ITAP #4

Draw. Work by hand

A reflective visual journal is in essence a safe place to nurture and develop ideas. It’s a tool to enable the user to engage with the creative process as a learning journey. Perfection doesn’t matter in an RVJ, it’s about thinking visually, thinking by drawing, thinking out loud. Take designer Stefan Sagmeister for example, just from this one page you can tell that he’s exploring ideas, using images to speculate over design. Aside from traditional image making, I like Ken Carbone’s journal because it’s visually answering questions he’s asking, but also showing that RVJ’s really don’t have to be purely hand-drawn in. They’re a visual tool, so any form of image making can be included as a way to help you progress mentally and practically with your ideas.

Cultivate reflective practice

A reflective visual journal is a place to think. The user can use it to engage, question, evaluate, challenge, compare, contrast…etc. Brief notes should be made to record their critical reflection at all stages of the process. Although text can be visual as well, the critical reflection shouldn’t be an essay. Accompanying text to a paragraph at the most, as more can take away from the ideas and images that you are writing about. Visual and textual languages have specific advantages and disadvantages, but they work together extremely well. Visual language represents the visual world, so is good at grabbing attention and provoking an emotional response, whereas textual language is good at providing specifics and detail. Though saying this, you can create a visual language from textual language as well. Nobody has the time to read through enormous amounts of text, so if it has to be in there make the key points known, make them obvious. Our brains aren’t very good at distinguishing how to feel about seeing a picture of something real and actually seeing the real thing as the emotions illicited are similar for both. Words can actually help us distinguish better. When reflecting on work it’s important to ask yourself questions, such as ‘what if?’, ‘what is useful?’ and ‘why?’. This can help you work out problems and allow you to move forward with certain ideas, as well as making the ideas stronger.