As a designer I have witnessed first hand the incredible growth of the importance of design. Innovative designs have had a profound and positive impact on our lives, and the thinking process has been repurposed by organizations such as P&G, GE, and Apple as an effective instrument towards change. I have noted through numerous successful design assignments the powerful affect an iterative visual process has on companies, allowing their leadership the ability to envision with clarity a new perspective to a challenging problem.

1. Design visualization
Envisioning the possibilities by design

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Shikatani Lacroix is a leading branding and design
firm located in Toronto, Canada. The company
commission assignments from all around the world,
across CPG, retail and service industries, helping
clients achieve success within their operating
markets. It does this by enabling its clients’ brands
to better connect with their consumers through a
variety of core services including corporate identity
and communication, brand experience design,
packaging, naming and product design.
About the Author
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, R.G.D., President and Founder
of Shikatani Lacroix
Jean-Pierre (JP) Lacroix provides leadership and
direction to his firm, which was founded in 1990.
He has spent the last 30 years helping
organizations better connect their brands with
consumers in ways that impact the overall
performance of their business. Mr. Lacroix was the
first to coin and trademark the statement “The
Blink Factor” in 1990, which is a cornerstone
principle to how brands succeed in the
marketplace to this day. JP has authored several
papers, has been quoted in numerous branding
and design articles, and in 2001 he co-authored
the book “The Business of Graphic Design” which
has sold over 10,000 copies. JP can be reached at
jplacroix@sld.com and you can follow his thought
leadership webinars at: www.sldesignlounge.com
Other Articles and Books
Belonging Experiences...Designing Engaged Brands
Business of Graphic Design

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As a designer I have witnessed first hand the
incredible growth of the importance of design.
Innovative designs have had a profound and
positive impact on our lives, and the thinking
process has been repurposed by organizations
such as P&G, GE, and Apple as an effective
instrument towards change. I have noted through
numerous successful design assignments the
powerful affect an iterative visual process has on
companies, allowing their leadership the ability to
envision with clarity a new perspective to a
challenging problem.
This shift towards design has redefined
the idiom “seeing is believing” to a new
level of importance with the need for
organizations to safely navigate the
complexity of options. This clarity
through visualization has allowed
companies to develop innovative game
changing new products and services
that capitalize on consumers unmet
needs. Although the concept of
believing in an idea only after you are
able to visualize it may sound old, the
actual principle has demonstrated to be
a powerful concept in today’s competitive
marketplace. The ability to provide a quick visual
and, through the advent of 3D printing, an iterative
and low risk physical manifestation of the business
opportunity well before commercialization is
significantly affecting how innovative solutions and
business models are being taken to market.
The ability to visualize business potential is not only
relegated to conventional design practices; we are
now witnessing the design visualization of “big
data.” The ability to visualize insights defined as
infographics derived from complex information has
become an effective tool for leaders who want
better clarity from a large amount of information.

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This ability to bring meaning and insights from
diverse market data is fast becoming a best
practice tool for organizations looking to capitalize
on the wealth of information they are constantly
accumulating. This new process has flipped the old
paradigm of “a picture tells a thousand words” on
its head, and has evolved to become “an image
provides clarity from a million data points.”
Visualization is the art of creating visions of what
could be and transforming these aspirations into
reality. The ultimate benefit of design visualization
is the ability of organizations to align around a
single big idea that is visually connected to both
the cognitive and emotional side of reasoning,
which are key drivers to what motivates us all.
The power of visuals to inspire
In 1995 I coined the phrase Blink Factor to
describe the importance visuals play in
how we connect with brands and services.
I noted through research studies on a
variety of brands that the ability of
consumers to provide unaided awareness
of brands was predominantly focused
around the brand’s visual manifestation.
Further research supported our hypothesis
that more than 40 per cent of the
communication we absorb is visual, 80 per
cent of it is colours and shapes. Dr. Lynell Burmark,
Ph.D. Associate at the Thornburg Center for
Professional Development and writer of several
books and papers on visual literacy, noted “unless
our words, concepts, ideas are hooked onto an
image, they will go in one ear, sail through the
brain, and go out the other ear. Words are
processed by our short-term memory where we
can only retain about seven bits of information
(plus or minus two)...

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Images, on the other hand, go directly into longterm memory where they are indelibly etched.”
Ultimately, is this not what we want to achieve – an
etched image in the minds of our stakeholders that
motivates them to action?
The strong influence of visuals in our lives has only
accelerated the importance of such tools in
communicating ideas. We have become a nation of
visually driven consumers who are reliant on visuals
to communicate. Photos perform best for likes on
Facebook, more than 700 YouTube videos are
shared on Twitter every minute, and 37 per cent of
Pinterest account holders log in a few times every
week; 28 per cent said they log in a few times a
month; 15 per cent log in once daily; 10 per cent log
in numerous times a day.
Part of what we do as designers is narrow the gap
between imagination and reality in order for clients
to effectively visualize a given
opportunity. The growth in new
software and technology has allowed
designers the ability to narrow this
gap between what is and what could
be, within shorter timeframes.
Providing a clear image of what
defines success is one of the most
effective approaches to ensure the
result becomes a reality. Visuals are
also the gateway to our hearts and
can aspire, key factors that motivate
change within organizations as noted
by Maxwell Maltz, the highly
respected cosmetic surgeon who published the
groundbreaking book Psycho-Cybernetics. He
outlined how images are used to change behaviour,
from diet focused people to high profile sports
professionals.

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The many approaches to design visualization
To demonstrate the application of “visionality” as a
powerful tool for organizations wanting to bring
clarity to market complexity and to understand
how the principles can be applied to
organizations, I have outlined different
types of visualization approaches and
their benefits.
Image Boards
If you have ever participated in an arts
and craft class with children and seen
them create collages that support how
they view life or a story, you have
witnessed the principles of creating
image boards. Most new ideas or
complex business problems can be
solved by creating visual metaphors
formulated by the compilation of diverse
business ideas that capture various
elements of the idea or solution. With
compiled diverse images, individuals can
effectively articulate a range of solutions
and approaches, and leverage insights
from unrelated industries.
Organizations can leverage this technique when
soliciting insights from a diverse group of
individuals as part of a brainstorming session. I
have found this tool extremely useful when
participants are asked to explain why they selected
their choice of images. It tends to stimulate more
spin-off ideas from those who are viewing the
images for the first time. I have found that not all
individuals are comfortable presenting in groups
but are fully at ease when presenting visual ideas.

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Infographics
Infographics use images to create meaning from
complex information. Most commonly used in
mapping demographics and weather patterns, the
practice of visually representing large amounts of
data has evolved to trend reports, annual
reports and financial reports. My first
Legend
exposure to infographics was during major
consumer research for a large
segmentation study that allowed the
leadership to understand the different
% of time spent shopping ONLINE
behaviours of their target groups. Now it is
rather than retail
difficult to find a magazine or publication
Present
that does not leverage this approach, such
11
10
19
15
24
as USA Today which dedicates a section
of its front page to infographics.
HOUSEHOLD GOODS/
MASS MERCHANDISE
PERSONAL CARE/
COSMETICS/
MEDICATIONS
BOOKS/MAGAZINES/
MEDIA
CLOTHING/
FASHION
ELECTRONICS/
APPLIANCES
L E G E N D
0-25%
26-50%
51-75%
76-100%
%
%
%
%
%
5-10 years in the future
29%
28%
46%
30%
42%
Typical infographics create a visual
metaphor of complex information that
would otherwise be hard to comprehend,
and allow the viewer to easily grasp a
large quantity of data.
Infographics are a useful tool for
organizations to illustrate the performance
of the organization and the impact of key
metrics. The process allows everyone within the
organization the ability to understand complex
information, irrespective of their education level or
ability to understand financial statements.
3D Renderings
Most often used in the early stages of product or
branded experience design, this sophisticated tool
allows for the creation of a virtual depiction of
ideas. Since the work is created through various
software tools, it allows the designer and the client
the ability to explore a wide range of options
quickly.

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This tool has also become very sophisticated,
blurring the line between what is real and what is
imagined. We have leveraged this approach when
exploring new structural designs for packaging or
products. In certain situations, our 3D renderings
are used in place of actual photographs of
products as these may not be readily
available. If you want to understand how
this approach applies to everyday life, you
do not need to go any further than your
local wireless retail provider where most
of those great looking animated handsets
that look real are no more than well
crafted 3D models.
The use of 3D renderings requires the use
of special software and a well trained
designer, making this approach limited to
a select few within the design industry.
Companies use this approach, most
commonly identified as CAD designs, as
part of the manufacturing process to
create a direct link between the design
inspiration and the manufacturing
capabilities.
This approach tends to occur later in the
design development stage when the
concept, using loose sketches, has been
selected for further refinement.
Virtual Journeys
The majority of science-fiction movies
such as Avatar, Star Wars and The
Hobbit leverage the development of
computer generated worlds to give the
viewer the ability to see what has yet to be created
by man. In our profession, designers leverage this
technology to create virtual walk throughs of yetto-be-designed stores.

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Our firm pioneered this approach in 1989 when
Eastman Kodak asked our firm to develop a new
retail experience that leveraged their newest
emerging technologies. Since the study was being
conducted in Latin America, we decided to create
these virtual worlds to overcome language and
perceptual barriers as some of our markets
represented large percentages of the population
who could not read or write. The study was a huge
success and became the standard for how Eastman
conducted future studies.
Organizations have also created virtual shopping
shelves as a means to test shopper marketing
programs or to conduct shelf simulated research
for package testing. These new techniques allow
marketers to gain richer insights typically derived
from building live test labs, at a fraction of the cost.
I recently visited Explorer Research facilities which
had digital projectors that could create a virtual
life-sized shelf setting of any product category, or
even a retailer’s actual planogram. This creates an
effective environment to test ideas across myriad
retailers within a very short timeframe.
Rapid Prototyping
The newest visualization practice is rapid
prototyping, specifically the ability to create actual
physical manifestations of products. When I started
working in design, the term rapid prototyping did
not exist. "Mockups" took days, if not weeks, to
complete and were limited to simple labels or
objects. Today, with the advent of digital
printing and the technique of converting CAD
drawings into objects through a sequential
layering process, there is no limit to its
application from jewelry to the newest automobile.

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Objects that are created through 3D printing can
be used anywhere throughout the development of
new products, from product design and consumer
testing to full-scale production.
Although the technology has been around since
the late 1980s, its application is only now being
widely used as the printers become more
affordable and their capabilities expand.
The cost of this technology has become accessible
not only to corporations, but also to consumers,
which I believe will lead to a growth of new
crowdsourced products that are customized to the
individual needs of consumers. In the near future, I
foresee product brainstorming sessions that allow
respondents to convert their ideas into physical
prototypes, which will shorten the product
planning cycle significantly.
Where to next
The power of visualization will only grow as our
hunger for new products and ideas accelerates. No
longer will this realm only belong to designers as
technology has proven to effectively commoditize
industries. The desktop had a significant impact on
our industry with the quick disappearance of
typesetters, the commoditization of design
production by film houses and the crowdsourcing
of design solutions. The need to visualize future
opportunities will accelerate through humanity’s
hunger for something better and the accessibility
of easy-to-use and inexpensive technology.