Stop wanting your tablet to be paper--embrace digital possibilities. Think both/and: reflections after my Chicago workshop
I am a both/and-kinda person.
I love paper!! I grew up keeping a diary as a child & I still use notebooks on a daily basis. I am definitely a pen, marker and pencil nerd. Aaaad at the same time I love working digitally! Embrace both/and-thinking & you will unleash exponential possibilities in your work. That is one of the takeaways I know that the participants got from my workshop in Chicago in October.
It was such a great gathering of yet one more group of curious professionals who are open to a mindshift as to how they are working and thinking visually. I have been experimenting with digital, analogue and blended methods for many years now and it was fulfilling to share what I have learnt. If you are interested in learning more, keep a lookout as I am in the midst of scoping places in the San Fransisco Bay Area for my next workshops in 2020 in January/February and in March in Amsterdam.
In the meantime, here are 3 tips from the many I share in my workshop:
1. Let the tech change the way you draw.
I went through a difficult time in my life at the same time as I got my first iPad. It was a 1st generation iPad that you had to draw on with a rubber-tipped stylus or your finger. I downloaded some drawing apps and settled on working with the Paper53 app & started drawing in a way I had never drawn before. Because I could not do what I had always done on paper, I simplified my drawing style and I discovered a new way of expressing myself. What should have been a limitation actually became a newfound freedom. It was a possibility to do things differently. So, I used colour, basic shapes and began to draw these autobiographical moments of holding on, recharging and finding resilience. In a period in my life that was fraught complexity and taking care of a family member—I found comfort in simplicity. The images above were all drawn on that 1st generation iPad. I called them Electric Doodles and posted them on my Tumblr!
So, play with the brushes, pens and tools available in your app. Stop wanting it to be like your trusty marker & paper! Let your drawing style adapt, evolve and change.
2. Explore what YOU CANNOT do on paper
At times, analogue methods & tools can be the most innovative or most suitable for the intention of the meeting. Other times, digital tools can provide engaging options. And when you have learnt to use both you can choose the option that best serves the context.
When you work digitally, you can:
use the photo, video & audio recording functions of your devices to create part of your visuals
capture content you might want to use later to double check the content of your visuals (during the breaks, for example)
take advantage of images that you have predawn to enable you to work faster live (See one of my older blog posts for more on this.)
create quick & easy animations
or gifs of content for added impact
When working digitally really go for it. Don’t fight it & see where that road takes you!
3. Adopt a both/and mentality.
You do not need to think that you have to choose between working digitally or working analogue. There is so much you can do in the interesting liminal space that exists between both mediums.
You don’t need to draw on a tablet to use digital methods. For example, you can break out your watercolours and project your drawing live & large with the aid of a document camera. I use an Ipevo. You can record the whole thing and edit the video after the event!
You can print your digital work using on or offsite printers or bring your own portable printer. Making your digital images analogue can serve a different purpose,
4. Get curious & experiment!
There are no rules. The goal for you is to serve the people in the room. That could mean helping your client to obtain their desired outcomes, being a critical listener, furthering understanding or any number of reasons you have been asked into the space. How you do any of these things is up to you!
Maybe you can find inspiration, meaning or a metaphor in the actual venue? Perhaps it is in the setup of the space? The way the speaker moves or interacts.
It can also be the technological possibilities that provide the new possibility of meaning-making.
Stay present. Stay open. Offers are everywhere. Say yes—and build on that.
P.S. A peek into my personal digital sketchbook
As I look back on some of my own professional development opportunities in 2019, I thought that I would include a few of the digital visual captures I have made for myself. Walking the talk, as they say.
The images below are from Kelvy Bird’s workshop at Briar Cliff Manor; USA in February 2019.
And these last images are some of the ones I made at this year’s IFVP Conference in Montclair, New Jersey, USA. (July/August 2019)
Next time, I will be reflecting on a three year project called Beyond Text, funded by the EU that ended this autumn—where my goal was to go for fail and discovered an enormous amount in the process!