“Thinking visually and prototypically”

An inside look at my process. I think visually. I process graduate studies visually, from doodling on a page, mapping an idea, structurally fitting the part, to penning “to do” lists. I was trained to think that way, combined with a natural inclination towards visual thought. It is my process of fine art drawing ( of course with lots of room for spontaneity and conceptual impulses ).

The process fared me well during my years in the advertising industry and still fares me well in all project management from creating artwork to exhibitions, media, publicity, and graduate studies. My “back to school” journey is beginning to take a much sharper focus in the form of a project portfolio and a final applied research project. Most of my computer work in research is textual. It’s not easy to keep “the large picture” in view, so I create visual maps.

My entries are organized and each document is recorded in the appropriate course folder with duplicates copied to other folders. I keep one massive folder called “research library.” It’s a lot of information, but I can “see” enough to be able to find it when I need it. Sometimes it’s very intimidating and I am overwhelmed by the amount of information I have gathered.

To take my visual thinking another step, I decided to create a prototype of the final research project in the form of a website. When the time is right, I will transfer applicable content from the prototype to the website and direct its “traffic” to the actual applied research project itself. And yes, I have called the project portfolio BIG MACT complete with a picture of a big juicy hamburger. MACT is the acronym for my graduate program. Thinking visually or prototypically is like architecture ( whether online or in real time ). I have a visual idea what the whole thing ( research project ) should look like, but the time is now to examine each component carefully and build a sustainable structure ( context ) based on all the courses towards a satisfactory end result. At least that’s the plan, or should I say “the drawing?”
The picture I took is one of a gale force wind blowing on our island shores yesterday.