Take It Literally. Change the Meaning.

INKTOBER DAY 13: TOSS 

New ideas often begin with an association.

One word leads to another.

And sometimes, a simple word association can become a visual metaphor.

Think about tossing a coin to make a decision.
 

Heads or tails?
 

Now, let's focus on the word HEADS.
 

What if we take it literally?
 

Instead of drawing a coin with a head on it, we replace the entire coin with an actual head.
 

Now we have a visual metaphor.
 

But there's something else going on here.
 

When you toss a coin, you expect an unpredictable result.
 

Heads or tails?

But what happens when you replace the coin with a head?
 

It's always heads!
 

We've taken something designed to leave the outcome to chance and turned it into something completely predictable.

That's what I love about this kind of visual thinking.
 

A simple association can do more than create an unexpected image.
 

It can change the meaning of the whole situation.
 

So today's tip:
Follow a word association. Take it literally. Then see how it can disrupt the meaning of the original idea.