The Power of Drawing
A conversation with visual storyteller, Catherine Madden
Catherine Madden is an information designer and visual story strategist who is on a mission to help people tap into the power of drawing.
Was the link between strategy, facilitation, and drawing obvious to you from the beginning of your career? Or was there an “ah-hah” moment?
It was definitely not obvious at the beginning of my career, because I had no idea what strategy and facilitation were! I do think there were a series of “Ah-Ha” moments over the years, rooted in the fact that I had the training and sensibilities in place to merge them easily. First there was drawing; as a graphic designer and art major, I developed a practice of sketching as an extension of thinking and ideation, and would always share my top 3 sketch concepts with my clients. The “Ah-Ha” moment I had here is that people really do like to understand your thought process and showing them rough sketches is a great way to bring them along on the journey.
“...people really do like to understand your thought process and showing them rough sketches is a great way to bring them along on the journey.”
What came next was strategy—although I didn’t have a name for it at the time. I developed my strategic mind mainly by necessity—for a good chunk of my early career I was operating as the only creative contributor in a group of technical experts. I didn’t realize at the time I was playing several different agency roles (designer, strategist, marketer, project manager, etc). I think that really helped me develop an ability to traverse the nitty gritty details and big picture. I had an “Ah-Ha” moment about this when I joined a management consulting firm, and they had separate career paths for all the distinct roles I had been playing, which didn’t make any sense to me.
Facilitation was the final piece to fall into place once I gained enough confidence to stand up at a whiteboard and guide group dialogs using my visuals. The “Ah-Ha” moment here was when a manager let me know that what I was doing actually had a name—“Graphic Facilitation”—and that I could seek out some training from people who lead groups of people in conversation by using drawing as a full time job… that was pretty mind blowing.
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What percentage of your work is creating the end product, vs. facilitating to enable someone to create their own? Has that ratio shifted over time?
I’m actually actively working to shift this ratio, but right now it’s about 50% creating the end product, and 50% facilitating groups towards a shared vision, with other people responsible for crafting the final product. As a craftsperson, I tend to have a hard time letting go of the details and execution, but I also want to continue growing into my leadership and untapping the creative vision of others. So I’ve been working to build my network of designers, animators, and illustrators so I can partner with them on projects and play more of a creative director role.
Have you had success with getting “non-artistic” people to draw?
Certainly! I love that you put “non-artistic” in quotes—there’s definitely a fallacy that people are either born with artistic genius or not…but really the point of the type of drawing that I’m advocating for is not to have a beautiful work of art at the end, it’s to arrive at some clarity about an idea.
“...the point of the type of drawing that I’m advocating for is not to have a beautiful work of art at the end, it’s to arrive at some clarity about an idea.”
One example of how I’ve had success is from earlier this year, when I made a diagram to compare the various democratic primary candidates according to my personal values. I shared this with my friends and on social media, and encouraged people to create their own, based on their unique values. I knew I was onto something when several friends and followers shared their own versions, and my partner (who considers himself “lacking” in artistic ability, LOL) raided my marker stash to create his own version. I think what helped people in this case was having a framework that resonated with them which they could personalize.
For client work, I like to host “Shitty First Draft Parties” where all members of a project draw out their ideas for a concept and we share. I talked about this process at length on the Storytelling with Data podcast last month!
What do you find is the hardest thing to explain to potential clients about what you do?
I don’t have a set catalog of fixed services or offerings on my website, primarily because it’s not a standard role that I’ve stumbled into, I like variety, and every client has different needs/budgets/team members. That makes it super challenging at the start of any potential client relationship to identify my role! What typically happens is I’ll listen to their vision and identify several different ways I could plug into the project. Then we’ll choose something very specific to start (for example, I’ll do some graphic recording at your offsite and help you prepare a synthesis of the takeaways) and then the relationship can grow from there.
One specific area that is hard to explain the value of a visual artifact—If a client has never seen real-time graphic recording or visual facilitation in action before, it’s definitely challenging to demonstrate the power. Particularly in this new world of virtual meetings, I get a lot of questions like, “But how exactly will this work?” One way I try to address this is by demonstrating at all times—by having my iPad notes on display—so people can watch their ideas land on the page and take shape as we imagine the possibilities and make plans.
How do you feel about the idea of individual style when it comes to your illustration work?
I think it’s important to develop a sense of your individual style, but it serves different creators in different ways. Some designers and illustrators develop a distinct personal style that makes them sought after for a certain aesthetic, color palette, etc. Other designers are great because they can flex into whatever style that the brand or project demands.
“...having a personal style serves me by reducing the need for decision making in the early stages.”
For me, because my work is more heavily weighted in the strategy and storytelling side of the creative process, having a personal style serves me by reducing the need for decision making in the early stages. By limiting my use of color, shape, and line, I can focus on the content and story and rely on my standard look and feel. I’ve arrived at an aesthetic that is intentionally “doodle-y” but clean, which means that sometimes my sketch concepts have enough visual appeal that with some tweaking, they can serve as the final illustration itself.
Many of my clients are not working with me for my distinct style, but when they do I’m still conscious of their brand and try to blend a little of what’s true to me and what will work in the surrounding brand/context.
Design is often a push and pull between how much information to show, while still keeping something well-designed. How do you mitigate that tension in your work?
Ain’t that the truth! I think that is THE tension at the root of visual storytelling. The way that I mitigate this is by having clarity on the audience we are trying to reach, as well as a strong sense of what the project as a whole is trying to achieve (AKA, Strategy!).
With information design in particular, there are a lot of critics out there who will declare a certain chart type or color palette as universally bad. I try to incorporate these “best practices” of information design with a grain of salt, always prioritizing what will make sense to our audience. If I’m sensing our concept may be unfamiliar or confusing in any way, we’ll show it to several people and ask them to describe what they see. This can be instrumental in determining if the piece makes sense and if you are striking the right level of detail.
How much time do you allow yourself for visual experimentation? Are there particular types of self-generated projects that you’re drawn to?
I’m an on-and-off journaling enthusiast, and the types of self-generated projects that I’m drawn to are ones where I can experiment with a visual construct to learn something about myself and connect with others. I recently designed a matrix to reflect on what behaviors I have changed and normalized since being in lockdown. I shared mine with a few friends, which inspired them to create their own. We then shared on a group call and it really deepened our connection and understanding of how each of us are coping with the current times.
As for visual experimentation, that’s kind of my mode of operation! For every thing I pitch to a client, post on social media, or otherwise present publicly, I have 50+ sketch concepts behind it. I have literally thousands of pages of doodles on my ipad. That was the inspiration for a poster I made in my studio’s art show last year, titled “Shitty First Drafts” and it is only a tiny number of data doodles I’ve made over the years.
I love your Visual Alphabet—it takes me back to the Ed Emberley Drawing Books. Were there any favorite illustrators who sparked your imagination when you were a kid?
Thank you! I can’t take credit for coming up with the visual alphabet… I learned it from other visual thinking practitioners like Dan Roam and Sunni Brown (I highly recommend their books if you are interested in visual thinking!).
As a kid, I actually was drawn more to stories than any specific visuals, but Shel Silverstein stands out as a formative author and illustrator—“Where the Sidewalk Ends” and “A Light in the Attic” are still on my bookshelf, but in tatters due to how much I read them.
Something that I loved more than anything else was Colorforms. Do you remember these? Basically they were vinyl moveable stickers that you could rearrange on a landscape to tell your own story. I don’t remember what types of stories I imagined, but I just loved being able to move shapes and characters around the page to tell a story… and as I write this, I’m realizing that is pretty much what I do for a living!
To learn more about Catherine Madden, visit catherinemadden.com.