"Every business, organisation and brand talks about its vision. But how many of them have actually made it visual?," says Dan. "For some reason, there's a gap between our innate understanding of the usefulness of visuals, and our willingness to use them when it really counts."
It has always been Scriberia's mission to show people that pictures are not mere decoration, they have an important part to play at every stage of a project: They are where the hard work happens.
We're all familiar with the phrase, "a picture is worth a thousand words", and the idea that the human brain can process visual information far quicker than it can the written word. Yet, we often underestimate how well we can
think visually; how much easier the tasks of ideation, collaboration and prioritisation become, when we dare to do them visually, too. (
What is visual thinking? Take a look at this).
"Drawing is a really powerful decision-making tool. When you draw something you make a series of decisions about what to put in and what to leave out."
Dan Porter, Scriberia
Drawing is serious business
Although we don't (often) ask our clients to do the drawing, we do ask them to trust drawing to take them where they need to go: By making their ideas visual (with the help of our talented team), we will help them to articulate problems and solutions with a level of clarity they couldn't have achieved any other way
It works because, as Dan points out: "Drawing is a really powerful decision-making tool. When you draw something you make a series of decisions about what to put in and what to leave out. What's important? What's irrelevant? What helps to tell the story, and what doesn't?"
If you can apply the same ruthless logic that drawing demands, to the complex challenges of business, you hit on a truly valuable way of working. At Scriberia, we don't think of drawing as a means for merely communicating a perfectly polished idea. We use it as a thinking tool: as a means for finding and refining the idea in the first place, and facilitating better conversations around it. From that place, you can - of course! - create a polished piece of visual communication, that makes light work of telling the story or sharing important information.
"I always describe Scriberia pictures as 'hardworking pictures' - every single one leaves our studio and goes into the world with an important job to do, and I'm proud of that."
Chris Wilson, Scriberia
Drawing is the filter
Drawing allows you to put thoughts - in raw and messy form - into a space where you can share them, debate them, improve them and - eventually! - create a clearly defined vision with them, behind which you can all align.
"That's why we'd never think of a vision mapping project as 'just a picture'," says Dan. "Because we know that every vision mapping client goes on this incredible journey, from the first messy workshop to the moment they're holding a beautiful piece of work in their hands." (Don't know what
vision mapping is? Take a look.)
"
It’s an amazing filter," agrees Chris. "We come in with a piece of paper and pens and just get rid of all that business bullshit people have in their heads and ask them what it all really means. It forces people to change the way they communicate around their particular set of problems.
"I always describe Scriberia pictures as 'hardworking pictures' - every single one leaves our studio and goes into the world with an important job to do, and I'm proud of that."
Looking for inspiration? Browse a few of our latest vision mapping projects.