The Writer's Toolbox

Writing for Visual Thinkers

A guide for artists and designers

The Writer’s Toolbox:

Writing can help work through the process phase of a visual project, and it can later serve as a reflective tool. Writing through out the process of designing can help teach and learn skills that can improve your communication for presenting projects, proposals, letters, and even commentary.

A great way to give visual form to one’s ideas is to create a mind map. The point of the mind map is to get one’s ideas down quickly, then one can organize the best ideas with color coding, sketches, and adding dimension into these diagrammatic maps. There are the traditional written mind maps or the software mind maps. The traditional mind maps can be developed anywhere and will most likely have a variety of thoughts with connections. The software maps can allow a person to add details and information onto the map with certain links. Either program, one ends up with the mind map looking like a web, lines connecting to each idea.

Another visual technique is the concept map. Concept maps can be very similar to mind maps but the concept map allows for a more thorough investigation and analysis of conceptual connections and meaning. The maps start out with general ideas but then slowly becomes specific, each word is joined by a propositional statement/phrase, creating a system of meaning within the map. After the concept map is completed it is interesting to review how the concepts developed and one might have to return and recreate in order to make the relationships and connections more clear.

Freewriting can also be an easy way to get your thoughts organized on paper. There are two types of free writing: unfocused and focused. The unfocused form allows one to simply put words on paper in response to a general thought, this is very similar to journaling so it can be very expressive with feelings or emotions toward something. Focused writing is addressing a specific question. Freewriting can be difficult to master but putting some time aside in the day and letting thoughts flow will allow one to learn and improve. This can also be similar to brain writing, which is more like brainstorming where one continues to build off the initial idea, creating a more refined ideas along the way until one sticks.

The last technique is the word list: building off of a general term and becoming more descriptive/metaphoric with the terms. This also allows one to see various relationships within a central hub. Examining the results is the process of narrowing down to the essentials, the ones that really stand out and it is possible that they could lead you to another examination that will turn out to be more thorough.