Design Like Da Vinci: Collaboration Secrets from Da Vinci's Sketchbooks
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The document discusses Leonardo da Vinci's sketching process and lessons that can be applied today. It outlines that Da Vinci would sketch by hand on loose sheets of paper, do initial sketches alone, review sketches with others later, and annotate sketches with labels and arrows. He saved thousands of sketches over his lifetime. The document also discusses techniques for generating and refining ideas, including striving for quantity, deferring judgment, seeking new combinations, using imagination, using positive judgment, considering novelty, staying focused, and being able to redirect oneself.
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Design Like Da Vinci: Collaboration Secrets from Da Vinci's Sketchbooks
- 2. “Beyond this place there be dragons.”
- 4. A Strange Request is Made
- 5. Golden Horn Bridge Sketch
- 6. Da Vinci Details the Design
- 7. Da Vinci’s Bridge to Nowhere
- 8. In 1991, It’s Built in Norway
- 10. Brian Sullivan. @BrianKSullivan @bigdesign Hi, my name is #davinci
- 13. My Friends and I run the Big Design Conference.
- 14. Top 10 Thinkers of All-Time 1. Leonardo Da Vinci 2. William Shakespeare 3. The Pyramid Builders 4. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 5. Michelangelo 6. Sir Isaac Newton 7. Thomas Jefferson 8. Alexander the Great 9. Phidias 10. Albert Einstein source: Tony Buzan’s Book of Genius (1994)
- 16. 7 Steps to Everyday Genius 1. Be curious. You should be constantly learning. 2. Test knowledge. Learn from your mistakes. 3. Improve your own experience. Make it multi-sensory. 4. Embrace ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty. 5. Whole-brain thinking (science/art, logic/emotion). 6. Know the physical world (grace, dexterity, fitness). 7. Use system-thinking. See interconnections. Every designer should have these characteristics (and every problem-solver).
- 17. • Content
- 18. UX Sketch Books Published
- 19. UX Sketch Paper Created • A3 and A4 Sketching Paper • Four Dots Per Inch A4 Paper • iPhone Wireframe Sheets • Android Application Sheets • 4 Cell Storyboard Paper • ZURB Sketch Sheets • 6-UP Sketch Sheets
- 20. Sketch Software Released • Sketch Flow • Basalmiq
- 21. UX Sketching: Design Studio • Participants produce several sketches. • Discuss and critique, then re-sketch. • Merge ideas into one design concept.
- 22. Generate, Refine...Repeat You use the creative and evaluate sides of your brain in Design Studios.
- 23. Can Da Vinci Apply to UX?
- 25. The Last Supper (1495-98)
- 27. Only 30 Finished Paintings
- 29. He Was a Prolific Sketcher 13,000 pages
- 30. 13,000 Pages Equates To… Harry Potter Series + Chronicles of Narnia + Lord of the Rings Trilogy + Hunger Games Trilogy + Game of Thrones Series + 9/11 Commission Report + NIV Bible Total Pages 4,100 768 1,011 1,155 4,197 1,181 585 12,997
- 31. 6,000 Storyboards for Brave Source: Mashable (2012)
- 32. Under a Painting is a Sketch
- 33. Lots of Sketches Per Page • Vitruvian Man = 2 • Shoulders = 7 • Flowers = 20 • Spike Ladder = 7 • Glider = 8 • Tank = 3 He might be the most prolific sketcher ever.
- 35. Da Vinci’s Sketching Method 1. Sketch by hand on sheets of paper. 2. Do initial sketches alone. 3. Review with others, later. 4. Use annotations, arrows, and labels. 5. Save and re-visit earlier sketches.
- 36. 1. Use Separate Pages Codex Atlanticus (over 1,000 individual sketches)
- 37. No iPad
- 38. No Field Notes/Moleskine Bound pages are too constraining.
- 39. Separate Pages
- 43. Leonardo Lessons: Sketch by Hand: 1. No constraints. 2. Quick and cheap. 3. No special skills. On Separate Pages: 1. Portable. 2. Re-organized. 3. Grouped.
- 44. 2. Do Initial Sketches Alone Da Vinci dissected 10 cadavers for his over 750 sketches on human anatomy.
- 45. Da Vinci Sketched Alone He would initially sketch alone. Then, a doctor reviewed for technical accuracy.
- 46. “Cause of a Sweet Death” Da Vinci asked an old man if he could dissect him when he died. The old man accepted. Leonardo held the old man when he died. He started dissecting within a few minutes.
- 47. Two Artists, Same Interest Da Vinci and Michaelangelo dissected human cadavers—socially repugnant.
- 48. Sketch Alone
- 49. Leonardo Lessons: Sketch Alone: 1. No distractions. 2. Generate faster. 3. Incubate time. 4. Reflect, inspire. 5. Breathing room. 6. Avoid group think.
- 50. 3. Review with Others Marcontonio della Torre reviewed the human anatomy sketches for accuracy.
- 51. Reviewed by Generals Da Vinci reviewed sketches of weapons with generals and soldiers.
- 52. Review Together
- 53. Leonardo Lessons: Review Together: 1. Need expertise. 2. Collaboration. 3. Validation. 4. Accuracy. 5. Consensus.
- 54. 4. Annotate, Arrows, Labels Da Vinci’s sketches were wireframes: pictures with words, arrows, and labels.
- 55. Dissecting a Da Vinci Sketch 1. Picture in center. 2. Label on top. 3. Annotate on side. 4. Arrows point to key content.
- 56. Wireframe are the Same 1. Picture in center. 2. Label on top. 3. Annotate on side. 4. Arrows point to key content. Yes, a picture is worth a 1,000 words. Words with pictures equals clarity.
- 57. Leonardo Lessons: Sketches Need: 1. Picture 2. Description 3. Arrows 4. Annotations 5. Labels
- 58. 5. Save and Re-visit Later Some scholars think Da Vinci used an early form of the Cornell Method.
- 60. Reorganized Sketches Codex Atlanticus (over 1,000 individual sketches)
- 61. Grouped Weapon Sketches Da Vinci drew these sketches at different times, but they are grouped together.
- 62. Grouped Anatomy Sketches Marcontonio della Torre wanted to publish this work, but he died of the Black Death.
- 63. Technology Helps Us Group Evernote Fireworks Flickr Facebook
- 64. Revisit Later
- 65. Leonardo Lessons: Store & Re-visit: 1. Don’t throw out. 2. Store for later. 3. Cluster together. 4. Make findable. 5. Revisit later.
- 66. Generating Ideas
- 67. 1. Strive for Quantity 2. Defer Judgment 3. Seek New Combinations 4. Use Your Imagination
- 68. 1. Strive for Quantity Vitruvian Man is an iconic sketch of human potential. The Greek scholar, Vitruvius, said a man’s body could fit inside a circle and a square.
- 70. Three Masterpieces Innovation scholars predict that it takes 3,000 raw ideas for 1 successful idea. • 13,000 sketches = 3 Masterpieces • 750 anatomy sketches = Vitruvian Man
- 71. Leonardo Lessons: 1. Quantity Leads to Quality. 2. 13,000 sketches led to 3 classic masterpieces.
- 72. 2. Defer Judgment “It is easier to resist in the beginning than at the end.” - Da Vinci Defer positive and negative judgment.
- 73. Sketch of The Last Supper
- 74. Jesus and Judas Problems
- 75. Two Years Later…
- 78. Leonardo Lessons: 1. Positive judgment shuts you down. 2. Negative judgment shuts you down. 3. Your own judgment blocks you, too. 4. Your sketch is a draft to re-visit.
- 79. 3. New Combinations Da Vinci had a pet dragon.
- 80. Leonardo’s Pet Dragon • Da Vinci created a pet dragon by gluing other animal parts to a lizard. • He added fish scales. • He gave it a bat ears. • He painted the lizard. • He added wings that flapped when it walked.
- 81. • Da Vinci always looked to put things to another use.
- 82. The First Automobile • Using the existing tools of his day, he made the/ the first automobile. • Steering columns. • Rack and pinions. • Wheels. • Cranks. • Springs.
- 83. Leonardo Lessons: 1. New combinations from existing parts. 2. Put old things to a new uses. 3. Take an element and make it bigger or smaller.
- 84. 4. Use Your Imagination “Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?” - Da Vinci
- 87. Da Vinci’s Flying Machines
- 88. Successful Glider Test In 2006, scientists flew a Da Vinci Glider, using available material from his time.
- 89. Leonardo Lessons: 1. Avoid the common response zone. 2. More ideas force you to use your imagination. 3. Let ideas incubate. Re-visit with a new perspective.
- 90. 1. Strive for Quantity 2. Defer Judgment 3. Seek New Combinations 4. Use Your Imagination
- 91. Refining Ideas
- 92. 1. Use Positive Judgment 2. Consider Novelty 3. Stay Focused 4. Redirect Yourself
- 93. 1. Use Positive Judgment “The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.” - Da Vinci
- 94. 65,000 thoughts per day. 65% are negative, roughly 42,000.
- 97. Leonardo Lessons: 1. Use positive judgment first. 2. Explore for value and benefit. 3. Avoid the natural tendency to think initially negative.
- 98. 2. Consider Novelty “There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see.” - Da Vinci
- 99. The City of Venice called one of Da Vinci’s inventions “impractical”.
- 100. Pope Leo X Bans Autopsies Da Vinci’s dissections of cadavers was seen as disgusting. It was outlawed by the Pope.
- 101. Sultan Rejected His Bridge “Swoop and poop! The executive seagull maneuver.” - Jared Spool
- 102. Leonardo Lesson: 1. Don’t dismiss novel ideas immediately. 2. Novel ideas might lead to innovations. 3. Many of Leonardo’s ideas were rejected. 4. Your idea may be ahead of its time.
- 103. 3. Stay Focused “As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself.” - Da Vinci
- 105. You will lose focus from time to time. Take a break. Go for a walk. Re-focus. Break BreakLunch
- 106. The Da Vinci Dilemma Too many talents, not enough time. • Mathematician • Scientist • Anatomist • Military Strategist • Civil Engineer • Artist • Sketcher
- 107. “I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have.” - Da Vinci A Death Bed Confession
- 108. Leonardo Lessons: 1. Stay focused on what’s important. 2. Take breaks or walks to re-focus. 3. Focus on one thing at a time. 4. Don’t procrastinate. 5. Perfectionism kills productivity.
- 109. 4. Redirect Yourself
- 110. Cesar Borgia, Short Bio • Son of a Pope • Cardinal by age 17 • Killed his brother • Dictator in his land • Survived poisoning • Killed many followers • Died in war • Patron of Da Vinci for a short time
- 111. Machiavelli, Short Bio • Politician for 14 years • Head of Florence militia • Wrote The Prince • “Ends justify the means.” • “Better to be feared than loved.” • “Too much freedom can lead to the soul's decay.”
- 113. Da Vinci Caught in Middle
- 115. Suffered Severe Trauma Da Vinci had "a profound psychological change . . . as a result of his terrifying experiences“ with Borgia. source: Paul Strathern (2010)
- 116. Da Vinci Built Maps
- 117. Improved Borgia’s Fortress It had rounded walls to counter the direct impact of a cannonball. Interior walls led to fortified positions.
- 118. Designed a Movable Bridge
- 119. Da Vinci’s “Grotesque Error” Imagine what Borgia would done with: • Glider • Crossbow • Tank • Cluster Bomb • Machine Gun • Helicopter • Hand-crank catapult
- 120. Da Vinci Redirects His Work Da Vinci gives Borgia defensive items: • Map of Milan • Map of Imola • Hedometer • Movable Bridges • Improved Ladder • Fortress Redesign
- 121. Da Vinci Redirects His Work “I will not publish, nor divulge such things because of the evil nature of men.” - Da Vinci
- 122. Stores Them in a Codex Codex Atlanticus (most of his military sketches)
- 123. “I have wasted my hours.” Final words of Da Vinci
- 124. Leonardo Lessons: 1. You cannot avoid office politics. 2. Maintain your own values, to the end. 3. Design can be done under duress. 4. Re-direct yourself to positive things.
- 125. Final Thoughts
- 126. 5 Sketching Secrets 1. Sketch by hand. Use sheets of paper. 2. Do initial sketches alone. 3. Review with others, later. 4. Use annotations, arrows, and labels. 5. Save and re-visit earlier sketches.
- 127. • Content
- 128. 1. Strive for Quantity 2. Defer Judgment 3. Seek New Combinations 4. Use Your Imagination
- 129. 1. Use Positive Judgment 2. Consider Novelty 3. Stay Focused 4. Redirect Yourself
- 130. 1. Strive for Quantity 2. Defer Judgment 3. Seek New Combinations 4. Use Your Imagination 1. Use Positive Judgment 2. Consider Novelty 3. Stay Focused 4. Redirect Yourself
Editor's Notes
- Welcome to Design Like Da Vinci. As it turns out, Leonardo Da Vinci was gifted in many design disciplines, including map making.
- There is an ancient saying by old mapmakers. As they charted on unknown territory (literally going off their map) ….at the edge of the world, they used to say, “Beyond this place there be dragons.” We are going to see maps, ancient devices, and maybe a dragon in the next hour.- Barclay Cole ‘Out of Africa NOTE: Don’t give away the dragon…just say something to the effect that just as Da Vinci went into uncharted territories you are going to show modern designers how to as well.
- Here is a map of Instanbul. The year is 1502. It is the height of the Ottoman Empire. The Golden Horn Bay sit atop of the land, which we now know as Turkey.
- The Sultan of Istanbul wants to build a bridge across the Golden Bay to defend the bay, which houses his navy. And, he wants to open up a new trade route with other lands. Leonardo Da Vinci writes a letter to the Sultan to bid on the job.
- He produces a sketch of his ideas and explains his vision.
- The bridge has a keystone arch, four walkways will span the bridge to allow for more people to cross, additional support from underneath, and allow enough room for a ship to sail under it.
- The Sultan’s engineers laugh at Da Vinci. They exclaim that the keystone arch is flawed. It was “DaVinci’s bridge to nowhere”.
- 500 years later, the Da Vinci Bridge is created in Norway based upon the sketch rejected by the Sultan and his engineers.
- You might be wondering: Why Da Vinci? How can he help a 21st Century designer?
- My name is Brian Sullivan. I got interested in Leonardo Da Vinci about 10 years ago.
- I run two state-of-the art usability labs in Dallas, Texas. We have five analysts on the team.
- We study how users think and feel about our products in the labs.
- My friends and I started the Big Design Conference in 2009.
- 10 years ago, I was reading a book about great thinkers. Leonardo Da Vinci was considered to be the #1 thinker of all-time. He was rated above Shakespeare, Sir Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein. But, I knew essentially nothing about Da Vinci.
- So, I found a book on Leonardo Da Vinci by Michael Gelb. I highly recommend this book. It changed my life!
- In his book, Gelb talks about 7 steps to everyday genius, which includes. 1) Being a constant learner. 2) Experimenting and learning from your mistakes. 3) Improve your senses to improve your understanding of the world. 4) Embracing paradox, ambiguity, and uncertainty. 5) Using whole brain-thinking. 6) Knowing the physical world. 7) Using system-thinking. I think designers should have all these characteristics.
- I latched on Da Vinci’s ideas on whole brain thinking. Plus, I knew he had done a lot of sketches.
- We have seen several books published specifically on UX sketching: Back of the Napkin, BeyondWords,Understanding Comics, and Sketching User Experiences to name a few.
- With our new found interest in sketching, several types of UX sketch paper was created.
- We even have software that mimics hand sketching like Basalmiq and Sketch Flow.
- Design Studios are sketching workshops, which are the #1 method in my labs. Sketch, critique, re-sketch, and mashup. We also have sketchboarding, RIPS, RITE studies, and UX critiques.
- You use the creative and evaluative sides of your brain in Design Studios. For me, this kind of whole-brain thinking reminded me of Leonardo Da Vinci.
- With Leonardo’s thinking principles in mind, I began to wonder how we could apply them to UX design.
- Da Vinci’s greatest legacy is not his artwork.
- The Last Supper took three years to complete. Da Vinci struggled to draw face of Jesus, which was what he called perfection. And, he struggled to finish the face of Judas, which he called “pure evil.” He captures the moment when Jesus tells his Apostles that “One of you will betray me.” And all Hell breaks loose.
- Lisa Giocondo was the wife of Da Vinci’s patron. Mona is short for Madonna. One art critic has said, The Mona Lisa is the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world.
- Leonardo produced only 30 pieces of finished art. He was a notorious perfectionist and procrastinator.
- The argument can be made that his Sketchbooks are his greatest legacy.
- Leonardo Da Vinci was a prolific sketcher with over 13,000 pages in his Sketchbooks.
- You could read the Harry Potter Series, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Chronicles of Narnia Series, The Hunger Games Trilogy, The Game of Thrones Series, 9/11 Report, and The Bible to still be three pages short of Da Vinci’s sketchbooks.
- According to Mashable, Pixar has a storyboard for every second of Brave. Brave is 100 minutes long, which equals 6,000 concept storyboards. Da Vinci did more than twice that!
- Under every painting, Da Vinci did a basic sketch, too.
- Plus, each page contains more than one sketch. Some estimates have him doing 60,000 sketches.
- When I read Da Vinci’s Sketchbooks, I came away with five sketching secrets for UX designers.
- I noticed that UX Designers could take away these five sketching secrets.Sketch on separate sheets of paper. Do your initial sketches alone.Use annotations, arrows, and labels.Review with others, including experts.Save and re-visit earlier sketches.
- This is the Codex Atlanticus, as it might have looked in the late 16th Century. The codex is actually box with over 1,000 pages of Da Vinci’s sketches.
- Leonardo sketched on individual sheets of paper. He did not use an iPad.
- Da Vinci did not use bound paper. He did not use a folio, field notes, or a moleskine.
- When you think about a Design Studio or a brainstorming session, separate sheets of paper give you freedom and flexibility.
- Here are 20 different designs from a Design Studio. The Designers used separate sheets of paper.
- Here is how they looked when we quickly grouped the ideas together. Imagine how hard it would have been to do a simple grouping exercise with bounded page.
- Da Vinci sketched different ideas for how people might fly. Then, he grouped them together in the Codex Atlanticus. Scholars know that he sketched them at different times. It was over a four year period.
- Lesson #1: Sketch by hand. No iPad. No skills needed. And, use different sheets of paper. They are portable. You can group and re-organize, as needed.
- The second sketching secret of Leonardo is to sketch alone. Da Vinci dissected 10 cadavers to help him understand human anatomy. He sketched over 750 drawings of the human body.
- He would do the sketches alone, but he followed up with an Anatomy Doctor to verify accuracy and completeness.
- According to Georgio Vasari, a biographer and friend of Leonardo, Da Vinci once asked an old man for his permission to dissect him. Da Vinci wanted to know the cause of a sweet death. The old man agreed. When he was dying, Da Vinci held the old man until he passed away. After a few minutes, he dissected the cadaver.
- Da Vinci and Michaelangelo both dissected cadavers. It was considered socially repugnant at the time. We might view it as Da Vinci blended science and art.
- When you think about a Design Studio or a brainstorming session, sketch alone first.
- Sketching alone allows for no distractions, so you generate faster. You can let ideas incubate. You can reflect, be inspired. Mostly, you avoid group think.
- The third sketching secret is Leonardo Da Vinci did review his sketches with others. Marcantonio della Torre reviewed his sketches on human anatomy.
- Da Vinci shared his ideas with generals and soldiers for some of his war machines.
- After you sketch alone, you do need to review with another person or team. It allows you to use the left-side of the brain to evaluate.
- You need other’s expertise and perspective. You may not like their answers every time. But, you do need to collaborate, validate, ensure accuracy, and obtain a consensus.
- When you sketch, you will want to have annotations, arrows, and labels. Da Vinci produced 1,000s of wireframes.
- Here is the famous picture of a Fetus. It looks remarkably like a wireframe with a picture in the center, labels, annotations, and arrows.
- This wireframe has the same details.
- To Design Like Da Vinci, your sketches need pictures with descriptions, annotations, arrows, and labels. If they donot have these elements, you are doodling.
- While you might do wireframes, do you save and re-visit your work. Some scholars believe that Da Vinci used a basic form of the Cornell Method of note-taking, where you split your page into three areas. The main area contain your notes on a specific subject, on the side are key words (you might call them tags), and the bottom contains a summary.
- Da Vinci’s Spiked Ladder shows a main area, a key concept, and summary information.
- Da Vinci used the tags to help him quickly organize and re-order the different pages in his codex.
- We know he sketched weapons at different times, only to re-order them later.
- We know Da Vinci grouped his anatomy sketches together. Marcantonniodella Torre was college professor who worked with Leonardo on the human anatomy sketches. The plan was to publish them, but Marcantonio died of the Black Death before it could be done.
- Today, technology allows us share, group, and collaborate. Evernote is great tool that many of you probably use. Smashing Magazine presented an article last year, where a Design Pattern Library was created using Evernote and Fireworks. Peter Morville groups sketches in Flickr. My friend, J. Schuh, uses Facebook to group his Coffee Cup photos, which shows a different cartoon character drinking some Java each day. Scooby Doo, Smurfs, Roger Rabbit, and more can be found there. The important thins is Save You Work and Re-visit It Later. Many designers just throw away sketches.
- You may want to re-visit earlier ideas, especially when you start to refine them.
- Here is the last sketching secret. Do not throw out your sketches. Store them for later. Make them findable, so you can re-visit them. Remember Leonardo’s Bridge to Nowhere. It was built 500 years later. It was a Bridge of the Future.
- As I have mentioned before, whole brain thinking requires you to generate ideas, and then to refine them.
- When you generate ideas, you need to follow these four rules.Strive for QuantityDefer Judgment (positive and negative)Seek New CombinationsUse Your Imagination
- When generate ideas, you have to strive for quantity. Vitruvian Man was Leonardo’s third masterpiece. It is also a visual representation of a math problem. According to the Greek scholar, Vitruvius, you could draw a perfect circle and a perfect square depending upon how the human body is proportioned.
- As I mentioned before, Leonardo had already drawn 750 sketches of human anatomy.
- Plus, I mentioned that he had 13,000 pages of sketches and 3 masterpieces (Vitruvian Man, The Last Supper, and The Mona Lisa). According to innovation scholars, it takes 3,000 raw ideas to come up with one successful one. Da Vinci had 13,000 sketches and 3 masterpieces. The math holds up.
- So, rule #1 for generating ideas is to strive for quantity. Quantity leads to quality.
- The second rule for generating ideas is to defer judgment (both positive and negative). Da Vinci once wrote, “It is easier to resist in the beginning than at the end.”
- Here is a sketch of the apostles at the Last Supper. In his sketching up to the Last Supper, Leonardo tried to get into the heads of each apostle. He positioned their bodies in certain ways.
- Leonardo had a Jesus and Judas problem. He simply could not get past his own mental block. In his memoirs, he writes of struggling with the face of perfection, Jesus, and the face of pure evil, Judas. In the church where he was painting the Last Supper, the Prior of the Church asked Leonardo to finish up his work. Leonardo told him that he could not rush perfection. The Prior told him to get the job done. Leonardo told him that he could use the face of the Prior as the face of Judas. He walked away angry.
- Two years later, he finished the Last Supper.
- As you generate ideas, positive judgment affects your ability to produce a vast quantity of sketches. You end up sketching on only positive ideas.
- If you hear only negative things, you tend to shut down. You produce only safe, rather than novel ideas.
- You need to defer judgment. Both positive and negative judgment can affect your ability to generate ideas. Your on internal biases can also affect your ability to generate ideas, too. It is just a sketch. You can re-visit it later.
- You need to seek new combinations. When Leonardo was 12 years old, his father asked him to paint a dragon on a wooden shield. After a few days, his father decides to check on Leonardo’s progress. Before he opens the door to Leonardo’s room, he smells a horrible odor coming from the room. He opens the door to see Leonardo in one corner, focused on his work. He sees sketches all over the room. In another corner, he sees the most gorgeous dragon shield. He asks Leonardo, where he got his inspiration. Leonardo tells him that he captured a baby dragon. He takes his dad to a wooden box. He opens the lid. His dad sees a small creature with the body of a lizard, the scales of a fish, large ears, a beard, and wings. Leonardo asks his dad, if he wants to see it move. He nods his head up and down. Leonardo claps. And, the baby dragon moves.
- Leonardo had captured a small lizard in his garden. He used the body parts of a fish, a bat, a rooster, and a moth to complete the transition. He even had the bat wings move when the lizard moved. He had painted all of the body parts the same color. According to Giorgio Vasari, his biographer, people would often visit to see his pet dragon.
- Leonardo used new combinations to create his pet dragon. With this movable bridge, he used a different configuration of boards and cross-beams toshow how quickly it could be made.
- This is an example of the first automobile. Da Vinci used existing parts like a wheel, cranks, springs, rack, and pinions to create the automobile. You could crank up the automobile. It would go for about 40 feet.
- When you are generating ideas, seek new combinations from existing parts. You can put old things to a new use. You can make certain elements larger or smaller.
- Lastly, when you generate ideas, you must engage your imagination. Leonardo Da Vinci, once said, “Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake.”
- Let’s revisit what makes a successful idea. You generate a large quantity of ideas, then you refine them.
- To get to a novel idea, you have to get out of the common response zone. Novel ideas do not come with the first or second thing that pops into your head (that’s the common response zone).
- Da Vinci had a dream of flying. Here are several examples of how he imagines it might be done. Wings mounted to a human body, a helicopter, and an airplane. None of the technology to actually do this type of flying would exist for over 400 years. He had to engage his imagination.
- As it turns out, scientists were able to fly the Da Vinci Glider in 2006. They used only the available parts from his time, too.
- Lastly, when you are generating ideas, you must use your imagination. You need to get out of the common response zone. When you strive for quantity, you force yourself to engage your imagination, anyway. Let your ideas incubate, too. You can re-visit them with a fresh perspective.
- To recap, here are four rules for generating ideas like Da Vinci:Strive for quantity.Defer judgment (both positive and negative).Seek new combinations.Use your imagination.
- It is not enough to generate ideas, you need to refine them. And, ultimately, you need to release them.
- Here are four rules for refining ideas:Use positive judgment first.Consider the novelty of a potential idea.Stay focused.Redirect yourself, if needed.
- The first rule of refining ideas is to use positive judgment first. Da Vinci once said, “The greatest deception men suffer from is their own opinions.”
- Neuroscientists calculate that we have 65,000 thoughts per day. 65% are negative. It is our natural tendency to think of things in a negative way.
- We also know that Da Vinci struggled with self-criticism.
- Imagine you are sketching and your boss tells you can’t work, it sucks, or nobody will buy it. It shuts down the logical side of your brain. You need to explore the value and benefit of potential ideas.
- So, use positive judgment first to avoid the natural tendency to think negatively. Plus, you willl explore the value and benefit of potential ideas.
- The second rule of refining ideas is to consider novelty. It is not enough to just think positively. You need to consider how a novel idea can lead to an innovative breakthrough. Da Vinci once said, “There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, and those who do not see.”
- The city of Venice called Da Vinci’s moveable wall as impractical. Da Vinci designed it so they could repel invaders, but not cause flooding, which seems very practical. They did not consider novelty.
- Pope Leo X banned autopsies. He did not consider the novelty of having those human anatomy sketches. The Rennaisance period is called the Age of Enlightment. It could have been known for medical breakthroughs.
- Recall the Sultan who rejected the bridge. Jared Spool would call it “swoop and poop, the executive seagull maneuver.” He did not consider novelty.
- Don’t dismiss novel ideas, which may lead to innovations. Many of Da Vinci’s ideas were initially rejected. Your idea may be ahead of its time.
- The third rule for refining ideas is to stay focused. Da Vinci had a tough time with it.
- Leonardo produced only 30 pieces of finished art. He was a notorious perfectionist and a procrastinator. It has been said that perfectionism leads to procrastination. They both affect production.
- When I perform a Design Studio, I schedule breaks. I specifically tell the teams to walk outside. Re-focus. We take a lunch, more breaks, and so on. Scheduling andpace are very important to maintain focus.
- Da Vinci had a dilemma. He was a man of many talents, but not enough time. We have a distraction dilemma, with so information and not enough time.
- On his deathbed, Leonardo would say, “I have offended God and mankind because my work didn’t reach the quality ot should have.”
- Stay focused. Take breaks. Don’t procrastinate. Perfectionism kills productivity.
- Lastly, when you are refining ideas, you may have to redirect yourself. This is the darkest period in Da Vinci’s career. The man on the right is Cesar Borgia. The man on the left is Machiavelli.
- Borgia was the son of a Pope, who became a Cardinal at the age of 17. Many historians think he killed his brother. He conquered some land and became a dictator. He was poisoned, but survived. He was known to kill his followers. Borgia died at war. For a short time, he was the patron of Leonardo Da Vinci.
- Niccolo Machiavelli was a politician for 14 years. He was the head ofFlorence militia. He wrote The Prince, which was a political treatise on having a strong, decisive political leader. He is known for having wrote: The ends justify the means. It’s better to be feared than loved. Too much freedom can lead to the soul’s decay.
- For Machiavelli, Borgia represented the ultimate goal for a political leader. He was The Prince.
- Da Vinci is caught in the middle. He is between an obsessed, power-hungry Borgia and his politically-savvy, cheerleader, Machiavelli. You think you have office politics.
- During the summer, Borgia learns of a conspiracy. He invites his guests to a dinner party. Then, he murders each one. Borgia places their heads on spikes. He parades them around town. Da Vinci has been told he needs to develop some military weapons. What’s a designer to do?
- According to a recent historian, Da Vinci suffered a profound psychological change as a results of his terrifying experiences with Borgia. What did Da Vinci do?
- Da Vinci developed a hedometer to accurately create maps for Borgia. Surveyors use a similar product today to measure distances and terrain.
- Da Vinci suggested the use of rounded walls to fortify the fortress of Borgia. The rounded walls made it harder for a cannonball to have a direct impact. Inner walls were built, which allowed for fortified positions if an outer wall fell. For its time, this design was considered impenetrable.
- He designed a movable bridge to get soldiers across water quickly.
- His military machines that were once a source of pride were something that Da Vinci called a grotesque error. Imagine what Borgia would have done with a glider, crossbow, tank, cluster bomb, machine gun, helicopter, and hand-crank catapult.
- So,Da Vinci redirects his work. He built defensive items.
- He writes, that he will publish or divulge such things because of the evil nature of men.
- So, he stores them in the Codex Atlanticus.
- The final words of Leonardo Da Vinci were: I have wasted my hours. The greatest thinker of all time thought he was a failure.
- You cannot avoid politics. You have to maintain your own values. Design can be done under duress, just look at what Da Vinci did. Sometimes, you have to redirect yourself.
- Here are my final thoughts.
- Sketch on separate sheets of paper. Do your initial sketches alone.Use annotations, arrows, and labels.Review with others, including experts.Save and re-visit earlier sketches.
- Use whole-brained thinking.
- When you generate ideas, you need to follow these four rules.Strive for QuantityDefer Judgment (positive and negative)Seek New CombinationsUse Your Imagination
- When you refine ideas:Use positive judgment first.Consider NoveltyStay FocusedRedirect, as needed.
- If you can do these eight things, you can…
- Design Like Da Vinci. As you go out into uncharted territories to create new designs, Here there be dragons! Thank you!