MAP IT OUT — Cross-functional consultant: design, academia, and strategy

Design & Academia Workshop

Workshop

Map
It
Out

Visual Tools for Complex Ideas

A Line Going for a Walk

Paul Klee

"A drawing is simply
a line going for a walk."

But take it one step further — a drawing is your thoughts going for a walk.

When we flip between writing and drawing, we are dialoguing with ourselves — left brain and right brain, in conversation.

Framing

The premise

Thinking
Made
Visible

Visual frameworks are not decoration. They are thinking tools — they force us to name what we know, find what we don't, and communicate what we mean.

Today we look at the range of tools available, then spend most of our time using one.

The Tools — Part 1

Ways of communicating through drawing

Communication Drawings

Diagram ref: Rem Koolhaas / OMA, Parc de la Villette, 1982

Relationships made explicit — how parts connect within a system

Mind Map ref: Kevin Lynch, Image of the City, 1960

Radial branches from a central idea — generates and clusters related concepts fast

Parti ref: Le Corbusier, Dom-ino House, 1914

The governing idea distilled to a single image — a design concept at its most essential

Concept Map ref: Joseph Novak, Cornell University, 1972

Networked nodes with labeled links — forces you to name how things connect, not just that they do

Doodle / Sketch ref: Alvar Aalto, Villa Mairea sketches, 1938

Loose, generative, non-precious — thinking out loud on paper without commitment

Sketchnote ref: Mike Rohde, The Sketchnote Handbook, 2012

Hybrid of text and image — synthesizing information in real time through visual listening

Structure

Mind map radiates from one center. Concept map is a network — any node can connect to any other. Diagram shows a system with defined inputs and outputs.

Purpose

Parti argues for a single idea. Doodle is for thinking, not communicating. Sketchnote captures and synthesizes information as it happens.

The key question

Are you generating ideas (doodle, mind map), organizing relationships (concept map, diagram), or distilling to one argument (parti, sketchnote)?

The Tools — Part 2

Standard drawings from the built environment

Spatial Drawings

Plan ref: Floor plans, Unsplash / Getty Images

A horizontal cut through space — reveals layout, flow, and proximity

Section ref: Art Institute of Chicago collection

A vertical cut — reveals height, layering, and the relationship between inside and outside

Wall Section ref: Construction section detail

A close-up cut through a wall — reveals material, assembly, and detail

Elevation ref: Art Institute of Chicago collection

A flat frontal view — captures surface, scale, and proportion without distortion

Map ref: Amsterdam City Archives, 1836

Figure-ground of territory — shows pattern, context, and spatial relationship at scale

Axonometric ref: Axonometric office layout sketch

3D view — communicates system, assembly, or spatial idea in a single image

Cut direction

Plan cuts horizontally — shows layout and flow. Section cuts vertically — reveals height and interior. Wall section zooms in — shows material and assembly.

Perspective

Elevation is flat and frontal — no distortion. Axonometric is 3D but without vanishing points — measurable. Map is aerial — shows territory and context at scale.

The key question

Are you showing layout (plan, map), depth and section (section, wall section), or appearance and assembly (elevation, axonometric)?

Building Your Drawing Language

Your visual vocabulary

Build Your
Own
Language

Every discipline has a drawing language. Architects have plans. Scientists have diagrams. Journalists have timelines. Yours doesn't exist yet — and that's the point.

How to build one

01

Name what you need to say

What are the recurring things in your domain — relationships, flows, hierarchies, time, place? List them before you draw anything.

02

Assign shapes to ideas

A circle for a person. An arrow for movement. A box for a system. The symbol doesn't matter — consistency does. Same idea, same mark, every time.

03

Use it until it breaks

Apply it to real problems. When something can't be expressed, that gap tells you what's missing. Add a new symbol. Revise an old one.

04

Make a legend

Write it down. A drawing language only travels if others can read it. The legend is what turns your shorthand into communication.

References: Kevin Lynch's cognitive map symbols, W.E.B. Du Bois's hand-invented chart types, sketchnote icon libraries, architectural notation systems.

The Connection

What they share

Every
Drawing
is an
Argument

Whether you're drawing a floor plan or a mind map, you are making a claim about what matters, what connects, and what can be left out.

The built environment drawings just have agreed-upon conventions. But the logic — a drawing is a structured argument about space or ideas — is the same.

Today we're going to use that logic on something you care about.

Workshop Exercise

The next 40 minutes

Your Thing

01 Choose something you love
02 Write one sentence about it
03 Draw what you just wrote

If you were in our first session, think back to the thing you explored then. If this is your first time — just pick your favorite thing. Anything at all.

Exercise — Step 1

Step 01 of 03

Choose
Your
Thing

Pick something you are genuinely passionate about. It does not need to be academic, design-related, or serious.

The city you grew up in. A sport. A TV show. A food. A game. A type of music. A neighborhood you know by heart. It just has to be yours.

Examples

Pokémon — Lafayette, Louisiana — Jazz — Brutalist architecture — The Mississippi River — Street food — Basketball — A corner store you love

No wrong answers. Specificity is a feature, not a bug.

Exercise — Step 2

Step 02 of 03

Write One Sentence

Write a single sentence that makes a claim about your thing. Not a description — a thesis. Something you believe that not everyone would immediately agree with.

Topic: Pokémon

"Pokémon is not a game about catching — it is a game about classification, and it taught an entire generation to think taxonomically."

An argument, not a description. You could disagree with it.

Topic: Lafayette, Louisiana

"Lafayette's identity is held together by food and music, and those two things are inseparable from the geography of the bayou."

Connects three things in a specific way — a position, not a fact.

Topic: A neighborhood

"The corner store is the most important building in any neighborhood because it is where private life becomes public."

Takes a strong position on something ordinary.

The formula

[Your thing] is [your argument], because [your reason].

Write yours now. One sentence. You can revise it later.

Exercise — Step 3

Step 03 of 03

1:00

Minute

Draw what
you wrote.

Messy is correct.
Unfinished is fine.
Perfect is the wrong goal.

Suspend the inner critic

The inner critic will show up the moment you pick up the pen. It will tell you you can't draw, that it looks wrong, that someone else would do it better.

That voice is not useful right now. Let it talk. Draw anyway.

—Draw the thing itself — an image of what you love
—Draw your sentence — visualize the argument you made
—Zoom in on one aspect — the part that matters most
—Draw the feeling — abstract, gestural, whatever comes

The goal is not a finished drawing. The goal is to discover what your hand knows that your brain doesn't.

Share

Debrief

What
Did You
Find?

Share with the group — or a neighbor:

01 — What is your thing, and what was your sentence?
02 — What kind of drawing did you instinctively reach for?
03 — What did the drawing reveal that the sentence didn't?
04 — Did your thesis change once you tried to draw it?

Takeaway

What this exercise shows us

The Drawing
Changes
the Thinking

When you draw an idea, you are forced to make decisions that writing lets you avoid. Where is the center? What gets left out?

Those decisions are the thinking.

The drawing type you reach for is not neutral — a plan emphasizes layout, a section reveals depth, a map shows context.

Choosing your drawing type is choosing what kind of argument you want to make.

Examples in the Wild — Spatial

Drawing as argument

Spatial Diagrams

Urban Sequence

Axonometric phasing diagram — shows how a site transforms step by step

Illustrated Map

Hand-drawn notation layered over a 3D city base — wayfinding as visual storytelling

Program Taxonomy

Isometric catalog of possible interventions — diagram as menu, not just description

Section Collage

Sections stacked with photography and figure — drawing as lived experience

Scenario Diagrams

Circular render + icon key — design options made comparable at a glance

Narrative Sections

Color-coded building sections across design options — the section as decision-making tool

Tools

What to draw with

Your Toolkit

By Hand

Pen & Paper

The fastest path from brain to page. Nothing to learn, nothing to load.

Sticky Notes

Movable, rearrangeable, physical. Great for mind maps and spatial sorting.

Digital — Collaborative

Miro

Infinite whiteboard. Ideal for group mind maps, journey maps, and sticky-note sessions.

Canva

Easy drag-and-drop diagrams, infographics, and presentations. No design background needed.

FigJam

Figma's free whiteboard — clean, real-time, great for flow diagrams.

Digital — Data & AI

Flourish

Data visualization without code. Maps, charts, stories. flourish.studio/examples

Claude (AI)

Describe what you want to visualize — Claude can generate diagrams, maps, and concept structures in seconds.

The best reference library for diagram inspiration. Search "diagrams visual" to start.

Closing

Paul Klee — and a step further

Keep drawing.
Keep walking.

The messier the line, the more honest the thinking.

Every drawing you make is a dialogue — with yourself, with your ideas, with what you don't yet know.

Resources

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