Using negative space isn't just a clever way to play with shapes; it's a fantastic opportunity to tell a story.

Always keep in mind, it's not just about being creative or drawing well. It's about crafting messages that truly resonate with your audience.

A great message won't be noticed unless you capture attention with your visual thinking.

Let me share three tips to help you achieve this:

1. Create disruption.
    

2. Use that disruption to craft a compelling narrative.
   
   

3. Intentionally leave gaps that prompt your audience to fill in the blanks.
   
   

Why is the woman breaking the glass? Why did the shattered mirror create a speech bubble? What message does this scene convey?

When your audience starts asking these questions, you've already sparked engagement and, whether clear or not, you're getting a message across.

If you're interested in mastering Visual Thinking through metaphors, without resorting to clichés, you can enroll in my Metaphors Membership.

There is a false belief that complexity equals value.

We often fall into the trap of thinking that if something sounds or appears complicated, it must possess more value or seriousness.

This misconception can lead us to prioritize the wrong aspects of the message we are trying to communicate or present.

But what exactly characterizes something as complicated?

When we break it down, we identify two key variables:

*Difficulty to Understand**:

Complex topics or processes are often challenging to grasp, requiring significant effort and specialized knowledge by your audience.

**Volume of Information**:

Usually, complexity comes with an overwhelming amount of information. It's the large quantity that can make something seem more valuable, even if it's not necessarily more difficult to understand.

The critical insight here is that quantity often weighs more than difficulty in our perception of complexity.

This means that we might be overvaluing detailed or information-heavy content ...

I continue to share brief content from the Metaphors Membership since enrollment closes today.

In this brief video, we discuss the differences between icons and metaphors and how both can help simplify information.

Icons helps us avoid language barriers. Icons don't get lost in details. They wouldn't work.

They communicate quickly with little.

Few lines, few elements, only the necessary ones to understand what they mean.

The last tool for simplifying is metaphors.

Visual Metaphors help to say more with a single image.

Metaphors are containers of disruptive meaning.

Last reminder: enrollment for the Visual Metaphors Membership at dariopaniagua.com closes tonight at 11:59 PM CET TIME.

Don't miss out on your final opportunity to join our community and elevate your visual storytelling skills.

Thank you

Dario Paniagua
Visual Thinkers Coach

Many are still signing up for the Membership to learn Visual Thinking through Metaphors without resorting to clichés.

And when I say "no clichés," I don't mean you can't draw them.

Sure, we can draw them, but the trick is to transform them to make them impactful, so they don't just fade into the background.

Take a look at this scene: a pirate with all the classic clichés - the eyepatch, the parrot, even a speech bubble.

But what saves this image is a little twist and a story.

The twist? The eyepatch also works as a speech bubble, creating an interaction between all these clichés that triggers a story in the audience's mind.

What's the pirate thinking?

What's the parrot saying?

Why is the parrot speaking through the eyepatch?

Can you think about any of these answers?

When the audience engages with our visual stories like this, that's when we're truly crafting effective visual thinking.

And that's just a taste of all the things you can learn in...

 It's important that we seek new approaches for turning a basic cliché into attention-grabbing metaphors.

Even if we think we've exhausted all possibilities, shifting our perspective can spark new ideas.

Try sketching your cliché from an angle you haven't explored before.

What does it look like from above?

How about from below?

Or what if you draw just a part of it?

As you explore these new angles, you also open up the possibility of making other connections that you didn't see before.

For instance, drawing the cliché from above inspired the creation of a mortarboard hat.

Don't get discouraged by the idea that you don't know what you're communicating. People will always find meaning.

Let's give it a shot!

Think about what short phrase or keyword would you link to this scene?

If you're interested in mastering Visual Thinking through metaphors without resorting to clichés, you can sign up on my website.

Thank you,

Dario Paniagua
Visual Thin...

The necessary tools to be a good visual communicator are already there by default.

You used them perfectly well until you were 6 years old, and then school added endless variables and complications that eroded your capacity to be simple.

Simple doesn't mean poor in the sense of a low or inferior standard or quality.

There's a definition of simple that associates the word with something ordinary or common.

I'm not referring to that.

I mean something is simple when it's clear, concise, and understandable.

In visual thinking, we have many techniques that help us say more with less.

You can learn all this in the first membership that teaches you Visual Thinking through metaphors without resorting to clichés.

Thank you

Dario Paniagua
Visual Thinkers Coach

There are 2 tips when dealing with small spaces

1) Use constraints to your advantage:

No matter how small the space we have to include an element, we can always tell stories.

Often, a constraint can work in our favor. In this case, the lack of space helps to add drama to the scene.

As you can see, there are actually no restrictions.

We can have very few elements and very little space, yet we can always tell a story.

2) Don't get lost in details.

There are other elements that should be included on the back of a credit card, but they don't need to be incorporated.

Stay minimalist in the number of elements you draw.

Once the object is recognizable, there's no need to keep adding things.

If you're interested in learning Visual Thinking through metaphors without resorting to clichés, you can check my website.

Thank you,

Dario Paniagua
Visual Thinkers Coach

Visual quantity creates visual noise. It's impossible to process all the information we're exposed to today.

That's why we've become very good at filtering out what doesn't interest us.

The most important thing to learn in Visual Thinking isn't learning to draw, or having an endless library of images or icons at our disposal.

The most important thing in visual thinking is learning to subtract.

This means you don't have to add things to your knowledge.

The necessary tools to be a good visual communicator are already there by default. You used them perfectly well until you were 6 years old.

In the Metaphors course, every technique you learn is based on this principle: it doesn't matter what drawing style your metaphors have; what matters is that they contain a single, simple, disruptive element with a message.

These are just some of the many concepts you can learn in the first Membership Course that teaches Visual Thinking through metaphors without resorting t...

We don't need to complicate things to make a cliché interesting to observe.

While we often can transform the cliché, manipulate its shape, put things inside it, mix it with other elements, change its perspective, etc., we can also make it interesting with some minimalist actions.

I want you to note three things about this image.

1) The position:

The cliché isn't blended with the person; it's simply positioned in front of them. However, this positioning automatically groups them into one entity.

2) The interaction:

The person behind the cliché makes a movement, and the cliché is subtly modified as a result.

3) The association of shapes:

The oval cliché corresponds to the shape of the muscle. When we connect elements by color or shape, we also associate their meanings.

By the way, what is the person saying?

What is the muscle saying?

If you want to learn Visual Thinking through metaphors without resorting to clichés, you can sign up on my website.

Than...

A cliché is an image so recognizable that even if we show only a part of it and give it little visual hierarchy (for example, drawing it much smaller than the surrounding objects), it will still be recognizable.

Remember, we can have different variables to transform a cliché into an interesting element. In this image, we see these:

1) The cliché is in a context, a story around it.

2) We show only a part of it.

3) We hide or reduce it.

4) We duplicate it.

The four points above are hooks. Hooks to capture attention.

These are the types of concepts you learn every week in the Metaphor Membership. Remember that if Enrollment is closed, you can leave your details on the website, and I'll let you know when it reopens.

Thank you,

Dario Paniagua
Visual Thinkers Coach