Last month, the Think Visual meetup celebrated its first birthday… and I was lucky to be part of it.
Diana Ayoub hosted a conversation between Josh Bradshaw and I – we both have aphantasia – and Alan Chen, who is at the other end of the spectrum and has hyperphantasia.
What’s the even mean? Watch the conversation on Youtube now and find out…
Thanks again to Diana Ayoub and Alan Chen from Sh8peshifters for including me and being great friends and collaborators! 😃
Event Announcement
Wednesday, 21 May 2025 @ 8am. Atlassian Sydney
Aphantasia is a unique way of thinking where thoughts and memories aren’t experienced with mental imagery in “the mind’s eye”. Multi-sensory aphantasia is when this is across two or more sensory modalities.
I feel a duty of care to be clear that this introspection and self-awareness can be confronting and it’s a one-way door.
When you reflect on and understand more about how you think and remember things, you can’t unlearn it. It can cause some people distress for various reasons. Now might not be the right time to explore this.
What is Phantasia?
Phantasia, aphantasia, and hyperphantasia are points on a spectrum of sensory experience in the mind. Aphantasia – or image-free thinking – is at one end of the spectrum… and hyperphantasia at the other – with extremely vivid and lifelike mental images, so clear they can feel as real as actual perception.
There are many other points on that spectrum – and it might not be the same for everything you think about or when you think about it. We all have different ways of thinking, learning, and processing information, and these variations are normal and valuable.
I have multi-sensory aphantasia. In part one of my Reflecting on My Aphantasia, I frame how I think about it and why I’m sharing. But how do I actually experience it?
Diana Ayoub will host a conversation between Josh Bradshaw and I – we both have aphantasia – and Alan Chen, who is at the other end of the spectrum and has hyperphantasia.
How vivid is your mind’s eye? The Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) explores the vividness of your visual imagination. A simple questionnaire to help you get a sense where you sit on this mental imagery spectrum.
I can’t wait to explore the various ways we experience the world… come and join us.
Speakers
Ben Pecotich
Ben is a designer, coach, and founder of Dynamic4 – a social enterprise and B Corp focused on leadership, design, and innovation for happier communities… and making the transition to more regenerative ways of living and doing business. He’s the author of Solve Problems That Matter and co-founder of Sydney Design Thinking (SydDT).
For 30+ years, Ben’s led, designed, and delivered strategic change in financial services, digital & tech, health & fitness, and founded startups/social enterprises – in Australia, NZ, Asia, the UK, and Europe. He founded Dynamic4 in 2001 and takes a human-centred design and living systems approach to bring together strategy, design, and tech.
Josh Bradshaw
Josh has previously led product design teams at Rezdy and Domain Group, and he’s now the Head of Product at PaidRight. Josh describes himself as a father, a designer, a story-teller and a product thinker.
His mantra is “design doesn’t belong to designers” and he lives that out through collaboration and facilitation.
Diana Ayoub & Alan Chen
Diana & Alan are the co-founders of Sh8peshifters and the Think Visual meetup. Over the last 10 years, they’ve supported teams across government, health, tech, education, finance, and engineering – helping them simplify complexity and create meaningful messages.
Through visual thinking and human-centered design, they create strategic communication that informs decision-making and transformation. In 2024, they won a Good Design for communication design in publication for the book Designing Tomorrow.
Think Visual Meetup
Think Visual Meetup by Sh8peshifters is an in-person event is for professionals in any industry looking to expand their visual communication toolkit and be inspired by powerful stories about the power of creativity and visual storytelling. See you there!
