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25 Years of EdTech
25 Years of EdTech
Martin Weller, Professor at the UK’s Open University, got in touch regarding the aesthetic for a book he was earnestly applying the finishing touches to – 25 Years of EdTech.
Of course, as Martin knows, the Visual Thinkery process means that together we’ll create 10 book covers, as well as anything else we pick up along the way. This includes even suggesting alternative titles for the book (which is outrageous, when you think about it) but even this creates a different lens to get an alternative glimpse through.
Interestingly, the first idea was the one that eventually stuck:
But there are a few others that I think deserve an honourable mention. I was tickled by the idea of a relationship between parent and child (but I want to go this way!)
And it’s not long before I’m drawing robots. (And then the world of assessment will be miiiiiiiine!)
I like “The Web Years” as it reminds me of the common biographical strapline (the wonder years, the wilderness years…) and suggests that there has always been some sort of technology in Education, but only recently has it involved the web. Here we go again, here we go go go to the temple of consumption… (apologies – you probably didn’t need reminded of that song…)
ISDN – Now that will change everything…
We’re never far from someone taxonomising all the things. But not me – I’m more of an alchemist…
In reflection, there were small elements from a number of these ideas that made their way into the final cover. Some consciously, and others less so.
Now Remix this…
As part of the promotion of the book, AU Press asked if would be possible to create a remixable front cover. So I (Bryan) set about separating the visual elements so that they could be remixed using the Fabulous Remixer Machine. Hair highlights, skin tone, background – but maybe more importantly the text on the glasses and the strapline at the bottom. Have a go!
And Finally…
Quite often ideas appear as mini-stories in 3-panelled comic strip format. A couple of these made it into the book. I don’t think it matters what the content relates to, there is always a place for visual humour…
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GO-GN
GO-GN
I love a wide brief. Getting people together, and using dialogue to see what we can be unearthed. GO-GN is a postgraduate research programme, connecting and furthering those involved in researching Open Education. They asked if I could help with a brand refresh, and create a set of visual assets along the way.
In order to capture all the voices, we took the approach of facilitating two conversations: one for participants and a second for the GO-GN team.
Ideas
A rich conversation also leads to many ideas. My aim is always to capture as many of them as quick sketches.
Creating a Visual Language
The trouble is, creating a fresh brand for an organisation is tricky. In some ways it’s like buying a bold new coat. Liking it isn’t enough. You’ve actually got to wear it. What are you as an organisation trying to say? To whom are you trying to say it? If you find an aesthetic that fits well enough, it can be used as a visual language, to communicate a feel which is sub-consciously absorbed.
One of the prompts in our discussion used a poster-making technique to unearth ideas from the participants on the call. An idea emerged relating to “the golden age of travel”, which led to us nailing down a bold visual language. It’s quirky yet intentional. It has momentum built in.
Listening with your eyes open
Video conversations underpin the Visual Thinkery 10 ideas process. By seeing someone as they talk, it’s possible to hear a richer voice. One of the participants in the call, Caroline Kuhn, used this gesture while speaking of the care and respect that exists in the GO-GN network. And it had to be drawn…
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UNEA4
UNEA4 – #BreakFreeFromPlastic
There’s something about working with activists. They speak from the heart. I find them very easy to listen to – to tune in to. They’re often great storytellers too – and stories describe pictures…
The brief was to create visual assets for United Nations Environment Agency summit in Nairobi, Kenya.
Dialogue
Our virtual session spanned the globe. Jane was already in Nairobi at the pre-summit, and Jed was organising from the Philippines, and sketched and scribbled in London.
The number of ideas betrays the richness of the conversation – and we had no trouble creating collaborative ideas to that we felt people could align to.
Distill
Humour disarms, even if it’s sometimes pretty dark. I often listen out for those bits of insight that sit behind the humour as they’re often pictorial. Here’s some of the final artwork we created:
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API Evangelist
API Evangelist
The thing I love about this sort of work, is that there is so much to be learned from other people. Kin Lane (aka API Evangelist) knows what he’s talking about when it comes to APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). Not just how they work, or how to build them, but how they’ve evolved and the impact they can have.
Kin asked if I would help evolve the visual identity for API Evangelist.
Dialogue
We arranged a remote video session (Kin was in Los Angeles, whilst I’m based in London) and to make sure that I caught as much of what Kin was saying as possible, I recorded our video conversation for good measure. That way, I can go back through the conversation and let it dribble over my creative brain during the sketching phase of the process. I didn’t want our ideas to be restricted by my lack of API knowledge, and being a former software engineer, I’m very interested in this domain too…
Here are a few sketches the session:
Artwork
Finding a visual identity is not easy. Like a new pair of shoes, how you see them changes as they become part of you. There’s much “stepping into it” required. Also, we’re trying to create something bigger than the person behind it, as its purpose will be to provide a stage not just to speak from, but to build other scenes on top of.
…and finally
Humour is often a great indicator of something worth creating. So when a thought tickles me, I try to capture it before it escapes. The artwork below came out of the conversation with Kin, and as a mash-up also allowed be to explore and understand some of Roy Lichtenstein’s work. This artwork ended up as a sticker and can be found on the back of my laptop. 🙂
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CMALT Principles
CMALT Principles – a visual language
I always love working with ALT members. Openness is baked into whatever they do, so if I’m trying to capture ideas from dialogue, there is no shortage of members to get involved.
ALT asked if I would help them create a visual language for their CMALT programme, starting with the CMALT core principles.
Dialogue
ALT helpfully organised two remote dialogue sessions (using Google Hangouts), in order to involve a range of people in the collaborative process. Taking each of principles in turn, we discussed members’ understanding of each principle’s meaning and captured it using a live drawing method.
Here are the outputs of both sessions:
As you might spot, different voices produce a different conversation. Principles tend to have a degree of constructive ambiguity, resulting in multiple aligned but varied personal meanings. Of course, the more angles you can view an abstract principle from, the more chance of finding a visual metaphor that might fit.
Distill
The next step is to take those rough ideas and create a number of distilled ideas. This process culminated in the following three routes:
Artwork
The rough sketches allow us to see which of the ideas resonate, and how we can take them further. In the end, we settled on a mash-up of two of the routes. Here’s the final artwork:
Using a visual language to articulate the core principles of our professional accreditation scheme has had real impact: candidates are now much clearer about what the principles are, more advocates have been able to use the artwork to promote the scheme and there is a stronger visual and strategic connections between this and the overall vision of the Association.
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