Visual Thinking School: Getting Ideas onto Paper

Topic: Getting Ideas onto Paper

Date: November 5, 2009
Run by: Matt Adams
Notes by: Matt Adams
Attendees: Michael Pearo, Brud Giles, Debbie Zetik-Kurz, Jennie Thede, Sean Cowne, Phillip, Kord Davis, Paul Thompson, Guonan, George Champlin, Tim Pfiffner, Matt Morasky, Brooke IllaHuston, Marvin Gaviola, Lyra Pitzman, Tim May, Matt Adams, Kerwin Carmbot

Libations: Coke Zero, Rolling Rock, Miller Highlife, Mirror Pond
Ingredients: Frameworks, whiteboards, chart markers, chart paper, 3x5 notecards, Postits

Agenda:

We had a great turnout today for the return of public VTS!

4:00 - Introduction

After attendees gathered and took their seats in the Ant room, we welcomed everyone and gave a brief background to the history and culture of Visual Thinking School at XPLANE.

4:05 - 2-minute Drawing Lesson

Marvin gave a quick drawing lesson using basic shapes proving, once again, the everyone can draw.

4:10 - Icebreaker

Everyone folded a notecard in half and wrote their name on one side. On the other side, using the techniques shown by Marvin, people drew stick-figure drawings of their favorite things to do in their spare time.

4:20 - Intro to Frameworks

Matt espoused the three main categories of the XPLANE visual content frameworks as a starting point for the upcoming group activities. Also shared were examples of how the frameworks were used for real projects.

4:30 - Breakout - Group Exercises

People split into five groups of three or four members and were directed to choose a Big Book of How topic as a starting point for their visual project. The groups then split up to different corners of the studio and got to work trying to figure out how to convert the copy-based explanations into compelling visuals using the frameworks as reference.