As a kid, the walls and door of my room resembled giant bulletin boards that I crafted in a patch work of collages. The door looked like it had been decoupaged. You can get a sense of what my room looked like from this picture of my office wall.
I loved to doodle and make home made birthday cards for relatives. People used to, and still do, complement my hand writing, and I did the calligraphy for our wedding invitations.
Listening to lectures and talks, unless the speaker is dynamic or I take notes, has always been difficult. Same goes for listening to lengthy podcasts.
In my early twenties I took classes at the School of Visual Arts in NYC, and my first two jobs provided opportunity to focus on layout and design. It quickly became apparent to me, however, that my strengths were elsewhere, as I was more people-oriented than design-oriented.
Teaching combines my interests in people and visual design, coupling daily personal interaction with the presentation and design enabled by teaching and computers.
I marvel at the sketchbooks my husband fills with doodles, tinkerings, thoughts and words. His SketchUp designs are both digital doodles and fully formed creations.
Every time I’ve participated in a drawing workshop – Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain or the CAIS sessions on visual thinking led by Dave Gray – my brain has been (re)ignited. Garr Reynolds’ Presentation Zen blog and book by the same name and Nancy Duarte’s blog slide:ology and book are among my favorite resources.
And all of the above is why I took the plunge and participated in yesterday’s Global Online Visual Thinking workshop. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but you can be sure the experience will find its way into my blog!
Neurons Firing 