Graphic Jam, I Have A Dream Edition

A while back, John Lesko led a graphic jam for D.C. area graphic recorders/facilitators/viz thinkers which he posted about on his blog here. From what I gather both from his post and from various social media posts of attendees the Jam went really well and it was fun to attend. I'd LOVE to go to an  informal graphic practice event like this, but thus far haven't found too many other people doing GR in the Philadephia Metro area (which can be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it).

The I Have A Dream speech has been on my list of things to practice with (more on that later) and I figured why not use a linky and invite others to get involved (sort of a virtual jam session). So for those who don't want to read the whole backstory here are the instructions:

1. Choose a few metaphors to visualize from this list written by Todd Cherches
2. Draw them out
3. Blog about it
4. Link your blog post here so that we can come and visit


Oftentimes, visual communication is thought of as using graphical elements to communicate and organize ideas. However, in his blog post Todd Cherches dubs Martin Luther King, "King of Visual Communication," because of his ability to evoke images through his speech. In order to illustrate his point, Cherches pulled a list of metaphors from the I Have A Dream Speech. Using this list makes it easy to choose just a few metaphors to depict without having to listen to or read the whole speech.

I didn't want to trivialize the speech by making it too cartoony, but I did find the exercise of trying to put the metaphors in graphic form valuable. Of course if one was to actually GR the whole speech trying to draw out each and every metaphor would likely be counterproductive. In fact, in The Graphic Facilitator's Guide Brandy Agerbeck warns newbies not to latch on to imagery too quickly.


I've chosen the following ones from the list and depicted them below:
1. A great beacon of light and hope
2. The whirlwinds of revolt
3. Let freedom ring
4. A bad check which has come back marked insufficient funds
5. The quicksands of racial injustice
6. Satisfy our thirst for freedom

I originally read Todd Cherches article on the Duarte blog. If you are interested in delving deeper into the presentation aspects of this speech Nancy Duarte has a great video on how King uses elements such as repetition, and cultural references, in addition to imagery to make an all around compelling speech.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with :)