Visual Research – Sara’s Talk


We work in a creative and visual business, where it’s all about what the eye sees, so why not please the eye and make it visual from the beginning?

Monday we were introduced to the world of design through a presentation about visual research, the purpose of which was to help us understand more about both our course and the creative work field. And most of all, why visual research is such a key element.

So why is visual research such a vital part of the design process. Well, because design doesn’t come right away, but comes through a design process, and at the same time, your visual research will influence the final design. It helps you visualize colors, shapes and how it will look, and you can therefor go backwards, forwards and sideways in your project, and find find the right solution.

To understand the importance of this, Sara broke down the process of visual research into steps. This was to help us understand, how to work in the most effective way for every project by applying a structure to our workflow. She also told ways to documenting it, this could be done by drawing, photograph, filming, writing & just document the ideas you have in the most suitable way. At the same time you should always consider why the thing is relevant, you should not just document it because it looks good, you should write down why you did it and why it’s relevant. Because it’s important, that you can understand it and connect to it 5 years down the line, when you remember “ahh, I had that idea some years ago, that might be useful”. And at the same time it will support your knowledge of understanding.


So for who/m is this? It’s for our tutors and fellow peers, so they can understand how we think as a person. It’s also for peers to see it and learn from it, or maybe collaborate, so the final design will be even better and more interesting.

It’s also for other people, employers and the industry, because it’s a way to reach the industry.

So it all comes down to how you commit yourself to working to the best of your abilities, so you can connect all your research visibly to the world.

From Sara’s speech it’s clear that you can make a great design, but without the documentation to backup your process it may as well be worthless. So a key fact to keeping your head is to write down research/information because it will store your brain easily because you go through process by reading, thinking, acknowledging and writing it down.


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