Recently, I had the great pleasure of hosting a Cape Town CEO at my studio for a one-on-one Visual Conversation.
We started with a Brain Dump on a large whiteboard. A perfect erasable medium for a shifting and organic conversation.
We then moved to working with paper cutouts on my V3 Neuland Graphic Wall. Instead of post-its, we worked with multiple photocopied “platforms” drawn in oblique perspective.
Because they are drawn in perspective, and have a top and sides, I can add a title or descriptor to the side edges. The surface plane can hold the content or the idea. The perspective also breaks the picture plane and gives one a sense of working in navigable space.
We were able to break down the complexity of the content, identify the component parts, group and assemble (and reassemble) relative to each other.
I drew very little, and most of my visual notes were drawn separately on another surface.
After a couple of hours, we had broken through the noise and clutter.
We can now begin to visualise, populate and illustrate the detail...
A Visual Conversation takes place in the space between us.
It is quite literally “getting on the same page.” It is collaborative and co-creative.
It is pushing and pulling, diverging and converging, breaking apart and reassembling, pulling back and zooming in, to reach simplicity, clarity and consensus.
This is the value of a Visual Conversation. This is the Power of Visual Thinking.
