Restroom Iconography XII: Santa Clara, CA

Yes, it's time for another addition to my ongoing collection of restroom icons.

This one comes from "La Paloma", our favorite neighborhood Mexican restaurant: home of amazing chorizo con huevos, excellent flan, a dozen camarone dishes, and my favorite long island iced tea.

Oh yeah, and a very, very cool staff.

Anyway... we've been going there for over 6 years now, but I hadn't shot the restroom icons until tonight.

This, of course, is the restroom for senoras and senoritas.

Everytime I shoot one of these, I worry that a woman will open the door and scream, just as I'm shooting the photo.

It hasn't happened yet, but it's inevitable, isn't it?

On the other hand, it might actually be worse if I caught a photo of some dude exiting the mens room, while I'm shooting the horn-tootin' hombre here!

I guess that's just proof that to be an artist is to take risks?

Ah, yes... We must all suffer for our art...

VizThink 09 Highlights: XPLANE Discovery Cards

I am always looking for new tools to add to my toolbox, so I got all geeked up when I saw these Discovery Cards at the XPLANE booth at VizThink 09...

This card set is designed to facilitate the discussion of issues. There are four subsets in the deck - 'crisis', 'growth', and 'change' form the issues portion. The participant(s) will recognize their current issues in this set and set this side. They then tell the story of their problem. 

When this step is completed, the fourth subset - 'action' - is used to identify possible actions.

I love using visual and kinesthetic tools to facilitate discussion. I call them 'Externalization Engines'. Photos, Legos, Cards, Physical Modeling, Drawings, Posters: all of these allow people to present thoughts and feelings that are difficult to articulate.

My set of cards arrived today and they look great.

I can't wait to find a opportunity to use them.

Make sure to check out XPLANE's Discovery Cards, and I'll update you as soon as I use them.

VizThink 09 Highlights II - Jessica Hagy

Jessica Hagy debunks 15 Professional 'Rules'

If you haven't seen Jessica Hagy's brilliant Indexed site or book, you should go look at it now. Don't even bother with my site until you've spent an hour in hers... really.. hers is a treasure. I grant you permission to go there (if only Jennifer had just said that.. "Go Brad. Hell, it's Angelina. Clearly, I've been bested").

Jessica gave a very funny, informal presentation where she summarized 15 professional rules, and then debunked all of them. In between, she had us use her favorite tools - Venn diagrams and the X-Y axis - to make some sense of our worlds.

This was my favorite exercise.

1. Draw a 2-circle Venn Diagram.
2. Label the first circle with something you're really good at.
3. Label the second circle "Prostitution"
4. Find the relationship between the two (if you're a lawyer, the overlap will obviously be much greater than the one in my diagram).

Here's mine.

Teaching is what I do, but it was hard to find a common area, at first.

Then I found it - Students named John.

Try the exercise.

And if you get a chance to see Jessica present, I recommend you do it.

An Fine Example of Information Graphics

Whether you call it information graphics or visual communication, many stories are better told with pictures.
Some stories are even better if told with Venn Diagrams.

Don't believe me?
Well, check out Jessica Hagy's "Indexed" Website or book.

Some of her stuff is very subtle, but others - like the one above - are flat out brilliant.

Looking for a creativity exercise? Or a new way of communicating an idea?
How about challenging your team to express their problem in a Venn diagram.

It just might work.