Mariah's Biography

Mariah works as a meeting designer, teacher, and visual thinking specialist. She helps clients like non-profit organizations, corporations, and community groups to translate their visions, processes, plans – anything! – into engaging images. Whether she’s listening to a keynote at a large conference or sitting at the table during a small meeting, Mariah captures her clients’ key messages and themes in Visual Records – metaphors, images, and words that she draws in real time. She also loves designing meetings that tap into the wisdom of groups and their ability to think together. Mariah teaches the practice of visual thinking in public and private workshops, building on participants’ innate creativity and desire to communicate effectively. She lives in beautiful Oakland, CA, with her husband and lots of art supplies.

Please contact her at howard.mariah@gmail.com to find out how to bring visuals into your work.

Her clients include: Genentech, Salesforce.com, PepsiCo, Nike, The United Way, GlaxoSmithKlein, AAA, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), The Veteran’s Association, and many more!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Terra Verde Visual Facilitation Session

Last week I co-created this image in a Visual Facilitation session with the very talented and altruistic David Hodgson at a cafe in San Francisco. He is beginning a new business endeavour called Terra Verde, and he felt it would be helpful to create a Visual Record of the structure of this business as it currently exists. I tailored some questions for David to consider before our meeting, an initial process that he found helpful and clarifying. At our face-to-face meeting we discussed his responses and I began to draw what emerged in our conversation. Here's what David said about the Visual Facilitation session:

"You helped me reach a much clearer understanding of the complex ideas I was working with. By being able to translate these concepts into visual form, with images that spoke to the richness of the ideas, it really helped them come alive, and allowed me to understand much more clearly how the different parts interrelate with one another in an organic way. I find your ability to intuitively help draw out and enrich the separate pieces and then help weave them into a coherent artistic whole to be absolutely invaluable. I keep the image created next to me on my desk as a I work so as to continually be inspired in what I am doing, and to help me maintain my focus on what I am creating. I also use it to help communicate the idea much more clearly + quickly to others. For me, collaborating with Mariah greatly accelerates the process of manifesting new ideas in the world - and I wish I could work with her more frequently."

When I ASK questions and DRAW your ideas so you can literally SEE what you mean, you'll have greater clarity about your vision and your next steps. Not only will your vision be elucidated, you'll also know more about which areas of your project are unclear or uncertain, so you can have a more defined sense of where to explore further and focus your attention. All this content in one unique image that you can share with people who want to contribute to your project or plan. Please get in touch with your current or emerging projects and we can create a Visual Facilitation session to catered to your needs.

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