On Thursdays, I showcase an interesting visual or “Intellectual Headshot” that caught my eye throughout the week, and offer some comments on why it works (or sometimes, why it doesn’t).

This week's visual teardown comes from Nick Broekema — this one is a little meta, since by trade Nick is a freelance LinkedIn content designer. But who better to learn from?

I think this visual works quite well on several levels. Let's jump in:

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Visual objective:

• Primary: to share his POV and inspire a different action
• Secondary: to showcase his design skills (this is the meta part 🙂)

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Premise:

• Builders get caught in a loop of excitement and boredom

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“Headshot” type:

• Time series
  • It doesn’t look like a typical timeline or curve, but Nick’s loop is actually a series of events/emotions he wants to convey, and invite the viewer to internalize

What works:

• The windy loop — commonly a loop is used with a positive connotation (think: flywheel), but the curvy nature of this loop reinforce that this is a trap you can get caught in. Super keen design choice.
• The road and map-pins - a subtle motif that tells you this is a journey, and elevates this over a plain line-graph
• Emotions presented as quotes — if you’ve ever thought any of these things, you have an instant identification/resonance with the image, and you likely even gravitate to where on this path you’re currently at emotionally re: one of your projects or workstreams
• The purple off-ramp — draws a clear contrast as an escape to a never-ending loop

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One potential improvement:

• A direction arrow — it took me a second to understand the direction of travel, even though clockwise is the default way we read anything circular. A small arrow, perhaps in the white space on the bottom right corner would give us a gentle cue
  • That said, sometimes you want to leave part of the equation up to the viewer to connect the dots — (PJ Milani calls this the ‘curiosity gap’) — so leaving out an arrow may have been intentional

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Overall, this is a great example of a relatively complex idea, built out of years of Nick’s personal experience and observations, but distilled down into a simple, relatable, memorable and shareable visual POV.

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Bravo, Nick.

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💡

-Wes

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P.S. Need help extracting your brilliant ideas (or monologues) into visual form?

My 1:1 Intellectual Headshots sprint is designed specifically for solo consultants who carry around deep expertise, but struggle to articulate it crisply to their prospects.

In just 3 iterative sessions, we shake out a memorable visual narrative of your unique POVs, approach and offer.

From recent client Richard Rogers, of Rogers MacJohn consulting:

Sound helpful? Book a free chat, or just reply to this email.

February starts still available.