1. Create or enhance your graphics library
If you want to learn how to communicate visually, one of the most important steps is to gradually build up a graphic library of visual elements that are quick and easy to reproduce.
And that’s exactly what PictoChallenges are all about: helping you start or expand your graphic library. The pictograms drawn by the group are then posted on the website. Picto Dico brings together a library of pictograms on a variety of themes. These pictograms are intended as a source of inspiration for beginners and advanced graphic facilitation enthusiasts alike. The aim is to offer simple pictograms that can be reproduced in no more than 5 to 20 seconds.
2. You don't have to know how to draw
Imagine the drawing skills of a child, say at the end of kindergarten, you know? To make it easier for you to see, here’s a photo of my daughter (in the middle section) doing her favorite activity.
Know how to make basic shapes: square, round, triangle, rectangle, etc. That’s just about all you need to get started with visual thinking. So you can come totally uninhibited!
You may already know this, but if you need any reassurance, you don’t need to know how to draw, as it’s not about turning you into an artist.
So yes, if you’ve got a good pencil stroke, that’s even better, of course! But that’s not the point. The aim is not to make something beautiful, but to “make sense”.
This discipline is accessible (even to you, behind your screen, who says “gnan I can’t draw”). It has applications in all fields, whether for oneself (fixing attention, memorizing) or when a group gathers to explore ideas, share reasoning or make decisions in a complex situation.
3. It's fun
With 30 minutes to draw 18 pictograms proposed by the participants, the pace was brisk. All the more so since I’m assuming that you’re all busy, so I’m making it a point of honour to keep to my schedule! However, I’m keen to offer a convivial moment of exchange. We’re here to have a good time and share a common passion for the most loyal of us, who keep coming back for every PictoChallenge (thanks for your loyalty!), or a budding interest for newcomers curious to discover the discipline. I also sometimes miss a picto or get confused by the word proposed, it’s the game of direct 😉
In short, think of these 30 minutes, often set aside at lunchtime, as a moment for you to relax, between 2 meetings or just before your afternoon nap.
4. Better together
Dare I use the proverb “Alone we go faster, together we go further”? Yes 🙂
That’s the richness of this project: varied points of view and infinite possibilities for representing a concept, an emotion, an object…
The result is a multitude of possibilities for the same word, and everyone can draw inspiration from the techniques and ideas of others. By participating and sending us your work, you’re helping us to capitalize on this wealth of viewpoints and creativity and make it accessible to all budding graphic facilitators.
Participants' work
While we wait for the pictograms to be put online, which may take some time given the number of pictograms to reproduce, here’s an overview of the work done by participants in PictoChallenge n°2(replay available here). I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them for their contribution!
Here are the words proposed by the participants:
CONCRETE PICTOGRAMS
– Compass, Chair, Coffee pot, Pencil case, Cactus, Telephone, Sailing boat, Forest, Plane
INTERLUDE TUTO
Learning to draw benevolence
ABSTRACT PICTOGRAMS
– Success, Fabulate, Air, Back to school, Health, Happiness, Control, Excellence, Simplicity
