Tips for communicating visually, problem solving, training video tips & featured video No images? Click here Solving Visual ChallengesTable of Contents
Hi there, Can you believe it's already November? What a year! We hope you're holding up okay—and if you're from Melbourne, are enjoying the easing of restrictions. As you may already be aware, one of the projects we've been working on this year is on developing an online community called Sketch School. It's a Slack channel where we share tips, workshops, and articles aimed at becoming more effective visual communicators. It's slowly shaping up to be a wonderful place to bounce ideas around and get fresh eyes on solving visual challenges. I've included some of the content in this newsletter in case you're up for a challenge. Enjoy! Virtual Meetings with MURALIf there's anything good to come out of the pandemic, it's the improvement of the quality of virtual meetings across the board. We've noticed everyone from big corporates and government agencies to startups, health organisations and others embracing modern tools that allow a remote team to collaborate as well as (and sometimes, better than) in person (although we still hear the occasional "you're on mute!"). We're big fans of the digital collaboration tool MURAL for helping groups to brainstorm, discuss, and co-create while everyone is working from home. We love augmenting the canvas with illustration, to create an inviting, friendly, creative space where people feel like they want to contribute. And when combined with graphic recording (remote scribing), MURAL can be host to some truly inspiring collaborative efforts. Don't hesitate to reach out if you'd like to hear more about how tools like graphic recording and MURAL can combine to create a creative, collaborative space! Featured Video: Victorian Law ReformThe Victorian Law Reform Commission is the central agency for law reform in Victoria. The Commission are doing amazing work consulting with the community to advise the Attorney-General on how to improve and update Victorian laws. One of their latest projects was to assist the Victorian Government in finding ways make it easier for people who have been sexually assaulted to get justice. We worked with the team from the Commission to create a video that could be used to engage the community and ask for feedback from people who have had similar experiences. We're very proud of how we visualised this sensitive and important topic. If you'd like to find out more, visit the Victorian Law Reform website. And be sure to watch the video online, featuring Sarah's beautiful illustrations. Sketch School: Your Home for Sketching TipsI am sure you're familiar with the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words." This is a concept that we take very seriously. Words will always have a place, but something they just don't cut it. Being able to communicate visually means you can avoid overcomplicating things, and you can deliver clarity with your message or vision or bridge language barriers. A good place to start with honing this skill is by practicing sketching words or phrases. Recently we've started throwing the Sketch School community a couple of challenges to hone their visual communication skills. If you're brave enough, share them with us in reply to this email or post them in the Sketch School channel! It's fascinating to see how differently we all think and how many unique ways there are to portray the same concept. Challenge 1. "bat above your weight" Here's one way to tackle this problem: We also thought we'd share a sketch by one of our community members. Amazing job James McKennay! Challenge 2. "Strategy". Here are a couple of examples that we came up with. How would you visualise this word? Visual Problem FramingA friend of ours (and the first guest on our podcast), Ben Crothers, recently released an amazing video on using visuals to solve problems. We think it's a great place to start when looking for easy and effective ways to apply your sketching and visualisation skills within your own profession. 6 Guiding Principals for Creating Successful Training VideosIf you're involved in developing training material, this is a must-read! We summarised some of the biggest challenges we've faced in our last 10 years making videos, and offer up our tips for navigating them so you can create training videos that are a roaring success. The article delves into:
Check out the full article on our website. We hope you find it useful! That's all for now! Reach out any time if you have questions or need assistance. Stay safe, and well 😊 |