Tag: Visuals

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How to create a visual CV with Excel

Updated on 1st of March 2022

Read my Linkedin post.

Updated version of my visual CV

Original post

Recently I posted on social media a visualisation of my CV based on my LinkedIn data. I enriched it with my practice of visual thinking and my main job experience.

The original image is on Flickr.

I explain here how you can do the same and create your own visual CV using Excel only (Microsoft Excel 2016). If I used Adobe Photoshop to add the fades in the 2nd and 3rd graphics, you don’t need it for the basic version of the 3 graphics. You don’t have to be an expert in Excel either, a low-medium level is sufficient.

How to create a visual CV step-by-step:

  • Start with a new blank workbook
  • Create a table with the start/end dates of the different periods of your professional life that you want to visualise. Rename this sheet to “Data”. I customised the cell format of my dates with the custom type “mmm yyyy”. Up to you to use any other date format, it has no influence on the following. Note that I decided to start the list with my birthdate, which makes my data more complete than what is displayed on Linkedin. It’s up to you what data you want to see in your visual CV.
  • Create a new sheet that you rename to “Viz” for your visualisation.
  • Reserve its first line for your title and any other information you want to add. Create a matrix with the months of the year on an horizontal line and a top-down list with all years you want to use in the first column. In my case the list goes from 2020 to 1965. You can duplicate the line with the name of the months at the bottom of the matrix if your list of years is long (like mine).
  • Fill in the first 4 cells of the matrix with the corresponding dates. Then drag the fill handle to fill the remaining cells of the matrix with their date (from January of the year in the top-left cell to December of the last year in the bottom-right cell)
  • Select all your data. Select the “Format” option in the horizontal navigation menu and set the value of Row height to 20 and the value of Column Width to 4. In my case, these values resize the cells into a nice shape.
  • Select again all your data. Right-click them and select the “Format cells…” option. In the “Fill” tab, set the Background Color to white. All gray cell borders are gone.
  • Select the dates into the matrix only. The row(s) with the name of the months and the column with the years are not part of your selection. Right-click it and select the “Format cells…” option. In the “Border” tab, select the thick style line; change its Color to White; and tick the Outline and Inside options to apply these changes to the selected cells. Don’t press now the “OK” button or come back to the “Format cells…” option.
  • Within the “Format cells…” option, go to the “Font” tab. Select a light gray for the font Color. Then go to the “Fill” tab and select the same light gray for the Background Color. Confirm your changes with the “OK” button. If everything went well, your matrix should consist of gray cells with white borders. Something like this:
  • You have a nice matrix with all years of your professional life represented with a gray box for each month. You will now color each month with a different color according to the different periods of your professional life. You can do it by hand (like I did the very first time), or use the Conditional Formatting feature to change automatically the color of your cells based on the start/end dates you entered in the “Data” sheet.
  • Select the matrix of gray cells only.
  • In the horizontal navigation menu, choose “Conditional Formatting” and the Manage Rules… option
  • Click the “New Rule” button and select “Format only cells that contain”
  • Set the condition to format the cells of the matrix with your first professional period. In my case, it’s what I called Recklessness. The condition will select the cells “between” the start date of my Recklessness (= cell Data!$B$10) and its end date (= cell Data!$C$10). You do that with a click on the icons on the right of the field; here indicated by the red arrows, then go to the “Data” sheet to select the related cells.
  • Then click the “Format” button to choose what color to apply when this condition is met. In the “Fill” tab, set the Background Color to the desired colour. In the “Font” tab, set the font Color to the same as the background. My condition looks like that:
  • Confirm this condition by clicking the “OK” button, and apply it to the matrix cells with the other “OK” button. Cells corresponding to my period of Recklessness are now colorised in a dark violet.
  • Reselect your matrix of cells and redo the same steps to create a new condition for your second period: From the horizontal navigation menu, choose again the “Conditional Formatting” and the Manage Rules… option. Click New Rule… and select “Format only cells that contain”. Select the start and end dates of your second period and select a new color for the font and the background. In my case it’s the Primary School period that starts in Sep 1971 and ends in Aug 1977. I decided to format the corresponding period with dark ochre color.
  • Repeat these steps for all periods of your professional life. At the end, you have as many conditions as there are periods. And all periods of your professional life are now with different colors.
  • Add a title on the first row and any other details you want to display in a footer. Add the name of the period on the right of the related year, maybe using the same color as the period. Don’t forget to set the background color for these cells to white.
  • Excel does not allow to save your final work in image format. You need another program like Microsoft paint or Adobe Photoshop, or any other application for images.
  • Select all the cells with the visualisation of your CV. Copy them, Ctrl-C, and paste them, Ctrl-V, in your favorite application for images . Save to an image. That’s all.
  • To add other graphs on the right of this one, like I did with my practice of visual thinking and my main job experience, you should
    • add your new data in the “Data” sheet
    • go again through all steps to create a new graph and to colorise it, being smart in managing the matrix with the dates.

I look forward to seeing your results, feel free to share them with me.

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What is visual thinking and what are its benefits

In this post, I explain what is a visual thinker and the benefits of using the visual approach for individuals, groups and managers. Originally, it was a document that I shared with my superiors and colleagues to help them better understand. Then I thought that everyone could benefit from it.

Update (21 May 2024): If French isn’t a problem for you, then you might enjoy listening to this podcast where I try to answer some questions about visual thinking. What is sketchnoting, visual note taking? What benefits can this visual practice bring you in a professional environment or in your private life? What does this have to do with well-being and meditation? Where to start with sketchnoting? 

What do I mean by visual thinker?

Visual Thinking

As a visual thinker, I use a visual approach mainly during live events to allow you and your participants to anchor information, find patterns, make your ideas visible, establish connections and relationships between your ideas, and to ultimately make sense out of chaos or complexity. It also activates the emotional intelligence of people, not just the rational one. It consists mainly of combining hand-made graphic elements with texts and visual metaphors. Different techniques allow me to meet different needs and obtain different results.

What are my visual techniques?

Visual Thinking: visual practices

Graphic Facilitation and Graphic Co-creation

I use Graphic Facilitation and Graphic Co-creation as thinking tools for better discussions due to a different meeting setup. Both help people to find solutions, to innovate, to brainstorm, to reach consensus, to make decisions. Compared to the other techniques described below, the level of involvement of participants is high to very high in these two first techniques.

Example where researchers have had difficulty to agree on what is the meaning of “innovation”. Thanks to the visual elements they created with me on the paper they were able to “see” this difficulty. This awareness allowed them to redirect their discussion in a more constructive and clear way:

Graphic facilitation of a workshop on future of Innovation

Example of using a hand-made visual template (also called canvas or harvesting sheet) to put participants in a different mental state and mood, conducive to better conversations and exchanges:

Graphic Recording and Sketchnotes

I use Graphic Recording to visually capture live the main message of conferences, meetings, or training. This helps participants to “see” their thoughts, to consider the topic being presented and discussed from another angle, and to better retain information and learning. Depending on the circumstances, I work on a large mural or on flip-charts.

The use of sketchnotes is quite similar to graphic recording in the sense that I also visually capture live what happens during an event. The difference lies in the paper size which is that of my notebook. Here participants don’t see my visuals directly (unless a camera projects my work on a big screen). I also use sketchnotes on many other occasions “just for me”, at work and at home. Whether it’s to organise my thoughts, to sketch a work planning or a process, for a to-do list or a grocery list, to plan my vacation, etc. Anyone can benefit from the practice of sketchnotes, and I guide those who wish during small learning sessions.

Linked data course skecthnotes

Visual communication

I use Visual Communication with hand-drawn illustrations to attract people’s attention incredibly. It gives more impact to your message, which is better understood and memorised by your audience. This is the technique with the lowest involvement level of the participants.

Example of visual communication with the story of the EC’s DG HR represented as a river. The handmade visual supported the Director-General’s speech and captured the attention of her audience.

Visual support to the EC DG HR Away Day

Visuals as a Working tool

On a smaller scale, I use visuals in my daily routine as a working tool to offer more efficiency to my colleagues. It helps to clearly represent complex processes, workflows, etc; to capture, modelize and structure association of ideas, also for problem solving and project management.

What are the benefits of visual thinking?

I’m not going to review the benefits that neuroscience has long proven with hand-drawn visuals. I will simply mention the benefits that come from my direct and personal experience.

Benefits for an individual (at least for me)

  • I grasp complexity better than reading a linear text 
  • It stimulates my imagination and creativity 
  • It helps me better retain information and learning  
  • I am more present and focused 
  • It’s a pathway to heightened my self-awareness, my understanding of others, and have a deeper connection with the world around me. It opens my mind to other perspectives
  • It’s a source of well-being and a meditation channel
  • I have more fun working on serious, tedious, complex topics 

Benefits for a group or a team

  • Visual thinking brings a new energy to the room that boosts collaboration and engagement (people realise this is not an ordinary event) 
  • The large format graphic helps participants to work together more effectively because:
    • they can “see” their ideas and what others are saying too
    • everyone can contribute, feel heard
    • the process and its progress is visible
  • The large format graphic creates also a neutral space that encourages the debate about ideas while it reduces interpersonal conflicts
  • It helps the participants stay focused on the discussion (less distracted)
  • An individual can isolate himself from the group and think in front of the large format graphic
  • It brings more clarity and less ambiguity
  • It generates collective and emotional intelligence by unlocking collective creativity
  • It improves collective understanding of concepts and sharing of agreements. The group can get on the same page 
  • It transcends language barriers, eases conflicts, and dispels misunderstandings
  • It allows to achieve emotional and deeply relevant results
  • The meeting report is created on the go.
    • It will hold the participants accountable for what they have said and decided
    • It will help them to remember and share their work with others 

Benefits for managers and the organisation

  • Visual thinking is a powerful and effective tool 
  • It gives the image of a modern and positive leadership 
  • It contributes to better decision making and better shared decision making, both achieved much more effectively 
  • It enables to tap into the collective, creative and emotional intelligences of a group in order to:
    • Deal with complex issues 
    • Collect information to make informed decisions 
  • Meetings are with fewer interpersonal conflicts and more debate about ideas 
  • It leads to greater buy-in for visions, strategies, actions plans, decisions; to better commitment to these and better appropriation for a sustainable change
  • It generates greater accountability for what is said and decided 
  • It denotes a transparent communication 
  • It materialises the recognition to individual contributions and group consensus 
  • It leads to more motivated teams 
  • It brings fun into otherwise boring jobs, tasks, and meetings

Do you love stories?

A real story of disruptive and unconventional thinking that I told in an interview that is worth reading:

Some years ago, Robert Madelin was appointed  Director-General of DG INFSO and he requested major changes in the way the DG ran its intranet. To explain to him that we didn’t have enough time to apply all of them, given our available resources, I made our case to him with a quickly sketched story on paper, instead of a Powerpoint and Excel figures. Robert accepted our proposition because I was disruptive. I approached him with unconventional thinking. When I went to his office with a drawing, he said, ‘Oh my God, what is that?’ And when he looked closely, it helped him think differently about the problem. This for me was the opportunity to make my case and he accepted my explanation.

More examples

More examples of my work as visual thinker.

What others say about the benefits of visual thinking

For even more resources, please see my collection of books and online resources.

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Another happy graphic recording at the INFORM-INIO meeting

I was invited once again by my colleagues of DG REGIO, European Commission, to visually record the two-day meeting of the European funds communicators (the so-called INFORM-INIO networks). More than 250 communicators from across Europe gathered in the magnificent Augustinian cloister in Ghent, Belgium, to discuss the future of Cohesion Policy, learn and share the best practices to communicate the benefits of the EU funds to citizens.

Graphic recording of the INFORM-INIO meeting, Ghent, Belgium
Graphic recording of the INFORM-INIO meeting, Ghent, Belgium
Graphic recording of the INFORM-INIO meeting, Ghent, Belgium
Graphic recording of the INFORM-INIO meeting, Ghent, Belgium

I thank my colleagues for inviting me to each of the biannual meetings since 2017.

Since this first time we noticed, in the results of the after-event survey, that the graphic recording has become one of the most appreciated elements by participants. The many positive feedback I receive from them during the two days only confirm these results. It proves to me that hand-made visuals have a noticeable impact on people, combining emotions and information.

That all those who took the time to come and talk to me are also thanked.

See all my photos of the INFORM-INIO meeting and from the previous editions since 2014.

Graphic recording of the INFORM-INIO meeting, Ghent, Belgium
Graphic recording of the INFORM-INIO meeting, Ghent, Belgium
Graphic recording of the INFORM-INIO meeting, Ghent, Belgium
Graphic recording of the INFORM-INIO meeting, Ghent, Belgium
Graphic recording of the INFORM-INIO meeting, Ghent, Belgium
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Ghent is “the most beautiful city in the world” said its mayor. Judge by yourself:

Awesome Ghent, Belgium

Read also my post at INFORM-INIO meeting in 2017.

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EU DataViz 2019

What a great experience it was to be graphic recorder at the “EU interinstitutional workshop on data visualisation” organised by Publications Office of the European Union on 13 November 2019 in Luxembourg. With CĂ©lia Pessaud, Catherine Focant, and Vincent Henin, we lively scribed the parallel sessions of the conference.

Graphic recording at EUdataviz 2019

It was exciting to visually scribe workshops and talks on data visualisation. We – graphic recorders and data visualisers – speak the same visual language, use the same visual grammar, rely on the same conviction that visuals are one of the most powerful mean to explain complex ideas. As as said to some speakers:

We find that there are many similarities between our practice of graphic recording and yours of data visualisation. If the raw data that you visualise is often – if not always – numbers, and more and more big data, for us, raw data is what is said and what is happening in the conference room. Both can be complex and be meaningless at first glance. Our common goal is then to make sense with what does not seem to have any, to offer this sense/meaning to our clients so that they can make good use of it, so that they can benefit from this knowledge unveiled with more clarity. One difference that I see between our practices is that while during the process of DataViz there is time to test and adapt the final visualisation (and it’s recommended by the speakers here), in the graphic recording process everything is done live on the spot: listening, then filtering, then summarising, then translation to the visual language. Without opportunity to test and adapt. 

To conclude

There are certainly synergies that can be established between our two communities to learn from each other’s. 

Graphic recording at EUdataviz 2019 Graphic recording at EUdataviz 2019 Graphic recording at EUdataviz 2019 Graphic recording at EUdataviz 2019

The day ended with a fascinating session on how #dataviz helps us to better “see” black holes. Big thanks to BarthĂ©lĂ©my von Haller and Jeremi Niedziela from CERN and Oliver James from DNEG. They guided us through this wonderful journey from the smallest elements of quantum physics to the black holes and their representation in the Interstellar movie. Magnificent presentation that shows that synergies between science and art can increase our knowledge about the unknown.

Graphic recording at EUdataviz 2019 Graphic recording at EUdataviz 2019


More information about the conference with all graphic recordings of the team is available on op.europa.eu/en/web/eudataviz/home

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The power of canvasses for better conversations

On 16/09/2019, more than 300 colleagues from DG REGIO and DG EMPL were in an away-day to reflect on “how to better navigate to the future” for beautiful operational programmes. I was asked to prepare the templates, or canvasses, to harvest the ideas and conclusions from the discussions. There is nothing better than canvasses to put participants in another mental state conducive to better conversations and exchanges.

The power of canvasses The power of canvasses The power of canvasses The power of canvasses

I was not asked for that, but I can not help but capturing the essence of the day with visuals. Inspired by the energy in the room, a tent to be exact, I mixed sketchnotes and scrapbooking.

Graphic recording of the REGIO-EMPL geographical officers away day
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To know what you’re going to draw, you have to begin drawing

In this second post on the same topic, I will deepen my answer to the question “How to start with an empty blank page when taking live visual notes?”

In my previous post “How to use space in graphic notes“, I explain what you can do to prepare yourself before an event to feel more comfortable with the practice of taking visual notes.

Much before the drawing skills, the logistic, and before any other practical aspect, what will really influence the outcome of your work is the quality of your presence and the quality of your listening.

Presence and listening

Quality of your presence

You really need to be fully present when taking live visual notes at an event. Firstly, this means that you have to be connected as much as possible with all of “you”, with who and with what you are. Simplifying it a little bit, you need to access both sides of your brain and let them work together. Or – I prefer to say it like that – let the two sides of your brain “make love” in you. You need also to be connected with the surrounding world. This last point seems obvious but if your focus is on the choice of the marker’s color or on your space consumption on the paper sheet….you risk to not being connected with what is happening around you, and with what is said.

What is said? What is really said and what do I hear?

Quality of your listening

Like with traditional text notes, how you listen and to what you listen will bring you to very different results. Except that with visuals, the difference will be felt even more than with just text.

I recommend the following material from experts to know more about “Listening”:

4 Levels of Scribing

http://www.coachwiththegreenhat.com/listening-is-good-for-you-four-steps-to-mastering-active-listening/

A better presence and a better listening

The quality of both your presence and your listening will greatly influence your ability to take visual notes and, finally, your outcomes. Therefore it is worth to prepare yourself a minimum before you start. Some minutes before you jump on your markers, take the time to do some exercises of meditation, or mindfulness, or yoga, or relaxation. Whatever can help you is welcome. And if nothing comes to you, just try to close your eyes, breathe slowly and deeply, and have at least 10 of these breaths.

Last but not least…

The more you will practice, the better!

My last recommendation is to start to practice as soon as possible, then to practice and to practice again.

I would like to conclude with two quotes. First is this Pablo Picasso’s answer to the question whether ideas come to him “by chance or by design”:

“I don’t have a clue. Ideas are simply starting points. I can rarely set them down as they come to my mind. As soon as I start to work, others well up in my pen. To know what you’re going to draw, you have to begin drawing
 When I find myself facing a blank page, that’s always going through my head. What I capture in spite of myself interests me more than my own ideas.”

Then – to keep you from believing that the Picasso’s reference implies that we treat art here – this Mike Rohde‘s quote applicable to all visual notes in general:

“Sketchnotes are about capturing and sharing ideas, not art. Even bad drawings can convey good ideas.”

Related post: “How to use space in graphic notes”

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