Friday, January 18, 2019

The gift of thinking visually

I am primarily a word person. Having said this, I notice images. I love to play with design software. Photography is a special pleasure. And many museum visits in the last decades have diminished the exam anxiety-tedium-tension that many of us Indians grow up feeling around art. I even have photo blogs (yes, although some are secret and some I simply don't share).

Nevertheless, when I come here to write, I do not think about illustrations. I think about topics--when I am struggling, that's usually where I start and meander. I think about arguments or points I want to make. I think about structure. I do not think, now which picture can I post along with this?

I just started using Pinterest with a view to understanding how it can be used. Apparently it's a good way to direct traffic to your blog. But it needs an image. This is what has got me thinking about thinking visually.

Forget illustrating blogs as if they were picture books, one of the niftiest new ways to communicate is the infographic. A friend writes notes as if creating an infographic... brilliantly! I would like to do this. I can do posters. I can write factsheets. I can create presentation modules. But I cannot think like an infographic creator. How I wish I could! And no, it's not the software, because design programmes will do that for you--it's thinking through an idea visually.

Or maybe I can do this. In the meanwhile, I should probably find an illustration for this post... on the other hand, this is not a post for which I will be drumming up traffic anywhere. 

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