Karl Gude

Karl Gude

Karl Gude spent 25 years visualizing information for various large news organizations including The Associated Press and Newsweek magazine. As a visual journalist, information designer and artist, Gude’s mission was to simplify, or “laymanize”, complex topics so that the average reader could understand them. When Chernobyl melted down, Gude diagrammed how a graphite nuclear reactor worked, how it failed and the dangers of the China Syndrome. He has mapped every war and diagrammed most new military technologies since the late 70s. Gude charted the fall of Enron and the rise of Apple computer and explained the World Trade Center attack. He has even shown how a garden can be planted so that flowers bloom throughout the day.

Gude was the Director of Information Graphics at Newsweek for nearly a decade before moving to academia three years ago. He now teaches information graphics and visual communication at the School of Journalism at Michigan State University. He gives frequent lectures on the subject of visualization and has conducted scores of workshops on diagramming, storyboarding, designing, graphing and mapping around the world and is a consultant for the CIA on visualization. His seminars have been attended by employees from Google, Ebay, Raytheon and other large companies. Gude understands that words alone can’t tell the whole story, and he enjoys inspiring artists and non-artists alike to show, don’t tell.


Workshops with Karl Gude:

Karl Gude Shows You How to Draw an Eye

[26 Jan 2010 | Comments Off | 1,963 views]
Karl Gude Shows You How to Draw an Eye

With his webinar just an hour away (not too late to register) I thought it’d be fun to share this video that Karl posted about a year ago where he breaks down how to draw an eye (with a broken …

“What Should I Visualize?” with Karl Gude

[22 Dec 2009 | 2 Comments | 4,895 views]
“What Should I Visualize?” with Karl Gude

Following the success of “Drawing & Design”, Karl Gude is back for part 2: “What Should I Visualize?”

Visualizing content in the form of maps, charts, diagrams and a variety of other ways can help people understand complex information. Graphics done well communicate data quickly and precisely. A well-executed diagram gives a much more powerful and memorable experience than a mere verbal description.

During this approximately one hour-long workshop Karl introduces you to some formulas for spotting opportunities where visuals can be effectively used.

“Drawing & Design” with Karl Gude

[13 Oct 2009 | 5 Comments | 4,578 views]
“Drawing & Design” with Karl Gude

Consistently rated as one of the favorite facilitators for our conferences and workshops, Karl Gude is back with an all-new workshop for VizThinkU called “Show Don’t Tell: Drawing & Design”.

Often, concepts need to be sketched out so that others can “see” what is in a person’s head, and this requires confidence in one’s ability to do so. Most people are visual learners who can more easily understand highly complicated concepts when they are drawn out as opposed to only being written about, but people can worry that their visualization skills are no match for the task at hand, and so they write…and write, and write.

In this two hour workshop, Karl teaches you the two “D’s” of visual communication, drawing and design and gives you simple visual tools and rules that anyone can use to sketch out your ideas and then package them all together.