Pen and paper: Visual Storytelling with Buro Brand
Can you draw? SURE YOU CAN!!
- Course length: Four hours
- Platform: Live, online
- Other participants: Managers within major banks & tech companies in the Netherlands
- My objectives: Learn how to space images on a page better; Develop icons and illustrations I can use in my work and branding
- Good fit?: 60%. I’m not sure this course will deliver a great return on my investment, because it wasn’t as relevant as I hoped to my specific goals. But the course was so fun and engaging, I learned a lot and really enjoyed using all the materials. Plus the course comes with a goodie box of pens and paper and a training booklet. Next I’d do their Graphic Recording course for more practical skills.
- Thinking of taking this course? Check out my feedback video.
Key learning points:
- Not sure if you can draw? Focus on icons.
Icons are our visual vocabulary; learn to draw common ones and you’ll always have a visual up your sleeve. While you can easily find icons via a Google image search, the spark is in combining icons to tell more of a story, so they add to and amplify each other in the service of the idea you’re communicating.
We had five minutes to draw six icons, as a warm-up at the training. Here are mine:
2. When planning a visual communication, think about the goal, or the type of response you hope to inspire in the audience, e.g. inspire, inform, activate.
3. A visual metaphor is a kind of framing that can bring to life a dry subject and stick in people’s minds. Common metaphors: road/roadmap, climbing a mountain, tip of the iceberg, a journey at sea, outer space… You can come up with a good metaphor by brainstorming adjectives around your topic (safe, challenging, reassuring, inspiring, uncertain…) or by using a random word generator. Then you can practice drawing some key drawings or icons for it. The rest is about organising the story in a way people can follow, by taking one of the common page layouts and adapting it to your metaphor.
This course is part of my DIY Master’s in Applied Social Innovation. It’s a Master’s course I designed for myself! Join the journey here.
