Barcelona, Saturday 3rd of October. In a sunny design studio of Gracia took place the first of the diagram(a)s-backstage workshop series. In the first place I would like to thank all the participants for their hard work and great feedback during the workshop. Although, the participants came from different backgrounds such as graphic design, web design, industrial design and architecture, all of them share an interest in information design, visual representations, mapping information and maps.
10:30 The workshop programme included two parts: practical activities and some theory, followed by analyses and discussions of the work done.
11:04 After a short introduction, participants were engaged in a diagrammatic activity, where initially they had to analyse, interpret, and organise different contents (from social/historical themes to technical/scientific ones). Secondly, they mapped the information and elaborated their own diagrams. They used a wide range of media, from digital tools to manual ones, like pens, pencils and scissors, papers, magazines and newspapers.
13.42 Break! After more than 2-non-stop working hours, a short break to recover energy and network was more than welcome.
14:02 The second part began with theory about some key concepts like the relevance of information organization in diagrams creation, the description of the 5-stage process of diagrams design, and the meaning of the terms decode and encode. The final theme was to emphasize the need of multidisciplinary team groups for a proper understanding of the contents.
14:56 Feedback and comments. Each participant presented their results and explained their decision-making process.
15:22 Unfortunately, there was too much to say and show during the 5-hour workshop, and it was quite difficult to approach deeply into everything. However, I trust the main purpose of the event has been transmitted: information organization is essential to achieve effective diagrams.
Next stop, London, 17th of October. There is too much to do during the next two weeks to set up the next workshop but with renew energy after the encouraging and stimulating first experience!
Special thanks to Jessica and Paola for their support and help before, during and after the workshop, and to Tiago (+ other designers of the studio).
Bridging Theory and Practice 