The Big Draw: How many words is a picture worth?

I’m perched with my laptop at the window, in the Accelerated Solutions Environment (ASE) on the top floor of our London offices, and I’m gazing through the drifts of drizzle as High Holborn unfolds before me. It’s October and something big is afoot. All month throughout the city, and beyond, people are picking up pencils, brandishing brushes, sporting their styluses and connecting with their inner doodler. It’s the Big Draw Festival; a celebration of visual literacy that began in London in 2000 and has since exploded outwards across the globe. It now has 400,000 participants and is responsible for two world records: the biggest drawing (one kilometre long!) and the most people drawing simultaneously (7,000 people contributing to the same drawing).

The festival is organised by a charity called The Big Draw. Its aim? To “promote the universal language of drawing as a tool for learning, expression and development”. Clearly The Big Draw believes drawing is a big deal, and we at the ASE wholeheartedly, emphatically agree with them.

For us, drawing is much more than producing pretty pictures (though they are sometimes a delightful by-product of the process). Communicating visually through a combination of pictures and words, is a powerful tool that when used right can accelerate understanding, elevate engagement and convey richness in a way that words alone simply can’t. It’s something we bring into the work we do with our clients, who operate in complex, fast-moving and uncertain environments – the kind of environments which often require more than words can offer to make sense of.

As I tapped away on my keyboard writing this blog, I realised that I should probably be practicing what I’m preaching. What better way to illuminate the power of drawing as a tool for communication, than by actually using it as a tool for communication? So here we are:

Finally, there’s a big bonus feature of drawing that isn’t included in the doodle above: drawing can be a great way to nurture your own mental well-being. Tuning in to the soothing sensation of graphite on paper, and being fully absorbed in the image that emerges before you can be deeply relaxing, however much of a natural artist you are. So, in an increasingly fast-paced and complex world, drawing is not only something that we as an organisation leverage to help our clients, it’s something that we can practice as individuals to decompress and destress. In fact, that’s the focus of this year’s Big Draw Festival. With the tagline ‘Drawn to Life’, the organisers are aiming for this year’s festival to celebrate and explore the benefits of creativity to make positive changes and improve wellbeing.

As October is drawing to a close (pun intended), so is the festival, but don’t let that stop you. Whether you have some complexity that you need to understand and convey, or you’re simply feeling stressed and in need of a quiet mindful activity, go ahead: pick up a pen and some paper, or even a tablet and stylus, and get drawing!

Author

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Jack Ambrose