We have all been there: at the back of the class, in a boring meeting, in a inspiring meeting or revising for an exam. The product of many of these ‘moments’ is a piece of paper with doodling, scribbles, attempts at being the next Banksy. For me , doodling / drawing on a blank piece of paper was always the best way i remembered things. For most of us, writing on thin lined A4 paper was the done thing when trying to map out ideas etc. Flash cards if you were lucky! But i found myself conforming to bullet point note taking once i worked in a professional environment.
A few years have passed since i was doodling at the back of a lecture room but think it might be time to bring a bit of it back. Ogilvy Notes have employed the services of ImageThink to illustrate all the key topics at the SXSX festival with fantastic results. ImageThink call them ‘graphic recordings’ , and you can find their portfolio here. Below are a couple of examples in the meantime:
I’m not saying that we should all go into our meetings with a full suite of coloured felt tips , but i think it illustrates that we do not have to conform to traditional methods of note-taking. If someone is more comfortable with illustrating their thoughts graphically don’t be afraid to do so. The ImageThink and OgilvyNotespartnership at SXSX works really well because of the environment and the context. But I think such a technique would be to the benefit of many businesses outside of trendy tech conferences. The visualisation of ideas and thoughts is nothing new, with the inundation of infographics for what seems like absolutely everything these days. The rise and popularity of infographics has helped transform boring excel documents into engaging graphics and ultimately an improvement in visual communication.
‘Drawing out understanding’ is what Imagethink strive to do , and i think its a skill that could benefit many of us working in the client servicing industry. Drawing out your understanding rather than making neat bullet points might not be very pc but if it benefits your learning just do it. Off to get a pencil case.
The Paper The Pen. 