Graphic Recording & Creative Lettering Design: Word Clouds

Word clouds are pretty common these days. They're usually computer generated with standard fonts. If you want your word cloud to really have impact, hand lettering is the way to go!

Hand-lettered word clouds can be created from print materials before or after and event. Or for a report or website, for example. They can also be created live as a different way of graphic recording. No pictures, only words. Words that are carefully drawn and designed to create an impact greater that just a list or something computer generated.

If you relate better to words than pictures, a hand-drawn word cloud can be a great bridge to reach those who are more picture oriented. Experience the impact yourself - contact me to create one for you!

Visual Thinking & Creative Lettering Design: Lowercase B

Drawing some letters is a great way to warm up your creative and visual thinking skills. That's what all these lowercase B's are about! I set a timer for a few minutes and drew as many different lowercase B's as I could in that time.

Setting a short time frame keeps you going. There's no time to evaluate what you just did. So you don't. You just keep coming up with ideas. There's plenty of time to evaluate things once you're done. The same is true whether you're drawing lowercase B's or thinking up ways to save the world.

Visual Thinking & Creativity: Use What You Have

When it comes to creativity and innovation, there's often a push for wild and crazy ideas. Wild and crazy ideas can be great and lead to great things, but they may also require wild and crazy resources. If resources are limited, the most creative, innovative, and practical solutions may simply be to use what you already have.

Visual thinking can help you take stock of the resources you have. And understand how they're currently being used. And how they all work together. Once you know what you have to work with, you can better figure out how to use those resources in new ways...even if you just want to build a better snowman!

Visual Thinking & Creativity: Visualize!

Visual thinking and creativity have a lot in common. A whole lot. So much I did my master's project on the topic!

One key part of creativity and creative thinking is visualizing. That's really just another word for using and being aware of your imagination. Most people don't think about it much, but your imagination uses a lot of pictures. Just try to imagine a red rose without seeing a picture of it in your head...not gonna happen!

Getting those ideas and pictures out of your head is the first step towards creativity and innovation. As long as those ideas live only in your head, they're only a part of your imagination. They're dreams, not reality.

When you start putting those ideas down on paper, it helps you see them more clearly. And flesh out your idea more fully. Then you can better explain them to others. And they'll be more likely to understand them.

That's why visual thinking is not only powerful, but productive. Visual thinking leads to clarity. Clarity leads to confidence. And confidence is much more likely to lead to action.

Visual Thinking: Simple as 1-2-3!

One of the most powerful things about visual thinking is that it makes things simple. When things are simple, they're much easier to remember. And the more often you see something, the more likely you will be to remember it, too.

That's why simple posters are so powerful when working in person. And why simple online visuals are so powerful before and after events, or when you can't be face-to-face.

A super simple way to keep your visuals super simple is as easy as 1-2-3. Choose 1 central image. Use no more than 2 colors. And limit yourself to only 3 words. That's it!

That formula doesn't always work for everything, but it's a great place to start. Even if you have to sneak in an extra word or two, your visual will still be pretty simple.

Visual Thinking & Creativity: Keep it Posted!

When people look at things, they generally think about whatever they're looking at. So if you want to be sure people focus on certain things during your meeting or presentation, visuals can really help.

Posters are a great way to keep that info front and center in everyone's mind. Your posters don't need to be fancy. But they do need to be clear. Very clear. So clear people can get the info in a glance.

The poster above was created for a workshop I taught about thinking styles. It was used during a hands-on group activity to remind each group to try out all four thinking styles. The thinking styles are color coded, so it's easy to focus only on one square at a time. Yet, it gives a clear picture of the whole process. That way, people can move about the process at their own pace and see how they're connected.

Visual Thinking & Creativity: Use Things in New Ways

When it comes to innovation and creativity, it's common to think you need more. More ideas. More resources. More people. More money. More, more, more!

Truth is, more is not always better. In fact, the more you have, the more confusing things get. Striving for more can prevent you from taking a good look at what you already have. And putting it to good use.

When you pull apart what you do have and look at each part individually, it helps you see things in new ways. When you see things in new ways, you think in new ways. Use things in new ways. Do things in new ways. And that's what leads to creative and innovative breakthroughs.

Visual thinking can help you get a clearer picture of what you already have to work with. And think about how you might use whatever you have in new ways. Because there's always more than one way to build a snowman...or anything else!

Visual Thinking & Graphic Recording: One Main Image

Graphic recording involves taking notes with a lot of pictures. Sometimes, especially with shorter presentations, there's simply no time for a lot of pictures. A lot of pictures may not be needed, either. One large central image can be mighty powerful. And it may be all you need.

There's more than one picture in the graphic recording above. There are some musical notes, a couple of light bulbs, and some simple people at the bottom. Then there's a big face in the center, towards the top. Notice how that face really grabs your eye?

If you're pressed for time, pick one thing to draw. Draw it big and bold. That alone will make your notes or poster much more visual. That one drawing will catch people's eye and bring them into the content more than just words alone.

Visual Thinking & Drawing: Label It!

There's a huge difference between drawing to create great art and drawing to think or communicate better. But there's a lot of overlap, too.

Some of those overlaps have to do with the way the brain works. Like when it comes to labels and titles of things. Your brain likes to keep things neat and tidy, so it matches up new information with something similar it's already seen. That helps your brain to keep track of things better.

When abstract things are labeled, your brain has a better idea what to do with them. Take the drawing above. Right now, it's untitled. It's ambiguous. But what if I told you it's a picture of 2 chairs? Then your brain immediately sees the chairs. But if it was titled something like "My Sleeping Cat" or "Flowers at Sunset", your brain would wonder why. The image looks nothing like those things, so your brain will search the image for clues, trying to believe it really is a picture of a cat or flowers.

So when drawing to think or communicate, labels can be very helpful. If you draw something that doesn't quite look like what you were trying to draw, just label it. Then there's no doubt people will know exactly what it is.

The picture above was created in a college drawing class. It's an abstract representation of two chairs.

Visual Thinking & Creativity: Take It Apart!

One of the great things about visual thinking is that it helps you see the big picture. If you're trying to see something common in a new light, it might be more helpful to take that big picture apart. Visual thinking can help you do that, too.

Say you want to build a different kind of snowman. You'll need to change something about the way you usually build a snowman. In the visual above, I drew a regular snowman, but he's not quite put together. That way, it's much easier to see all the individual parts. And look at them individually. And think about which one you may want to change to create a whole new snowman.

That's not just for snowman. It works with pretty much anything. Seeing things visually like that just makes the whole process faster!