Visual thinking workshop in Toronto

A while back I asked if any of you would be interested in workshops. Well thanks to your feedback, I am giving a 3-hour visual thinking workshop in Toronto on September 8, 2006. The title of the workshop will be "The Power of Pictonics: Using Visualizations to Tell Your Technology Story."

I am really looking forward to this.

There will be plenty of hands-on exercises to help you hone your visual thinking and storytelling skills. You'll also learn some of the "secret sauce" that goes into making visual explanations.

This will be a pretty special event, to be held in the beautiful and hi-tech MaRS convergence and innovation center in the downtown Discovery District. It also happens to coincide with the Toronto film festival, one of the best film festivals in North America in my opinion. So if you've been meaning to visit Toronto you couldn't pick a better time.

You can get more information on the workshop here.

The workshop is on a friday, so if you're in or near the Toronto area, join me for the workshop, then stay the weekend and enjoy some first-run films!

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Evolution of the speech balloon

"Here you can study various experiments and variations and the gradual change from bands to balloons. Even the later examples sometimes have tiny leftovers of the 'bands' on the other side of the balloon."

Thank you xblog.

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Logical paradox

Logical paradox, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

What do you think?

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Animals on the underground

Seventeen years ago, Paul Middlewick was on his way to work when he noticed an elephant staring at him from the London Underground map. Since then he has discovered birds, whales, and emu and even a wombat, not to mention the fish shown here.

Take a look.

Thanks again arno!

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Fun with index cards

Since August 8, a blogger sporting the mysterious name Old Bag has been posting a series of pretty hilarious diagrams on index cards, at a rate of several cards per day.

If you like this one there's plenty more at indexed.

Thanks to arno and Josh for the link.

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Unreasonable requests

What is an unreasonable request? According to Lisa Haneberg:

"Unreasonable requests are big requests that you are generally too chicken to make. Outrageous requests make great things happen. A well formulated request, when accepted by the person you ask, can reroute your progress and enable you to zoom to success.

Unreasonable requests that are turned down can also serve as important catalysts because often a compromise solution is offered that is still higher than you would have normally expected. Mahatma Gandhi said, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get,” and I believe this to be true."

Matt Homann on unreasonable requests

Curt Rosengren on unreasonable requests

Here's my unreasonable request: Watch this video. Then leave a comment with your unreasonable request.

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The resume of the future

Paul Goode just sent me my first video message.

This video thing is definitely the wave of the future. There used to be financial barriers to this kind of thing. Publishing is rapidly becoming the province of everyone who has a computer and internet access. The walls continue to crumble.

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On the road with Steve Smith

Steve Smith is a local blogger and entrepreneur here in St. Louis. Last week he took me on a drive and since I wanted an excuse to learn about iMovie I decided to videoblog the experience. If you live in or are interested in St. Louis Steve is a fascinating character. Check out his blog for more.

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Design meme: think orthogonal

Stand out from the pack, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

KAYO books in San Francisco has discovered a wonderful way to make a very ordinary storefront feel lively and inviting. A lot of good thinking and a little work makes the store stand out on a street where a lot of signs compete for your attention. The design works because the designer decided to stand out by thinking orthogonally.

Are you designing anything? If so, take a moment to think of a really simple way to make your design stand out from the pack. Is there a way your design can be "orthogonal" to its competitors?

Think orthogonal.

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The lifehacker's dilemma

Vitruvian Mann, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

Too many distractions, too little time. Co-developed with Merlin Mann of 43 Folders.

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The grand-daddy of business visualizations

Shadow, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

Yes, the Toronto Globe and Mail has proclaimed me the grand-pappy of business visualizations.

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What is twttr and how do you pronounce it?

I just had dinner with Evan Williams and his lovely fiance Sara Morishige. Somewhere between the kalua pig and the bannana bread pudding, Evan gave me a hot scoop: his company, Odeo is about to launch a new service called twttr. It's pronounced "twitter" and you can find it at http://twttr.com (If you're less hip and more literal, like me, you can also find it at http://twitter.com).

The idea is that you can keep your friends informed of where you are and what you're doing by text-messaging them from your mobile phone. If you think about it it's a pretty cool idea: You can subscribe to text messages from your friends and they can "blog" their wheareabouts and doings. So, for example, if you're going to be in a certain city, or a certain coffee shop, or a certain club -- you can text message all your friends in one go, for example: "I'm going to the Starbucks at Market and Polk. Meet me if you want to play Scrabble."

People will get your text message immediately no matter where they are -- it's more immediate than a blog or email, and if they happen to be nearby, you haven't missed an opportunity to hook up.

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Take a coffee break with me

Yes, I know you're busy, but you can spare a couple of minutes, can't you? C'mon, let's go.

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Shepherd market, Mayfair, London

Shepherd market, Mayfair, London, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

If you're reading this and it's Sunday June 11th, then I am loose in London.

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Location

Update on my itinerary: Just leaving Houston. Home in St. Louis over the weekend, then headed for Denver, then London. If you want to hook up in Denver or London please send me an email!

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