Visualisation has its catches

We’ve written a few times now about the benefits of visualisation as a process of summarising complexity and even defining a brief. Indeed, we’re big proponents of using images and icons to capture thinking rather than endless words – a powerful visual, collaboratively created by all necessary contributors, has the potential to get people to the nub of a story quickly and easily.

But there are some catches with the visualisation process. For one, it’s easy to get carried away with the “ta-dah!” moment. You know, when the visual gets revealed and everyone goes “aaah!” because they’re excited to see some pictures as a consequence of their meeting rather than the usual meeting notes.

But the visual you get – whether it’s the work of a graffiti artist, illustrator or members of your team – should only be seen as the beginning. From the point of first visual capture you need to then verify whether your image depicts everything required. You have to make sure it’s developed into brand style (rather than left in the style of the original artist). And more than likely you’ll also need to sharpen up how your image says what it says.

Building brand into your visualisation process is a significant challenge ie., ensuring your artists use company values and ambitions to filter the messages they draw. To an extent you have to rely upon participants knowing how to ‘think brand’ but, in addition, the person directing the visualisation process has to ensure people know the influences and parameters that affect what can be drawn.

Drawing in brand identity style is a bit of an ask of workshop participants probably lacking in confidence about their drawing skills as it is. One way of getting round this could be providing a set of pre-made graphics and icons in the style of the brand that the meeting/workshop attendees can use and build on to convey their meaning. More time can then be given to ‘what message do I want to get across’ than ‘how the hell do I draw that’.

However, above all else, the most important thing to be focussed on before the visualisation process starts, is what you want the outcomes to be. How is the visual going to be used? Which audiences are you trying to speak to? What level of understanding do they already have? How simple or detailed do you need it to be? Because in the end, it’s all about communication, you see.