Visualization

Challenge & Selection

I often use visualizations in my own or group work. This method helps us to better understand  what a person wants to show and how he represents future images. With the help of visualization,  I can recognize a person, his soaps and ideas. I am an environment designer and at the University  we often work in groups to create a common project. Recently at the lesson we were given the  task to create a museum space and it was necessary to do it in a group. All my colleagues are  creative people and sometimes it is diﬃcult to understand through words what idea or image is  being formed. To solve this problem, I used the method of visualizing thoughts. This approach  includes a research of the future topic, analysis of the idea and sketch of the future project. The  sketch can be made on paper in the form of a drawing or as a 3D design (any imaginative  approach is an excellent solution). In the process, the group clearly demonstrates its train of  thought, gives others the opportunity to learn how to present a project and helps develop visual  culture, which is especially useful for a designer.

Application

I begin the visualization method with a detailed analysis of the future topic. To do this, you need to  use various Internet resources or books that contain information about the authors, existing  projects, descriptions, etc. Most often I ﬁnd the right material on the art web-sites on the Internet.  These sources are always open, which simpliﬁes the search process.

After a general study, I suggest creating "tags" for the project. A person writes all the words and  phrases that he associates with the chosen topic. They write down all the words in the form of  tree branches, creating a system that can be linked together in meaning and ﬁnd a new incredible  image for a future project. This serves as a template or basis for the work. Then you can proceed  to the visualization of the received phrases.

For our project about museums, we printed out all our ideas, "tags", visualizations and combined  all the best in them into a single whole. The whole group analyzes each work and analyzes what  went well and badly in the project. Sometimes we can immediately cut and connect objects to  each other. So, we have a new project that has gathered all the ideas, ﬁndings and visual part.

Insight & Approach    I have worked with several groups using this method and realized that this approach helps to  unite the team, listen to everyone, creates an opportunity for each member of the group to speak  out, this is very important for teamwork. Feedback, discussions and criticism allow you to learn  from mistakes and make the next project better, since the visual part remains with each person in  the form of an artifact. Every time a person wants to remember how he reasoned last time, they  will be able to ﬁnd visualizations and understand what was good and bad in the project. This  develops the visual culture of a creative person and helps in future work.

I found that the most important point is the exchange of ideas and the creation of a common  sketch in the group, so next time you can devote the main amount of time to this. Then the  collective work can be used in the future as a model for other groups.

