Visual Communication: ITAP Lecture 1

THE RVJ
Draw. Work by hand.

One of the most effective ways to express and visualize ideas is drawing them. It is totally different from working on a computer or camera. The relation and connection between your eyes and hand help to communicate. The message is easy and breaks down language barriers. The audience can see the process of thinking, intention and context of the idea. Pablo Picasso: ,,I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else’’. Drawing allows reflect ideas, it doesn’t need to be perfect, it is not for Art. Drawing is thinking – not making a picture. The purpose is to draw the thoughts, inspirations and explore them later- make the ideas better and better. Leonardo has developed his ideas by ,,thinking on the page’’, basically drawing them.

Leonardo da Vinci

It also helps to find the right direction of the idea by asking questions: ,,What if?’’ ; ,,Why?’’ ; ,,Who is it for?’’ etc. A reflective visual journal is the best way to keep the record of everything what is on our mind and help to remember ideas. Drawing is personal analysis, it is a visually organised creative play. It can be useful to go back to RVJ after some time and develop the ideas. Many practitioners use that method and truly express the meanings of their ideas e.g. Danny Gregory or Tommy Kane.

Danny Gregory


Tommy Kane

It is also worthwhile to experiment, to draw with fabric like Lizzie Finn an English illustrator and art director who created unique artwork using a variety of materials.

Lizzie Finn

We carry negative thoughts about drawing which might be misleading. The truth is that drawing helps to free up our self-consciousness. RVJ creates a safe environment to grab the opportunity and get over ourselves.

Develop Visual Language

Developing visual language explore the concept that ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ and as importantly aids understanding of associations or connections of different elements of the idea. An aid to many aspects of creative thinking, ideas development and even challenges such as exam revision. The principles of using pictures or visual language as the primary tool makes learning development and general thinking easier.

Modern business uses this approach in many different ways. Mind mapping, or spider diagram as also known, aid the development of the idea establishing branches of main themes and then twigs as a smaller detailed extensions of the branch. It enables the individual to encapsulate the full extent of the thinking onto a single page. We can explore the work of Tony Buzan on mind mapping to fully understand the potential of this technique.

The introduction of ‘single point lessons’ where by a picture would be taken to capture a specific function or action, developed into a set of pictures to cover an entire process proved to be an effective tool to improve learning and understanding.

It is highly effective and efficient way of developing of a concept or idea without the need to create the continuous prose of text that the mind sometimes neither wants to or is able to absorb. The end result ‘imprinted’ upon the mind making recollection much easier and by remembering the connections, branches and twigs, the explanations and expansion of the idea purposeful.