Tania Von Allmen picked up the basics of Kinesthetic Modeling last year at the IFVP (International Forum of Visual Practitioners) Conference in Chicago where I spoke last August. Here is her description of how KM gets her clients to the heart of the matter, the imagery they hold beneath their day to day business preoccupations.
“My method for designing logos has been to have a client sit down and review a list of words I give them. We narrow down the list together and create a vision statement of 3 core words. We use the words as a benchmark for whether we are on track with the logo design. The challenge with this is going from this very left-brain mode into the symbolic realm. A logo is really a visual representation of a vibration that has a feeling at the core of it.
Kinesthetic modeling gives me the tools to get a client right to the feeling and often to the symbol itself. That doesn’t mean that if someone selects a rubber duck on the model to represent their feeling of childlike delight in the work they do, that I make a rubber duck their new logo. It does mean that we can have a discussion about how childlike delight is what they bring to their work and how they invite their customers to participate in and enjoy that experience with them. We would then explore visually other ways of expressing the feeling and experience of “childlike delight” and maybe end up with a symbol that is playful. whimsical, colorful, etc.
Also, KM helps my clients shift into right brain mode very naturally and this is a challenge for people who do not see themselves as “creative” and would like to put everything on me to “dress them up”. I like that it completely breaks their pattern. They have no idea how to do it “right” and usually they just surrender into going with it and tapping in to resources they didn’t know they had.
Finally, KM is the best way I know to deal with weird group dynamics and power structures. It really does level the playing field and allow people to express themselves and their ideas in a way that often doesn’t come out in a stuffy meeting. It gives the heart a voice because of its kinesthetic nature. The results are always very authentic, deep, and transparent.
The bottom line is KM helps shorten the distance between a client’s vision and the visual representation of that vision. For that reason, it is a tremendous tool in my toolbox.”
Tania Von Allman’s links: Tania@LuminosityStudio.com www.LuminosityStudio.com
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