Since April 2009 I am working independently as TrendSketcher. For clients of various branches I make complex matters easy understandable with the help of sketches.
With sketching I started probably somewhere in the year 1986. “There’s a lot more you can do with that …”, I thought 22 years later, when I met a problem during my study of “Fashion, Design & Strategy” at the ArtEZ Artschool in Arnhem. I should present the results of a yearlong research in the field of “Social Forecasting” in an exciting and informative 10 minutes long presentation.
After flipping through my research folder back and forth without finding the right story, I grapped a pen and started to write down a keysentence or keyword and make small sketches of the research content that was interesting, irritating, new or flabbergasting. Within one week the map grew to its final shape (see below) and finally I realized that I just had to look at it to see a red line between the details. For my presentation I photographed the sketched details of my story, put each on a powerpoint slide and the surprise was ready for my lecturers.
I delved into the subject “information visualization” as part of my master thesis and created the concept for my profession as TrendSketcher. Awarded as the “Upcoming Talent” des Twoty 2009 (Trendwatcher of the Year Award, SecondSight Magazine) I started my business, to make more red lines visible and to proove that sketches can make complex matters easy understandable in an entertaining way.
