Rapid Viz! [Paperback]

I have always enjoyed reading - and playing around with the ideas from - Kurt Hank's books. I have all his books, which include Draw!, Design Yourself, The Change Navigator, Wake Up Your Creative Genius, Up Your Productivity.

Like his other books, this book is very well illustrated, conceptually & graphically. It's primary focus is introduction of a Rapid Visualisation Process, which one can learn easily & then use readily to capture thoughts in visual forms on paper. It is packed with ideas, games, puzzles & exercises to guide the reader.

It is written for the novice in mind. It provides a step by step approach to the practical strategies of seeing, thinking, & drawing.

I must say: It is really great stuff to get you moving with visual thinking!

...maybe 3-1/2 Stars. The basic principles in this book are pretty solid; it's the basic presentation here that leaves a bit to be desired.
This is one of several books that I have with this great, sideways physical format & dimensions: Drawing: A Creative Process, and Basic Perspective Drawing: A Visual Guide being 2 others easily worth mentioning. In any case, Rapid Viz helps creative people with getting their ideas onto paper: quickly, clearly, and in a systematic fashion. Quick & accurate sketching in any medium can be the foundation for finished, professional work. In fact, as this book explains, using a systematic process in developing our ideas can save us a great deal of time in the long run. This book details this systematic process. The ideas here aren't completely new: it's the gathering of these ideas into a single book *for the 1st time* that makes this 'a new method' in its presentation. It's split almost evenly into 2 halves: the first explaining the basics of perspective; the second detailing the specific steps in this quick visualization process. Perspective is clearly the foundation here, which leads me to my biggest criticism: if half this book gives us watered-down perspective, why not just get a full-blown perspective book? And some would say the 2nd half of this book is simply common sense. Of course the answer here is equally simple: common sense isn't always that common(!). It really *can* help to have this process clearly stated in a book. But the entire thing has this sort of watered-down, unfinished look, making it seem like maybe a better version could be just around the corner. As it turns out, there *is* a newer, 3rd edition of this book, and it's actually available today. Since I haven't yet bought this newer version I thought I'd detail my current thoughts in this 2nd edition's review. I actually like to think of Rapid Viz and Ching's Drawing: A Creative Process together as being 2 sides of the same coin. Whereas Ching's book isn't clear & concise but has visual detail & depth, Rapid Viz *is* clear & concise but *lacks* visual detail & depth. If these two could be combined, it might make for a really great single book on rapidly visualizing the creative process. Both have their benefits and, in my opinion, are basically worth getting. Yet I'm not exactly confident others will agree. Maybe the new Rapid Viz 3rd Edition has improved on these ideas...

*UPDATE*- I just bought the new 3rd edition, and I'm very sorry I did- it's a smaller-sized version, a completely unnecessary downgrade, and for me a total & complete waste of money- at best. This here 2nd edition is easily the one I recommend!

I was expecting a book weighted toward doodling; idea-generation; capturing thoughts on paper. I was disappointed to find it more oriented toward graphic artists or illustrators. Lots of topics like composition, perspective, etc. And the sample sketches and examples are way, way more professional than I could ever hope to be.

Read carefully the book description in the Editorial Reviews: "This book helps people to quickly master the fundamental techniques of graphic art and design using felt-tip pens and plain paper." If you're looking for technical tips to improve your drawing, by all means, buy this book.

Bottom-line, I found it more oriented toward illustrators or artists than toward thinkers who want to doodle.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 12 reviews  4.2 out of 5 stars