Here’s a simple question that can transform your next visual thinking project: Why are you sketching this out in the first place? You might think the answer is obvious. But …
Purpose, Not Pride
Recently I’ve been thinking about the barriers that keep us from making marks on the page, even when we know those marks will be helpful. One of the biggest that …
The Double Duty That Makes Notebooks So Powerful
When new ideas come to you, where do they go next? I address that question in one of the new lessons that I developed for the updated Verbal to Visual …
Collecting Models: A Tour Through My Old Sketchbooks
I’ve got this pile of sketchbooks that I haven’t looked at in years. These contain notes from books I’ve read, podcasts I’ve listened to, and my own project development over …
I’m Turning 40, and I’m Building Something New
In three months, I turn 40. That marks a decade of teaching visual thinking, and recently I’ve been asking myself: What comes next? What do I want the next decade …
What Good Models Do
A food forest is a specific type of permaculture that blends together a fruit and nut orchard with a vegetable and flower garden. I’ve known that I’ve wanted to grow …
What We Build
I’ve recently realized that the visual thinking programs that I run are about three things: 1. Building Skills We gather together for the purpose of building visual thinking skills, to …
The Three Shifts
To become a visual thinker requires three shifts. The first shift is from consumption to creation. This is the decision to not just passively take in new information, but actively create …
Models Bridge the Gap
You know that feeling of anxiety that you get when you take on a project that’s outside your realm of expertise? You don’t know what tools, materials, or skills you …
Establishing a Rhythm: Shipping Creative Work Consistently
I’ve been thinking lately about what it takes to develop, produce, and ultimately ship creative work. In my case, the specific creative work I focus on is making videos like …