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# Making meaning visible
- URL: https://www.chudgar.com/making-meaning-visible/
- Published: 2023-01-10T20:28:00.000Z
- Updated: 2023-08-10T19:42:14.000Z
- Description: Making lucid sense of a big mess of information is one of my favorite things to do. Here are some of the ways I help my consulting clients make the meaning of their work visible.
- Author: Ash Chudgar
- Tags: Consulting, #consulting portfolio

When people come to me for help with communications, they usually think they need help with words — but really, they need *structures for ideas*. As a consultant, I often create visual tools that help my clients understand and communicate their work in simpler, clearer, more powerful ways. 

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## Boardwork

Once a professor, always a professor: most of my work involves mapping out the relationships between ideas on a whiteboard. In fact, some clients hire me *specifically* to do this kind of conceptual mapping. 

![Helping a group of health-care leaders think through a regulatory framework for medicine as a public utility (2018)](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53e4d517e4b0dc6847406585/1581374776109-NXXE4LZGYMCU3ZEQ7E66/image-asset.jpeg)

Helping a group of health-care leaders think through a regulatory framework for [medicine as a public utility](https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol114/iss1/2/?ref=chudgar.com). Photo: Bethany Otuteye

## Curriculum

I’ve been teaching for going on two decades now, and I’ve learned how to use language as image to make ideas easier to remember. I built this training deck from the ground up to help the City of Saint Paul train 12,000 employees about data culture. 

![From “How to use data to make Saint Paul better,” (2019)](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53e4d517e4b0dc6847406585/1588607305869-SY1E5DGFMBUGUME4E2GV/every-use-of-data-is-a-moral-choice.png)

From “[How to use data to make Saint Paul better](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTSIfl-JXfwPQBh1yNvdlOztkc6%5FG8zQuyKX4zDdKXE6wAPepUzqNy87Lq3%5FbTLnIpHaNu2xDfOSiVV/pub?delayms=3000&loop=false&start=false&ref=chudgar.com),” (2019)

## Graphic

Sometimes a picture can communicate more than words ever could. I created this graphic for the Warren campaign in Minnesota, as part of a series of that encouraged Minnesotans to vote early by focusing on specific moral values. 

![A graphic from the Minnesota for Warren campaign (2020)](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53e4d517e4b0dc6847406585/1581467095555-XJ5ZUMDASQ1RQ8ABH946/chudgar-design-sample.png)

A graphic from the [Minnesota for Warren campaign](https://twitter.com/mn%5Ffor%5Fwarren/status/1217869559736209413?s=20&ref=chudgar.com) (2020)

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## Diagram

The word “diagram” comes from Greek words that mean “drawing through.” Here I wrote copy and directed the work of [a graphic designer](https://www.behance.net/bobtema?ref=chudgar.com) to make this diagram. It *draws through* a complex series of processes to explain a new health care technology. 

![“A Fresh Approach to Health Information” (2016)](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53e4d517e4b0dc6847406585/1581466852965-3OWRIJCZMWI55H9AF1TN/chudgar-sample-infographic.png)

“A Fresh Approach to Health Information” (2016)

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