Drawing Down the Vision, a practical guide to living and working creatively

Drawing makes sense.

Drawing, or ‘doodling’ as Sunni Brown describes, is a crucial tool to help solve complicated business problems, thinking creatively, and aid recall. See our ‘Practice’ posts for more tips on drawing. And more on Sunni Brown.

Synthesis and ‘Right Work’

SYNTHESIS (noun) \ˈsin(t)-thə-səs\ the combining of often diverse conceptions into a coherent whole I have been able to distill from my many experiments and projects the ones that may actually ‘stick’ in the long run. I’m not blindly grinding away at the ‘wrong work.’ It’s been a wild summer ride around here at Drawing Down the [...]

Before I die.

One of the most powerful exercises we use in our Drawing Down the Vision workshops is the “life list” exercise. The ‘life list’ is what most people refer to as “the bucket list”, or “what I’d like to accomplish before I die.” What we do differently is ask workshop participants to put drawn images [...]

The Daily Ritual.

We all have daily rituals. They may be structured by a calendar, or by rules. You may follow a set schedule, or you may just believe something like, ‘everything in moderation, including moderation.’ Here is a contrast of five daily rituals practiced by some famous creatives: THE ONE WHO LOVED CLOCKWORK RIGIDITY. CS Lewis. Writer [...]

The Lost Art of The Proposal: Get paid for anything!

After participating in a panel on ‘The Portfolio Career’ at the Arts Enterprise National Summit, I felt a need to share some practical advice on how I find more of the right work at P&G and in the ‘real world.’ Here’s how: So.. you’re freelancing… or in human terms… you have some skill you want [...]

How to build a creative juices pump.

DISCLAIMER: This works much better with 25+ cool people. Arts Enterprise is a group effort to break down the silos between art and business. I’m still buzzing from the summit this past weekend. Before we can merge the world of art and business… we must break down personal barriers between everyone attending our conferences and [...]

The edge is where the action is. Business-Design-Art-Music.

Amy and I are back from the Arts Enterprise Summit in Kansas City. It was so much more than a conference… Back in the real world, I found myself explaining the experience to a colleague. This event was special not because of the content of the slide decks or the caliber of the speakers, but [...]

Grab your sketch book and go!

This weekend sees the Drawing Down the Vision team heading to Kansas City to attend and present to the 2nd annual Arts Enterprise Summit. Adam and Amy will both be participating in a number of discussion panels on the nature of creativity as a focal point in the future of many disciplines in business and [...]

A day with some future leaders.

Recently, the Drawing Down the Vision team led a pro-bono workshop for 24 volunteer teenagers in the American Red Cross ‘Leadership Development Center‘ in Cincinnati. The young people had been involved with the program in years past and are now responsible for developing the overnight leadership conference for their new incoming peers. Amy and Adam [...]

Solitude and Leadership: If you want others to follow, learn to be alone with your thoughts.

Amy, my partner here at Drawing Down the Vision, shared a fantastic read with me this week: Solitude and Leadership. I’d like to share a taste here with you, but would greatly prefer if you read it in its entirety. I do it no justice. William Deresiewicz, a former Yale professor, addressed the Plebe (Freshman) [...]