Making Ideas Visible

well that was fun! Got to work with a room full of kids, learning how they learn best, gathering that qualitative data which will be built into learning programs across the state. Apparently my name is being passed along to someone in the governor’s office for more work.

Two hours of work and had to stay two nights because I couldn’t get a flight out in time to make a connection home so I wandered downtown and took in the sites.

That 5 am flight this morning had an early wake up.

Now I think there are only three states I haven’t been to yet.

do things differently to bring your emerging ideas to life. check out the Detroit Symphony's story:

The board chair of the Detroit Symphony wanted to synthesize their complex financial story into a visual map that could be used to re-start a conversation with the philanthropic community in the city...

http://bit.ly/2XPKeeQ

My version of an agenda: sometimes when I design and facilitate I give myself a loose structure to follow and respond intuitively to where the group wants to go in the moment. The design of a two-day retreat for a small group of colleagues who wanted to explore a more formal professional working relationship with each other as a team. One of the key areas they worked on which had the most juice was: What are we leaving behind? What are we raising up?

When we do a multi-day meeting and end up with a lot of visual maps, we can stack them into a sculpture and they become a gathering point for conversation and a photo backdrop, creating a “wow” factor for the participants.

What can we do with the visual maps after the meeting/conference? There’s lots of ways to use them to keep the content in front of people’s minds. We create a high quality digital image which can be reprinted into wall paper, posters, reports and we even do these pieces that compile all of the visual maps into one image. Perfect for framing.

Admit it, you have marker envy!! Making sure that they’re full of ink for the next job. These are Neuland markers and they’re the best.

When I need to get my own thoughts out of my head I do an “elegant braindump” so that I can see all the pieces I’m currently chewing on. I do these--usually a more extensive version--for individual clients as well. Check out The Emergence Session.

At a trade show in the booth, we provided added engagement and content with our visual mapping as participants identified ways to make the shipping industry more sustainable.

We love unleashing creativity. Oftentimes our visual mapping is the catalyst for participants to go for it with their own drawing and diagramming to get their ideas out on paper in their own style.

Constantly immersing myself in new learning of processes, techniques, materials, etc. keeps me excited about and engaged in my work. I love how what I do has endless possibilities to expand and grow. This was a 5-day workshop that helped me rediscover myself as an artist and bring that more into my work.

We support a lot of design thinking workshops and they’re always great fun to do--helping folks think differently, put themselves in their client’s shoes and come up with ideas they wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.