out from each other.

Next you can look at the lines and shapes in the images themselves.

Notice the type of shapes held within the images I selected to depict Web 1.0. There are a lot of squares or grids like those in an orderly table or spreadsheet. There are also lines much like those used in a graph.

The shapes common in my Web 2.0 depiction are circular, radiating in or out depending on your perspective, and vertical zig-zags. To me, Web 2.0 takes on the form of not being so linearly organized. How do you see the transition? Do you have a different way of visualizing it?

So what do I do with that?

Well, if you are selecting a photograph or clip art to illustrate these concepts, you can use these visual elements to guide your selection. You might search for a structured grid or a surrounded web (such as the spiderweb picture) for Web 1.0. In contrast, you might search for an image that had lines radiating from a circular form for Web 2.0.

You can also begin to develop an illustration from the patterns.

(In this sketch I used the Web 1.0 concepts of grids and graphs to transition into the more radiating form of Web 2.0)

This is just a quick overview, intended to show a process that might be used to generate ideas for effective visuals. Creating a finished visual is more complex, and does take a certain time investment. However, if you can identify some of the essence of what you are looking for, you can also hand it off to a graphic designer or illustrator to develop the ideas more fully.

Do you have some additional input for developing visuals? Or would you like me to elaborate on anything I said in this post? Let me know.

This is the first topic in a series about visual language. The posts are intended to provide a basic understanding about some of the foundational elements that go into visual language, so you can communicate more effectively with visuals.

Starting to explore visuals
Visual language is complex. You can’t really separate one aspect out, since visuals contain multiple elements. However, we can focus more attention on one aspect than another. So for example, we are going to talk about lines in this post, but you could also talk about shapes in many of the images. The goal is to train your eyes to be able to notice the details, and to be able to discern which elements are important to what you are trying to communicate.

I don’t think it is possible to create visuals if you can’t see its elements. I suggested beginning to explore a common everyday object, and I chose my keychain. I’ve been doing this two ways. I sketch while I’m doing other things at my desk like listening to webinars and conference calls. I’ve also been photographing and using Photoshop to call out various elements. While I can show you pictures of things, you’ll get more out of it if you are also exploring an object of your own. Where is your key chain?

Line

You may have noticed that many of the people who use visuals to explain concepts or help others in their thinking or communication use line drawings to do so. Info-graphics, graphic facilitation, and even mind mapping all use line as a key element to get ideas across. Therefor, it is an important element to not only understand, but to develop the skills to use it effectively.

Line is a very versatile and important part of visual language. If you can see it and work with it, you can utilize it for a whole range of expression. This is the realm of the cartoonist, a mastery of line brings the work to life. Yet it is quite challenging to figure out just which line, how much of it, and what quality of line will get across the essence of what you want to say.

Here is a screencast showing some of the ways you can start to explore line.

The parts

You can spend more time looking at the photographs of the process I went through to explore line on the computer by clicking on the image to enlarge it. I will note that it took quite a bit more time to do this on the computer than it would have taken to draw with a pen on paper. Of course, now that it is in digital format I can make versions and alterations much quicker. For me that’s why I often draw on the computer after doing a few preliminary sketches on paper to make sure I have a general understanding of what I am looking at. Once I have done the basic work of getting the image in digital format, I find I am more willing to try a number of different variations.

Practice drawing something simple. At first you may not be aware of what the important lines are that need capturing. A bit of practice will help you and soon you will begin to see how emphasizing one line over another changes the focus or meaning of your drawing.

I wrote another post on a different aspect of line, Are your visuals saying what you want? Part 1

Do you have other ways of exploring visual language? Some other way that has given you insight?

Even professionals struggle with creative anxiety

Meet my Fear Monster. Lovely fellow, eh? What’s he got to do with visual thinking? I’d say a lot. Because he’s the one I let torture me when I think about putting my drawings and images out where people can see them.

Does his cousin live at your house?

Now, you might think this little devil wouldn’t come visiting, or if he did, I’d know how to control him by now. After all, I’ve had many opportunities to wrestle with him. For those of you who have not been to art school, a large part of what happens there is staying up very late at night slaving over some piece of artwork. The next day you bring it to class and pin it up on the wall. Then the class shreds it with help from the instructor. At the end of the semester you have the opportunity to face an entire panel of critics with a pile of your best work. I don’t remember a lot of compliments, but I do remember crying in the alleys outside. I must have done something right since I did graduate. (Rhode Island School of Design)

My Fear Monster is quite arrogant and laughs at my silly little attempts at cleverness. And I know he is poised to bite me with those poisonous pointy teeth as soon as I turn around.

Keys, keys, and more keys

I have been doing exactly what I suggested you do in my earlier post. I’ve been exploring the visual aspects of my keychain, by doing quick sketches while I’m listening to webinars or conference calls. I’ve also been taking photos of it to illustrate some of the visual language aspects I want to show you in subsequent posts. I’ve been thinking about what might be the best way to show you what I’m thinking about and have been looking at tools like screencasts and video which seem promising.

Mr Fear Monster has been rearing his ugly head because I’m thinking about posting unfinished ugly drawings, and using new tools I am not expert in. Now, I know one of the points I am trying to make is that unfinished ugly drawings are part of the process of visual thinking. Does the Fear Monster care? No.

So why am I feeding his ego by writing a post about him? Because I am trying to make the process of creating visible for you, and wrestling with him is part of it. He doesn’t stop me from doing it. But his toxic voice talks in my ear and I have to tell him to be quiet, go away, and refuse to give in to him. Even deciding to tell you about him has got him laughing.

Do you have a Fear Monster that keeps you from creating? How do you handle creative anxiety?

VizThink is a conference being held in San Francisco January 27-29, 2008. I will be one of the facilitators. This series of posts is designed to explore the topic of visual thinking, how it is taught, and how you can learn.

The series of posts was originally inspired by Tony Karrer’s, VizThink and Visual Thinking . It evoked responses from Tom Crawford, Brent Schlenker, and Dave Gray, who are all involved in the VizThink conference.

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As a visual communication resource I often suggest Horn’s book, Visual Language. In the ongoing discussion, Tony Karrer asks:

Interestingly, Christine, Tom and Dave Gray from Xplane all point to Bob Horn’s book as a great example. I’m a bit worried if that’s the example. I’m even more worried when I went to Bob’s web site. Dave Gray has always done incredible graphics that really help me to quickly understand a topic. Bob’s web site violates a lot of what I would consider to be good design. Please, tell me that I won’t think that’s good design by the end of this crash course? I can’t imagine that anyone thinks that good design?

In the comments of this post, I assured Tony I wasn’t recommending the book for it’s beauty. And I didn’t call it out for it’s design. Its brilliance is in it’s articulation of the elements of visual language. I am no fan of clip art, which illustrates this book, yet I understand it’s use in this instance.

It also raises a deeper question.

• Is there a difference between effective visual communication and effective visual design?

What we discovered developing VisualsSpeak images

When we were developing the VisualsSpeak process, we started out by cutting out photographs from books and magazines and laminating them. We tested about 10,000 images. Watching how people responded, adjusting the process to maximize the results. We were looking to deepen communication, spark insight, and give people a method that would aid in complex strategic thinking.

At first we weren’t sure exactly what the qualities were in an image that were going to make it effective. Since we were chopping up magazines, the collection included famous photos, breathtaking photos, and the work of some of the best photographers in the world. But we started to notice that when people would select many of those photos they would say things like I just liked it, it was pretty, I just like National Geographic. Or they would describe what they thought the photographer was saying. We weren’t hearing a lot of deep insight.

In contrast, the images that were more generic evoked all sorts of deep insights. It seemed almost like the more vague or ambiguous, the better they worked. This was independent of content. We tracked those factors separately. Technically, we used professional cameras and lenses, and when we printed we used high quality offset printing and good color.

When we started photographing, we had a sense of the type of images we were looking to capture. We took about 20,000 photographs to select the 200 needed for the VisualsSpeak ImageSet. So we had lots of stacks of similar images. We didn’t always pick the ‘best’ image from a design standpoint. Or the prettiest, or the most dramatic. Some of them are almost weird. And they work really well to deepen communication, spark insight, and aid in complex strategic thinking.

From the results we are trying to achieve with our visual tools, often it is NOT the prettiest picture that yields the greatest impact. It is the quality of the insights those images inspire in our clients and how all of the images interact with each other.

What are you trying to do?

As I mentioned before, I am no fan of clip art. I appreciate good design. However, I find myself compromising more and more when my focus shifts to effective learning, effective communication, and the relationship of cost to value. There is even a joke around our office about my RISD degree being revoked.

The questions are similar to the ones I ask when I begin designing a training or an organizational intervention.

• What is the impact I am trying to achieve?
• How am I going to measure it?
• How am I going to insure it makes economic sense?

So you have to ask yourself what are you trying to accomplish with your visuals. For us it means choosing the photos that enhance communication processes the most. At times we have to consciously get out of our own way to not choose the most aesthetically pleasing images from an art point of view. You may want to choose WOW kind of visuals, because they serve your purpose. Bob Horn chose to use clip art, because it helped illustrate the points he wanted to make.

What do you think? Do you find yourself struggling to define the line between good design and effectiveness in other areas?

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I do hope you will join us at the VizThink conference. If you use the code FCCM1 you can get $100 off your registration fee. I will be writing more about learning to think visually soon.

Tony Karrer wrote a post the other day wondering about the connection between visual thinking and e-learning. His questions were in relationship to the VizThink conference which will be held January 27-29, 2008 in San Fransisco.

The post has generated some very interesting conversation, and Tony asked some questions that I wanted to answer here, where I had more space and ability to add links and visuals.

I suggested Bob Horn’s book, Visual Language as a resource Tony might consider to learn about visuals. Xplane recently republished it and you can purchase it from them. The book is written in visual language, yet it uses clip art. Dr. Horn wanted to show how visual language works, but he wanted to make sure it was accessible ie: didn’t require drawing. I have heard people dismiss the book on the basis of it not being aesthetically pleasing enough, but I think they are missing the point. Not using fabulous visuals keeps the focus on the theoretical construction of the visual language components. This is a book I read and study over and over. There is an incredible amount of information on every page.

Here are some resources where you can learn more about the book.

• Sample pages from the book
• Interview with Dr. Horn talking about the book
• Robert Horn’s website at Stanford
• my post Visual Language republished by Xplane

Reading and writing visual language

In the comments on Tony’s post, Dave Gray says:

We “read” visual language all the time. It surrounds us, in the form of billboards, TV, road signs, car dashboards, internet screens, etc.

But how many of us can “write” visual language? I submit to you that visual language is not, and should not be, the province of designers, but is a core skill as we enter the coming century, maybe THE core skill.

So, reading Robert Horn’s book on visual language will help you read visuals better. And I believe you have to be able read, and SEE in order to effectively write.

Creating Visuals

We all know understanding something does not necessarily translate into an ability to do. And I think there must be a guild of mean parents and art teachers out there somewhere who have traumatized a huge number of people when they were young by telling them trees aren’t purple and to color inside the lines. So you do need to put all that early childhood trauma aside and be willing to try again. I KNOW you can do it, we all can.

Tony asks:

For me, once I start to go after the visual (ugly as they are), then I find myself changing the diagram, adding, etc. I’m never happy with it. So, I tinker. Pretty soon that visual depiction falls apart. So I wasn’t clear on what it should have been at the start.

Or maybe it’s not that simple? It’s more iterative?

You might stop too soon. I have produced FAR more really bad ugly stuff than things that work. It’s all part of the process. Have you heard salespeople say they have to get 10 (or 100) no’s for every yes. Sometimes we have to create a lot of yuck. Every so often, you hit right away. Hopefully over time, you hit sooner more regularly.

Sometimes it’s more like a focus group. You keep gathering the data until patterns emerge and you can distill the kernels that are most important.

Try this

If you really want to learn to work with visuals, you have to do it. Yes, I know the mean parents and art teachers who told you trees aren’t purple and your masterpiece didn’t look like your dog are whispering in your ears again. You’ve got to put them aside and decide to reclaim your ability to work with visuals.

Take an ordinary object from your daily life, say your keychain. Start to look at it, and begin to record the visual qualities of it. All of them. When you run out, keep going and find more. Aim for 100. The first 20 or 30 may be pretty easy, but keep going. I assure you if you do, you will see that keychain in a totally new way. And most likely everything else in the world also.

Visual Qualities you might look for include:

• Line
• Shape
• Texture
• Highlight & Shadow

Don’t worry if you don’t know what all of these mean. I’ll be talking more about them in later posts.

How do you do this? Anyway you want. If you really want to challenge yourself, do it with just a pen or pencil on pieces of paper. You can also do it with photography, painting, or the computer. Whatever works, it’s not about the media.

It’s also not about Art. This is quick, maybe even ugly stuff, that only takes a few minutes. Keep your keys on your desk, look over between tasks and see what you notice. Scribble something down. These ugly sketches of mine took less than a minute.

Why might you want to make a whole series of ugly drawings? Well, if you were a musician you might play scales to build your skills. If you’re a novelist you might write several drafts. This is a visual version of these types of processes. It’s not about the result, it’s about the process of looking, looking again, and continuing to look to discover new things way beyond when you think you’ve seen it all.

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I do hope you will join us at VizThink. If you use the code FCCM1 you can get $100 off your registration fee. I will be writing more about learning to think visually soon.

Tony Karrer wrote a post the other day wondering about the connection between visual thinking and e-learning. He had been talking with Tom Crawford, who is the new CEO of VizThink in relationship to the conference which will be held January 27-29, 2008 in San Fransisco. I will be one of the facilitators at the conference. Tony wondered;

So, again, I highly respect Tom and the conference. And maybe it’s as simple as the fact that a lot of what we do in training, learning, education is try to crystallize the important points, and turn it into an engaging, meaningful learning experience. So, maybe it’s a parallel and very useful skill. But I have this sense that Tom thinks there’s more to it.

And, I just am still not sure I get what he’s seeing? What am I missing here?

I wanted to say, a whole world. But that isn’t very helpful.

The beginnings of the conversation

First Brent Schlenker dropped by to comment on Tony’s post and talked about the importance of design, and noticed that very few instructional designers are trained with these skills. I know when I speak for groups of e-learning professionals, they often are unaware of visual communication basics. But Tony then asked if visual thinking and design were the same skills?

I don’t think so, but often people who have learned one have also learned the other so it becomes difficult to separate at times. I do know in e-learning in particular, I often see programs that may be well designed from a graphic perspective while they show no understanding of how visual language could have made their learning better. I left a comment about this, and Tony came back with another round of questions

• I wonder though how teachable it is?
• And can I learn it from a conference?
• Without going to the conference, how could I get a sense of whether I could learn it (whatever it is)?

I answered these simply, and you can go over to Tony’s blog to see the short answer. But his questions really helped me see an opportunity for a series of posts that speak to this in more depth.

• Yes, it is teachable.
• Yes, you can learn parts of it at a conference
• Yes, there are things you can do to learn

Tony came back with some other questions which I will address in subsequent posts.

Dave Gray from Xplane stopped by next to comment, and opened with

I have so many questions and thoughts for you that I don’t know where to begin.

Me too. Which is why I decided I better write a series of posts. Dave has some great thoughts about the assumptions built about communication, the screen being visual and lots more that make it worth going over to read the comments. He will be one of the pre-conference and main facilitators at the VizThink conference.

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I do hope you will join us at VizThink. If you use the code FCCM1 you can get $100 off your registration fee. I will be writing more about learning to think visually soon.

Garr Reynolds over at Presentation Zen reminded me that today is the twenty seventh anniversary of John Lennon’s death. Garr was not very far from where I am now in Oregon when he heard, I was in my third floor studio at Rhode Island School of Design. I remember the images I was working on at the time, it was one of those senseless moments where I wonder how the world can be so insane. My roommates came home a short time later and I couldn’t even tell them. It was like it didn’t make enough sense to repeat, my brain couldn’t quite comprehend how or why it happened.

John and Yoko were regular topics of conversation at art school. No discussion of conceptual art occurred without someone talking about Yoko, and discussions of performance art always contained mention of John and Yoko’s work together. It wasn’t just the art, the talk was also around maintaining identity as an artist independent of collaborators, who takes the spotlight and why, and a myriad of other aspects of being an artist in the public eye. We listened to their music, and paid attention to what they did. We noticed they had made the choice to step back and raise their child, to put Sean at the center of their world.

I’ve noticed the tributes Yoko has paid to John at the anniversaries of his death. Marveled at her ability to create in the face of such pain. So when Garr linked to her latest, I clicked over right away. Perhaps I should have paid a bit more attention to his comments:

The letter and the video (especially the Happy Christmas music video at the end) are evocative, and for many provocative perhaps. But you can not read the letter and watch the video presentation and not feel something. First I read the letter from Yoko to John. It is very simple and very beautiful. It speaks to the loss all of us have felt, (feel, or will feel) when we lose the person most important to us. For many, you’ll feel something quite profound. Read the letter, then watch the video; you will surely feel something.

I watched the video and read the letter late, right before I was going to bed. I didn’t sleep much, and still can’t get the song and the images out of my head. I would describe it as searing. Almost ten hours later, I can still feel a physical clutching around my heart. It is an incredibly powerful message, and worth seeing. But probably not right before you need to do something else. You can get there by clicking the image below.

This is a great example of how the visual and the verbal can combine to tell a story. When I first started writing this post, I thought I would analyze how that was done, and talk about the power of image. I’ve erased my words numerous times. They seem to silly, detached, and trite compared to the incredible piece of work Yoko has created. So, I’m going to leave it be. Go, watch it. Then go to Presentation Zen and watch the other videos Garr has found. Read the story he posted. I’ll talk about the images with less important images as examples. Just experience these.