WHAT IS VISUAL THINKING?

During our first lesson, we were asked “What is visual thinking?” I think that visual thinking is when you, for example, use a mood board to generate ideas, but there is more to it than that. The definition of the word ‘visual’ according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “something (such as a graphic) that appeals to the sight and is used for effect or illustration.” Therefore, visual thinking could be any form of thinking that you can see. It’s when you take note of a thought using either simple words or images and more.  

When researching visual thinking I came across a TED talk by Todd Cherches (2019) about the power of visual thinking. In the talk, Todd Cherches mentions two phrases which I understand their meaning better now that I have a better understanding of visual thinking. Cherches uses the phrases “I can see what you’re saying” and “a picture is worth a thousand words”. In the TED talk, he talks about the importance of visual thinking in our life and references to when he was in China and the only way to communicate was visually because of the language barrier.  He goes on to say that now a day's visuals are very important to get the attention you want because people are focused a lot on digital media. Cherches also says that it helps us remember and referencing the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words”.  

Mathias Jakobsen (2016), a writer for the website Medium, says “Visual thinking is not illustration! Visual thinking does not mean replacing the word “car” with a drawing of a car. And being a good visual thinker has absolutely nothing to do with your ability to draw.” As I said before you take note of a thought using words or images because words count as visual thinking. Jakobsen suggests practicing visual thinking by ‘putting things on paper’.

Page from my personal sketchbook.

Citations: 

Cherches, T. (2019). The Power of Visual Thinking. [video] Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/todd_cherches_the_power_of_visual_thinking [Accessed 18 Oct. 2019]. 

Gray, D. (n.d.). Visual Thinking. [online] Xplaner.com. Available at: http://www.xplaner.com/visual-thinking-school/ [Accessed 18 Oct. 2019]. 

Jakobsen, M. (2016). How do you define visual thinking? What is it? What is it not?. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/think-clearly-world-tour/how-do-you-define-visual-thinking-what-is-it-what-is-it-not-b52021a94c14 [Accessed 18 Oct. 2019]. 

"visual." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2019.Web. 18 October 2019.