On Drawing
Earlier this week I attended a talk at Adaptive Path by Dan Roam. It’s not surprising that the author of “The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures” would be pretty handy with a pen, but the talk provoked more thought than I anticipated.
Here’s some of the things that I took away from it:
- Visualization without framing doesn’t mean much.
- Drawing may be the rapidest of prototypes.
- I know very little about neuroscience.
- Compelling visuals are all about distilling a problem.
- Editing is difficult.
- Good drawing doesn’t equal good ideas.
- A chart is like a story. It needs a scene, dramatic tension and characters.
- Drawing is a collaborative tool. It’s meant to engage.
- Letting go of your ideas requires discipline.
- Making something rough is tough on the ego.
- I love watching people draw.
This was written by Tom. Posted on Thursday, September 25, 2008, at 3:07 pm. Filed under Inspiration, Visual Design. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.
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3 Comments
Thanks for the notes, Tom! Always inspiring to see what you’re up to.
One important realization for me came when Roam talked about how rough sketches are often more productive and engaging than slick, polished graphics. (His “Unwritten Rule #2″, I think.)
I’ve witnessed it first-hand; people who probably tune out PowerPoint slides standing up & collaborating when the same kind of info is being sketched on a whiteboard.
I think a reason that rough sketches are more productive is that they invite interaction, collaboration and “hacking”. When something is too precious, no one wants to mess with it. And there’s plenty of ego involved when someone presents an “answer” in the form of a polished presentation. Rough sketches are more about presenting a question, inviting response and offering a tools for group problem solving.