Graphs showcase trends, relationships, and key takeaways in a format the mind grasps faster than rows and columns. When you need to drive home critical data or demonstrate complex connections, graphs speak volumes.

Education is your best buddy. Not in a condescending way, in a welcoming way. I would suggest to plan a little “design 101″ series, which can be super informal, and gets people to empathize with art’s POV. Maybe 1 lunch a month you can get the company to buy pizza, and you give a little chat about something design-related. Then give them an exercise to do - time them for 15min, and make them put all their solutions on the wall and have a (friendly) critique and give a prize. People really do love it, and they start to understand what it feels like to be an artist and have to separate yourself from critiques of your work.

Ideas for sessions:

1) Design Terminology: Talk about the difference between contrast and saturation, exposure and brightness, etc. Go over simple type terms. Most importantly, remind them, giving feedback is not about saying what YOU like or not, but what will be most effective in reaching the target audience. 

2) Intro Type: It’s not so much about teaching them how to design type as it is showing them what subconscious power typography has. Get this book and just photocopy a bunch of stuff out of it: Why Fonts Matter by Sarah Hyndman

3) Composition: Really just go thru the Andrew Loomis Creative Illustration book and talk about thumbnails and composition and how to imagine something finished from a sketch…because if they’re not used to judging something in an unfinished state that’s going to cause a lot of trouble.

Great place to find exercises to use on them, that anyone can do regardless of artistic skill: Visual Literacy by Richard Wilde - it has exercises like This and This that all come from a famous class at SVA that all design majors need to take.

This book might also help you talk about what an AD does: Art Direction Explained at Last by Steven Heller and Veronique Vienne.

Good Luck!

—Agent KillFee