Embrace absurdity.

How? By asking questions.

Questions are pathways that fuel our creativity.

What if our cliché became a food ingredient?

Could we consume it?

Could we use it to describe a specific dish?

Could it be how we talk about food or how food speaks to us?

Could it serve as an element for data visualization?

Every question we ask opens up a world of possibilities to explore.

Visual thinking isn't about clustering a bunch of icons together.

There needs to be intention, a message, and a context.

What keyword or short phrase could you associate with this image?

If you're interested in learning Visual Thinking through Metaphors without resorting to clichés, leave your details on my website, and I'll notify you as soon as enrollment opens.

Thank you,

Dario Paniagua
Visual Thinkers Coach

One of the many ways to create metaphors is through substitution. 

It involves replacing an element in a scene with something completely different from what people would expect to see. This disruption creates the metaphor.

To make the substitution more effective, it's helpful to provide context. 

This highlights the evidence that an object is out of place. 

Every time we create disruption, we're prompting people to stop and pay attention to our message.

But here's the key: disruption is created with intention. 

The handles on this subway were replaced with speech bubbles to convey a message. 

What message? 

That's where you can help me out. 

What are they trying to tell us? Why are people leaning on them?

Would you like to suggest a keyword or short phrase for this scene?

You can join the membership that teaches you Visual Thinking through Metaphors without resorting to clichés, using the limited-time code "MAYBIRDS".

If you have any doubts or questions, I'm here.

Thank you,
Dario Paniagua
Visual Thi...

The power of shadows.

Shadows serve as a powerful tool for crafting metaphors, adding an extra layer of meaning that enhances the intended message.

They often subtly convey what the image doesn't explicitly state, prompting a second look and capturing the audience's attention.

Did you know there are 7 different methods for manipulating shadows to convey symbolic messages?

If you're interested in learning more, simply leave your details on my website, and I'll notify you when enrollment for the metaphor membership reopens.

Thank you,

Dario Paniagua
Visual Thinkers Coach

Cliché icons often go unnoticed because they're predictable images we've seen countless times.

However, that doesn't mean we shouldn't use them.

I'll give you three tips so that every time you use clichés, you can still capture your audience's attention:

1) Integrate them into a story:

What prominent role can you assign to that cliché to make it a central part of your visual narrative?

2) Mix them or combine them with another element:

Can you blend them, join them, or even replace them with another element? Notice how, in this case, the speech bubble's shape is cleverly utilized to simultaneously serve as the classic airplane window.

3) Make a chromatic or tonal change compared to the surrounding elements.

A small change in color, value, or tone can be enough for a graphic element to stand out significantly, even if it's the smallest element in the scene.

These are the types of content you can learn in the first Membership that teaches you Visual Thinking thr...

Every hole, every empty space can be a shape we can play with. 

Play what? We're playing with giving it a new shape and a new meaning. 

But what's going on in this image? Everything and nothing. 

This image could be full of meaning or have absolutely no meaning at all depending on who looks at it and how they interpret it. 

When we want to anchor what we want to say, we use keywords close to an image. 

On the other hand, when we want people to assign their own meaning to an image, we don't associate any phrase or word, and what people will interpret will depend on two things: Their personal past experiences and their culture of origin. 

By the way, what keyword or short sentence would you connect to this image?

These are the types of tips and knowledge we learn in the first Membership that teaches you Visual Thinking through non-cliché metaphors. 

You can enroll on this site for a limited time, and use the early bird code MAYBIRDS to access a discount.

Thank you 

Dario Paniagua
Visual Thinkers Co...

Each drawing we create is like a tiny storybook.

Every person, and every action we draw tells a story.

But what really grabs your attention is when things take an unexpected turn.

In Visual Thinking, these unexpected twists are what we call disruptions.

Imagine this: two people are talking in a drawing. It seems simple, right? But what makes it interesting is the disruption — that surprising moment that makes the story more exciting.

Disruptions in art Visual Thinking happen in different ways. It might be a surprising action, something that happens unexpectedly.

Or it could be a surprising setting, a background that's different from what you'd expect. For example, think about a scene where one person asks another for help.

The disruption isn't the request for help, but the surprising part is that the other person says no.

Disruptions aren't just about actions. The setting is important too.

Picture a place where two speech bubbles come together, makin...

A simple question about our clichés can open up a world of possibilities to explore.

What lies behind a cliché?

What does it hide or cover?

These were the questions I asked myself to create this metaphor, and they are exactly the same questions you can ask yourself every time you encounter an element that you continue to repeat.

Why is self-inquiry crucial?

Because the responses you uncover will become short visual stories or messages, effectively transforming any cliché into a potent metaphor.

Unlocking the Power of Self-Inquiry

When creating metaphors, self-inquiry is the key that opens the door to creative symbolism. It prompts us to dig deeper, to question the surface, and to make emerge hidden visual gems.

From Cliché to Compelling Tale

Asking these questions not only leads to a deeper understanding but also uncovers the stories waiting to be told. Each response becomes a building block for narratives that resonate, messages that stick, and metaphors that truly come alive...

  The best way to unlock creativity and craft powerful metaphors is by embracing absurdity.

Consider this: Visual metaphors are rooted in the realm of the impossible. They encapsulate scenarios and elements that defy logic, inviting us to look beyond the confines of the rational world.

It's precisely this characteristic that often leaves us intrigued, capturing our attention.

Starting from a purely logical standpoint can be a stumbling block to the process.

A visual metaphor always involves impossible situations. That's why we struggle to create them if we approach them with a rational thinking.

If we begin from a logical approach, it becomes challenging to break free from conventional solutions.

A Practical Exercise: Embrace Absurdity

1. Imagine any situation without the constraint of making perfect sense.
   
   

2. Sketch it! (Sketchnoting your dreams can be an excellent training exercise for inspiration.)
   
   

3. Connect your picture to a keyword or a short sentence.
   
   

...

Have you ever noticed how easy it is for our brains to overlook the familiar?

A speech bubble remains a speech bubble, until you unlock its hidden potential through a simple yet powerful technique. In our daily lives, we encounter symbols that have become almost second nature to us.

Cliché symbols serve their purpose, but over time, they become background noise in our visual landscape.

Our brains have a remarkable ability to filter out the commonplace.

Imagine for a moment, though, that you have the power to disrupt this pattern. That you can give a new life to the most ordinary symbol.


It all begins with a single question:

"Can I use it in other ways?"

This simple question holds the potential to be a game-changer in how we perceive and utilize symbols. It invites us to step beyond the boundaries of convention, prompting a fresh exploration of possibilities.

Suddenly, that speech bubble is no longer limited to its traditional role. It becomes a canvas for c...

Learning things from other visual arts is always essential to enrich our visual thinking. So that's why today we will learn from movies, specifically from a tremendous director, Alfred Hitchcock.

Hitchcock pioneered visual rules in cinema, which I will show you today.

There are some specific techniques he invented that we can apply to our visual thinking to make our messages more visually compelling.

RELY ON VISUALS, NOT TEXT

Very few people know that Hitchcock, in his beginnings, made some silent films.  Because, in that period, there was no voice track, these films showed dialogue with printed words on the screen that interrupted the sequence flow.

That's where Hitchcock learned to tell the stories with the camera to minimize the number of titles that would interrupt the scene.

He used to say this

We should resort to dialogue only when it's impossible to do otherwise.

How do you apply that to your visual thinking?

Add text to your sketchnotes only when it's necessary...