Visual Thinking

Watch Thinking Visually, David Armano, Critical Mass  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

This labours the point perhaps, but it’s an interesting video about the power of images when presenting ideas. It’s so true that images are far more emotive (paints a 1000 words etc) but how many of us forget to apply that thinking when “writing” our own presentations for pitches?

Raising money for a charitable cause? Show an image of the suffering, dont write out bullet points as to why you should donate. Want to know what Obama’s policies are in a speech? Check the word cloud!

Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak. But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but word can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled

The quote comes from Ways of Seeing by John Berger - very interesting for further exploration of visual thinking.

Here’s David Armano’s original post, but check out his archive of visual thinking on flickr for ideas. The Guardian do this very well (their graphics editor, Michael Robinson, has his tips here), and there are some great sites like Visual Complexity or Infographics that track this idea.

Any more to recommend? Post them in the comments please!