From Photo to Icon

December 16, 2022

The Art of Applied Visual Thinking

The official newsletter of Applied Visual Thinking SUPERHEROES. Vol. 3 No. 25 December 16, 2022

With the year soon coming to a close, I have been thinking about goals. Specifically, I have been thinking about working backwards to get to a desired outcome. In a recent newsletter, I wrote about how to develop icon ideas starting from a fine art image. Now I'd like to share a related idea. If you share the goal of building your visual vocabulary and icon library, keep reading to learn how a photograph can spark visual thinking.

To be clear, by “visual thinking” I am including creative idea generation that can enhance your communication with anyone — family members, partners, colleagues, customers or clients. At AVT, we teach you how to use simple drawing methods to capture and spark conversation. Here we'll look at how choosing a photo as a starting point can provide a different path into a lush forest of discussion.

Here's the story.

I was walking around the block with the dog, as I frequently do. What was different that day was that it was the first day that a ton of leaves had fallen from the trees. It was a sunny day after a blustery one, so many of the leaves in gorgeous fall colors were clustered in bright, shiny piles. Kade is only a year and a half old, so this is only his second fall in New England, his first as an adult dog. He was enthralled with everything, and his excitement rubbed off on me.

photo of dog looking up outdoor stone and brick staircase. There are red leaves on each step.

Marigold bridge
Rose petal path
Uncertain future
Aim high
Follow your instincts
Follow the signs
The path less traveled
Keep going
Nowhere to go but up
Path to success
When in doubt, trust and take a step forward

Many of the houses on our side of the street have a flight or two of steps up to the front doors. One of these sets of steps had a small pile of red leaves on each stair at least as far up as one could see from the bottom. The image reminded me of the "marigold bridge" from the movie Coco, which was inspired by the prevalence of marigolds in Mexican celebrations of Dia de los Muertos (day of the dead). The bridge and the marigolds symbolize the path between the lands of the living and the dead.

What other ideas, metaphors, concepts, or images might this photo evoke? Check out my list next to the image. Does it make you think of others? How do you imagine using an image and metaphor to get your point across?

Here's the big idea. Find a photograph that interests you. See how many meanings it can take on.

From Photo to Icon Exercise

Find a simple but thought-provoking photo and display it as large as possible so you can see the details.

The whole exercise shouldn’t take more than about 10 minutes.

Drawing of a staircase. A rose lies at the bottom, petals are strewn on the steps and at the top is a yellow banner that says

1. Take a breath, clear your mind.

2. Set a 2-minute timer and list the things you see in the photo (think "just the facts") — objects, colors, shapes, cropping or perspective — anything that catches your eye. Don't stop moving your pen. If you see it, write it down.

3. Set a 2-minute timer and come up with as many responses to the following fill-in-the-blank sentence as you can. Use both your list and the photo as inspiration. "This ___ makes me think of ___." Try for 10-20 ideas. See the start of my lists below.

4. Read through your sentences and circle the one that gets you the most intrigued.

5. Make a very rough sketch that shows the aspect of the image that reminded you of the idea you circled. For example, the red leaves reminded me of rose petals at a wedding or fancy gala.

6. Finally, look at your sketch and dream up a list of what it could represent as a symbol or icon for you or your team. In my sketch, I changed the leaves to rose petals and added a banner at the top of the stairs that says, "congratulations." This could represent a "big win" for a team or client.

Stairs make me think of up, elevate, path, unknown. Leave make me think of rose petals. Railing makes me think of help, guidance, balance. Brick makes me think of solid, firm, orderly. Dog makes me think of curiosity, exploration, fun.

OR... (especially great for leaders, trainers,
coaches and facilitators)

Next time you need to blow the top off a sticky problem, generate some totally new solutions or kick off a set of challenging conversations, find a simple but thought-provoking photo (or 3, 5, 10 or 20!) and display them as large as possible so that everyone involved can see the details. Use the "This ___ makes me think of ___." prompt to start the ideas flowing.