Making the Invisible Visible

In the Article, "Making the Invisible Visible" by Hillman Curtis, the author describes a situation in which he had began a project without presenting a strong theme or concept and therefore causing his work to be unsuccessful. After realizing his mistakes, Hillman created a system called "Making the Invisible Visible" in which one must first identify a theme, build a concept then do everything to support it. This concept is very similar to the process of the current assignment. In the project we were first required to chose a culture to represent, which is our theme, I chose Polynesia, and then create a book that showcases the culture through their artifacts. One of the objectives of the assignment was to identify the values of the culture. This step really helped to formulate a concept, opinion or perspective about the culture. In order to communicate clearly, we then need to allow the concept to shape our formal decisions. For example, Polynesia is composed of a series of islands that form an an imaginary triangle on a map. Because this concept is one of the elements of Polynesia I want to teach my viewers I repeat this triangle motif throughout my book in order to bring my viewer's attention to it. In the article, Hillman does something similar, he mentioned that while meeting with clients, he would write down repeated words in the brief that would help support the theme and provide a focus for formal decisions. Essentially by allowing a concept to shape our formal decisions, it prevents us from making arbitrary decisions that don't help to communicate anything at all.

Article Source: Making the Invisible Visible