The funny thing is, over thirty-five years later, I feel that ever more. The most exquisite visual creations need no words to explain or validate them.
The photo is of Sagrada Familia, my favourite manmade structure and one that has inspired me to write multiple posts here. No words necessary, simply visit it once in your lifetime, please.
When I was at University studying Accountancy and Computer Science, having realised I could not draw so had to give up dreams of being an architect, next door to where I studied was another part of the university, called Edinburgh College of Art. I got to know a number of students there. Often in late night “post pub” conversations in various student apartments, discussion turned to art. Often one or more art students would seek to explain, through historical background, analysis of colour, style etc, why a piece of art was beautiful, important, special. I think they thought I was a simpleton when I would stick to the thought that “I know beauty when I see it, it needs no explanation”.
The funny thing is, over thirty-five years later, I feel that ever more. The most exquisite visual creations need no words to explain or validate them.
This takes me to a mentoring conversation recently with one of my close friends on a business idea they had. They talked me through a powerpoint expressing the idea, passionately and at length. Now, this person is a gifted wordsmith too, yet they are also truly world class as a somebody who designs and creates objects of stunning visual beauty. After listening intently to their idea, when they asked for my feedback, it was to distil the idea down to a few images and let the visual speak.
Now, thanks to the wonders of twitter connections, I recently discovered “Sketchplanations“, (visit their site to subscribe)so today I’ll share two of them:
I hope in reading this post you may have a) decided to visit my site, and b) I’d love it if you subscribe to my email digest which collates daily posts and goes out each Tuesday and Friday. Oh, and once you are on the list, sometimes I send out thoughts only for subscribers as, well, you are in the tribe ;).
Beyond that, though, if you do visit my site regularly you will have noticed that we change the whole look of it recently, with the logo now being vertical and the “burger” on the right hand side. Quite a change from before and here is what Sketchplanator has to say about vertical logos:
Cough:
Ok, so that one was fun, and this one is a simple encapsulation of a core model for leaders for awareness then communications:
