Our method is how we make a difference.

Usually it’s illustrated in three concentric circles,  drawn by Kevin or Chris on the whiteboards in our conference room, or in the conference rooms of potential clients.

I stumbled upon a different way to illustrate this framework last December, at a local holiday artist market. That’s where I met Jason Rood, an illustrator and 2008 BFA grad from Grand Valley State University. Among his wares was this drawing, titled “Empathy.” I thought it helped illustrate the problem our method is designed to solve, and our passion for solving it.

Empathy, unfortunately, is not very common subject matter. It’s not easy to illustrate, and it’s often harder to do.

When I talked with Jason about his inspiration for the drawing, he told me that it came about the same way most of his work does: by association. “I consume a lot of information on a daily basis,” Jason said. “Images, podcasts, music, books. I like to keep myself exposed to a lot of media. My brain just likes to draw connections between things that may or may not be there.  In the case of this drawing, I was having a conversation with friends about being empathic people and I remember this image I saw a couple days earlier of these foxes playing with each other. That image and the word ‘empathy’ stuck together for me. So after some tweaking and adjustment, we had a new drawing.”

And after some negotiating, I convinced Jason to tackle the other two parts of our Method framework.

The set is currently on display at Peopledesign. I can’t wait to see Kevin’s version of the beaver drawing the next time he’s explaining Realization to a prospective client.