Buro BRAND

Perhaps you’ve already heard, we released a new book in Autumn 2023!

Visual Working: Build your business drawing skills for effective communication at work. We super happy with it and we believe that this book brings us closer to the core of our company and what we believe in.

That doesn’t mean that people don’t still have questions. Someone once said: ‘But didn’t you already write/drew books before?’ Here in this blog you can read our answers to the most common questions (and let us know if you still have a question)!

What inspired you to write Visual Working?

Our mission: ‘vanzelfsprekend met (zelfgetekend) beeld’ (obviously visually) has not been reached yet! Using drawings, visualizations, animations and everything related to visuals has become more normal in the workspace. But there are still so many people who think: “Yeah super awesome, but it’s not something I can do…” And we want to give as many people as possible the confidence and knowledge that drawing is for everyone. Regardless of your experience and business context. And what will help you, is practicing with drawing skills, and knowing what sort of visualizing fits your work or purpose. We want to teach people how to apply drawings in their (daily) work and make everyone realize that drawing is a way of communicating and working together, and not a purpose on itself. And sometimes it ís the better option, compared to (just) talking and writing.

For who is Visual Working meant?

This book is for educators, coaches and facilitators who notice you can’t explain and collect everything in text and words. This book is for visual thinkers who are searching for potential ways of application at work. This book is for those who want to capture the attention of their audience during a presentation, and who want to call them to action. This book is for people who expect a big transition or shift in their work, their field or in society, and are looking for a different way of communicating and working together in a visual way.

Lastly, this book is for everyone who wants to gain the confidence in their drawing skills, creativity and visual thinking. In that way, nothing will stop you to use Visual Thinking in your life. And to achieve this, Visual Working has turned in a very practical book. It’s a workbook where we left space for you to draw. It also perfectly complements our trainings Business Drawing 1 and Business Drawing 2, the live AND online e-learnings.

How can I apply the skills from Visual Working in my work?

After reading and filling the Visual Working book with your drawings, you are able to communicate with self-drawn visuals. You no longer have to search Google for images of others, which are often very general or don’t fit the exact narrative you want to tell. And now you can! Aside from that, you have the know-how about the different forms of application of Visual Thinking in a business context. In this book we introduce the Buro BRAND’s Five Visual Thinking Types©, this model teaches you about the different possibilities of application, for example: making graphic recordings, visual templates to gather input from a group, using metaphors while making a capturing and compelling presentation. Discover for yourself which form of visual working fits you and your work!

What’s the difference with the books Visual Thinking and Visual Doing?

This book starts at the fundamentals of being able to draw, AND daring to draw. See it as learning a new language: you can read about it, but only by really using it and practicing you will be able to actively use it and master it. And that’s exactly what we do in Visual Working, actively practicing.

The Visual Thinking book also talks about the fundamentals of business drawing, just like Visual Working. It also goes into different visual collaboration techniques and methods, fitting a range of business settings. These are partially existing and known techniques in a ‘visual sauce’ and are used, for example, by PwC consultants who have given essential input to the book.

The Visual Doing book is an expansion (or deepening) for people who are already familiar with visual communication. There we focus on the proces and creation of (self-drawn) visuals. The thought process, decision making and of course a lot of visual inspiration for certain themes. Next to that, it gives inspiration and templates which you can copy and use in your (daily) work; indiviual, with your team or company.

How did Visual Working come to be?

This book was created to complement our new online trainings: Business Drawing 1 and Business Drawing 2. When we recorded these online trainings we were inspired by the possibilities and ideas we came up with! After that the ball started rolling and Willemien, together with Mahana and Georgette, started writing the content in the spring of 2023. At Buro BRAND there are illustrators and graphic designers, so after the content was there we worked together with our designers Lieveke and Laurelien to visualize the book we have today. Check our the endresult!

I’m curious to see how you would fill in/draw the exercises from the book!

We’d love to share this with you. Imitating is a good way to learn something, so we will happily share some of our good examples. We also really enjoy seeing how others would tackle an assignment. Keep an eye on our socials (Instagram and LinkedIn), we’ll be sharing some examples from practice and from the book (filled in by Willemien or one of our colleagues).

Sounds good. Where can I order the book?

If you’re based in the Netherlands you can order it with our publisher BIS Publishers, at Bol.com or at a local (larger) bookstore! Or pop into our office in The Hague to browse through it and have a chat with one of our colleagues.

If you’re based somewhere else in Europe or even outside of Europe, you can find it on Amazon.

Are you curious to know how Visual Working can help you? Have you been inspired by Buro BRAND’s Five Visual Thinking Types© and would you want to read more about it? Would you like to by a larger quantity of books? Or do you have a different question? Send a mail to info@burobrand.nl or give us a call at the office.

By Mahana Tuimaka