Design Like Da Vinci

By: Brian Sullivan Open Camp Conference

LIKE

Da Vinci’s Journals

• Da Vinci wrote over 13,000 pages of notes and visual diagrams in his journals

• Da Vinci clustered his ideas into drawings and observations

• This page is Da Vinci’s observations of the arm

Creativity Must Be Unstructured

• Da Vinci’s writings are idea journals based on what inspired him, daily observations

• Ideas were sketched

with notes. No roman numerals or bulleted lists (aka this preso)

Start from the Inside Out

• Da Vinci scholars suggest he sketched his main topic in the center of the page

• Journal page starts as pictures without text

Add Text Descriptions to Pictures

• Da Vinci would add detailed notes and observations to his illustrative ideas

• Da Vinci did purposely use different colors of text for his notes

Cover the Entire Page

• Da Vinci’s journal pages were always full.

• Scholarship indicates that he revisited and

refined ideas

• Da Vinci captured and refreshed ideas

Manage Space in a Scalable Manner

• Da Vinci used an early form of the Cornell Method of notetaking

• You will frequently see distinct areas: 1. notetaking2. quick reference3. summary footer

Example of Cornell Method Page

• In this example, we see a complicated idea

for military ladder.

• We see the drawing in a specific area with notes in another area

and cross-reference in a footer area

Idea Journals are Like Mind Maps

Mind Map of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” (courtesy of Mappio)

Da Vinci Foresaw Many Things

• Da Vinci is known as both an artist and a

scientist.

• He foresaw:- Helicopter- Tank- Parachute- Solar Power- Cardiovascular disease- Airplanes

Leonardo’s Bridge to Nowhere

• In 1502, Da Vinci sketched an idea for

bridge for the Sultan of Istanbul.

• The bridge was never built because the Sultan’s engineers deemed it unstable.

Leonardo’s Bridge Built in • In 2006, Turkey completed the

Leonardo Da Vinci Bridge, which is a scaled-down

version with a 300-feet span and total length of 400 feet.

• Da Vinci was right the classic

keystone arch could be

stretched narrow and

widened without losing integrity.

Imagine the Journals as Blogs

Imagine Blogs as Da Vinci Journals

Imagine Da Vinci’s Indexing

Imagine Da Vinci Storing Pics

Imagine Da Vinci’s Videos

For Da Vinci—Ideas, Then Journal

For You, Ideas, Journal, Then Blog

Bravo, Gratzi, QA