Drawnalism is…
Drawnalism is visual thinking and note taking from synthesis. But where does this term Drawnalism come from?
From our earliest days Drawnalism was the collaboration of drawing and journalism to make something new.
Drawnalism has been called many other things over many years and here is a piece capturing some of them.
Where do all these other names for Drawnalism come from?
Some of humankind’s earliest marks with meaning - Hunting scenes from The Lascaux Caves wall art in France
The techniques of modern graphic recording developed from scribing which followed humankind’s earliest attempts to make marks for meaning.
Some of the very earliest examples of this would be wall or cave painting such as the stories of hunting from the Lascaux Caves in France.
Over time the essential simple techniques of recording information and visual stories developed into rich pictures crossing between word and picture in an amazing variety of ways including weaving with notable examples like The Bayeux Tapestry.
Hailey’s comet appears in 1066 to The Duke William of Normandy and Harold Godwinson, King of England - from The Bayeux Tapestry. This image is drawn from detail in the tapesty by Drawnalism
Crafting, commerce and change
The craft based industries were dominant for many hundreds of years until the application of automation allowed by the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in Germany.
The speed and scale of information sharing possible through print and books enabled vast economic and social change in what we know now as the Enlightenment and the subsequent Renaissance.
These developments in the exchange of information spread ideas, news, discussion and debate using memorable visual forms with incredible speed and greater and faster distribution. Even though very large numbers of people were unable to read and drawing continued to play a large and influential role in informing people.
Johannes Gutenberg inventor of the printing press.
Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Gutenberg.jpg
A revolution in communications
As printing grew, craft gave way to commerce and to mass market dissemination of ideas, information, challenge and debate based on ink on paper. The nineteenth century saw mass education of populations with greatly increased literacy.
The age of the paper based newspaper lasted more than 300 years with ever increasing size and scale.
The decline of the newspaper age
Book: The Print in Early Modern England - by Malcolm Jones
The growth of the mass market news press peaked post World War II and has been in decline since then. This decline has been greatly accelerated during the digital communications age which has allowed an even greater speed of distribution of information at much lower cost.
The rise of digital
UK Newspapers online
These more recent developments have allowed connections between seemingly disparate ideas to be made explicit and such techniques include visual or mind mapping.
Today, graphic recorders like Drawnalism use digital capture as well as traditional or analogue methods for Knowledge walling or display at large or small scale using paper and traditional media or audio visual screens.
Graphic recording is particularly strong for visualisation of the non obvious or abstract concepts, ideas and challenges.
Graphic recording is a great way to get people and organisations engaged in events or process design programs.
When done well, it can help people understand and remember events better. By summarizing and documenting outputs, it provides a shared memory both during and after events.
If you’d like to explore how Drawnalism graphic recording can help you, please contact us here