“Thought-To-Shape” Illustration 2011

The Thought

By 2011, I more and more often found myself do this process of giving shape to people’s thoughts. And: I found it hard to describe to people (and even to myself  at the time) what it was that I did. So I wondered if I could break this process up into steps and visualise them.

The Shape

I created this illustration and had it up on my website to explain what I do and what people can get out of working with me.

At the time, I called this process “Drawing and Designing in Process” and I noticed recurring steps in the process:

1. Deeply listening to people
2. Taking visual notes
3. Having visual conversations
4. Creating process formats, images and tools that allow widening the circle of people involved and invite engagement to further shape out the thoughts, for instance in workshops or during events
5. Creating more final pieces of design output, such as products, books, pieces of art, web pages, etc. for communication

These steps still describe very well my process of giving shape to your thoughts!