Once again XPLANE | Dachis Group has teamed up with Dr. Scott McLeod of Iowa State University to create a thought-provoking video. The brand-new “Iowa, Did You Know?” kicked off the School Administrators of Iowa Conference yesterday morning. This DYK video contrasts the world’s exponential growth in technology and learning with Iowa’s struggles to best prepare K-12 students for this new future.
Intended as a forceful wake-up call for Iowa educators, the video stresses the importance of an educational approach that moves away from “low-level mental work” and towards stronger development in critical thinking and problem solving.
At XPLANE|STL’s public Visual Thinking School on April 7 we thought the time had come for a little character building. Specifically, cartoon characters and how just a few pen strokes can convey emotion and tell a story. We were inspired by Ivan Brunetti’s YouTube trailer for his new book “Cartooning,” below, and decided to do a few related drawing exercises.
WARM-UP
Everyone took dry erase marker in hand as I read through the following sequence, one line at a time. Remember — no one knew what was coming next.
A little girl has just woken up, dizzy, cold and crying.
She had a nightmare that she threw up…
all over her cat…
and the cat died…
and now the cat’s ghost haunts her.
What can I say, I like dark humor.
For the main exercise we took Brunetti’s video exercise linked above and changed it slightly. We had 14 people so we paired up into seven groups to create a few Wordless Stories.
PART 1 (30 minutes)
Think of a character, any character.
Now think of a location, some place or setting for your character.
Take four index cards and draw a four-panel strip of your character without using words.
Draw the character in the location that you chose facing a challenge.
PART 2 (20 minutes)
Go back to the beginning of the sequence and draw 2 more panels to make the motivation behind the character’s action more clear.
Then go to the end of the sequence and draw 2 more panels to show some consequence of the action depicted.
One of the characters.
A full panel. Click to view larger.
Rapid creation (and beer — VTS runs 4-6 p.m.) always leads to very lively and unexpected results. Visit our VTS Flickr Set to see more examples.
FINALE
After going round the room and reviewing each other’s work, we sat back and enjoyed Matthias Hoegg’s beautiful animated short, “Thursday.” We marveled at how much story and emotion he was able to create without using a single word.
VTS (aka Visual Thinking School) at XPLANE’s St. Louis office.
At XPLANE’s public Visual Thinking School on March 3, we were looking for a new “live sketching” challenge. In the past, we’ve had people describe children’s book scenes, or tell personal stories while others would stand by dry erase boards taking visual notes. It’s always interesting to see just how unique each drawing turns out.
Anyway, having just caught El Monstero’s Led Zeppelin tribute at the Pageant in St Louis, I thought it would be fun to do some live sketching of “Stairway to Heaven.” The lyrics are so rich with imagery it seemed a natural. So we played the song, pausing every few lines to allow people time for interpretation. We learned that it’s one thing to listen to the song but it’s another to see it in sketch form!
As XPLANE’s Director of Design I’ve plowed through thousands of résumés from young designers looking for work, and I must admit it’s starting to take a toll on me. Each time I sift through a pile of applications or portfolio samples I wish I could have given that person a little coaching beforehand to give them a better chance of moving forward in the process — or at least save some of their time.
So with graduation just around the corner and this economy being what it is, I figured it was a good time to reach out and give you a few things to think about as you apply for your next job… hopefully with us. We’re hiring.
The job posting
We put a lot of thought into what we say in our job postings. We do this in the hope that you’ll read through the qualifications and only apply if you meet our criteria. So please make sure that your skills and experience fit well with what we do. We take complex, messy information and make it understandable. You do too? Great! Let’s talk. No? I’ll just push the button under my desk that makes the trap door open.
The holidays are now behind us and the new year has ushered in a renewed sense of optimism and hope. So many possibilities for what 2011 could bring. Maybe this is the year you finally write your first novel. Maybe there’s a business you’ve been wanting to start, a diet you’ve wanted to try, or a favorite hobby that you’ll finally make time for. Heck, maybe your 2011 resolution might be to draw more. Why not?
What a great time of year. Soon people all around the world will be exchanging gifts and celebrating Christmas with their families.
If you celebrate the holiday, you must remember the utter excitement that you had as a kid on Christmas Eve — how you wanted so badly to catch Santa in the act but were told he wouldn’t come unless you went to sleep. Kids throughout time would doze off dreaming of gifts ranging from record players and Barbie dolls to iPads and Zhu Zhu pets.
What if you could put together a greatest hits collection (K-Tel anyone?) of the best gifts ever and spread them around one tree?
Every day you come to work, open your email, process paperwork, return calls and head to meetings. Have you ever really paused for a moment to look at all the stuff that surrounds you?
Yeah, things may look a little chaotic but you’ve probably got a system going and you know exactly where everything is. Some desks might look shipshape and others like a tornado ripped through your office. Either way it’s your life and because of that it’s worth documenting. You could take a picture… but that’s too easy.
This week for our Visual Meditation, take a few minutes to sit back and appreciate all the little things in life. Specifically all the stuff that surrounds you every day at your desk! Sketch it out for us, scan it and upload it to our xBlog activities Group on Flickr.
Exercise: Draw your desk area and all the objects usually found there. Use labels if necessary.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could come to work and really focus on just one thing? Your sole function would be geared toward doing just that one thing — and doing it really, really well.
Yeah. Okay. Back to the reality of spinning plates, burning fires and high priority emails that seem endless. Your job requires doing many things at once, but you only have two arms. But what if you had four? Or six? Read more »
Remember when you were little and Halloween meant canvassing a 3-mile radius of your home in order to see just how much candy can be packed into one pillowcase? Inevitably your costume was made by your mother in a way that was not nearly as cool, gory or princess-y as you’d like but that never stopped you in your search for sugary rewards.
This week for our Visual Meditation, take a few minutes to think about your favorite (or not-so-favorite) Halloween costumes through the years. Sketch one, scan it and upload it to our xBlog activities Group on Flickr.
Exercise: Draw yourself in the one costume that most stands out. Use labels if necessary. Bonus points for labeling the candy you most liked and disliked.
Every one of you has a unique gift. You may not always feel that way, but you do. It’s what sets you apart in business meetings, social gatherings or who knows — maybe even crime fighting. Let’s just call it your superpower.
This week for our Visual Meditation, take a few minutes to think about your unique gifts that you use to thwart problems and and get things done. Read more »
Check out this video we made for Kronos to help celebrate International Women's Day, 2011. Learn more in this xBlog post or jump over to YouTube and watch it there.
Azure poster
XPLANE | Dachis Group developed a A vibrant, engaging poster showing how Microsoft Azure enables developers to run applications and store data on Microsoft servers. The poster recently took top honors in the American Business Awards.
