What are metaphors?

‘This project is a moonshot’

‘John is the black sheep of the family’

We use metaphors all the time. And there is a good reason for it:

they are useful to communicate abstract or complex ideas and help you build understanding and shape conversations.

No need to say that metaphors in a drawing provide you with a very powerful communication tool.

Why do metaphors work?

We have the experience that messages drawn out as a metaphor, are made to stick. They help people to visualize and to remember the story more easily.

It’s like a common language with a visual vocabulary that makes your message come to life. 

Maybe you are wondering what metaphors are used the most?

Before we will give you a bit of inspiration, we want to articulate that metaphors really must relate to your audience. Often, metaphors pop up automatically during a conversation. Listen carefully and explore together whether the metaphor can be used in a specific context. So don’t just copy a metaphor.

Inspire me

Looking for inspiration? We’ll give you six visual metaphors we often see being used:

1. Journey: roads, hiking paths through highs and lows, broken roads, horizon, a backpack, …
2. Sea: boats (speedboats and tankers), (treasure) islands, the shore, threats (storm, sharks, …), messages in a bottle, …
3. Nature: woods, gardens, animals, …
4. Sports: teams, gold medal, exercise, winning and losing, goals, …
5. Space: a rocket launch, stars, astronaut, milky way, …

We are curious to know which metaphor you use in your communication at work.

Share it with us and we’ll make sure you find the visual building blocks of this metaphor on Drawify soon!