I don't know how to explain "art". But I know what I like when I see it. I'll bet most of us have felt this way at one point of another. Some practitioners in our field come with a background in graphic design, video production, or general design, but not many. The rest of us have learned how important visual messaging is by studying neuroscience or simply experiencing great instructional design with strong visuals. The bottom line is that visual design is critical to the success of all eLearning projects.

Our guest, Rachel Dillon, reminds us that we often have to take the reins as designers without years of graphic design training. And that professional graphic designers build their design vocab by critiquing each other's work, and as a result they become better designers. So, in this episode, we'll bring this practice of critiquing visual designs and defining design theory together to instructional design.

Rachel Allen Dillon graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1994, with a Bachelor of Science in Art, emphasizing in Graphic Design. She spent over a decade using her design skills in marketing and web design.

In 2009, her non-fiction children’s book, “Through Endangered Eyes – a poetic journey into the wild,” was published by Windward Publishing, an imprint of Finney Company. She both wrote and illustrated it. Her book received an Eric Hoffer Honorable Mention award in 2010. Rachel has been a featured artist in “Wildscape Magazine,” a contributing artist in gallery and museum exhibitions, and a speaker at Art Educator conventions and conferences. The Nature Conservancy commissioned Rachel to produce two paintings for them in 2015.

Rachel taught art and developed the art curriculum at a private elementary school for three years before going back to the corporate world. Her focus shifted to combine her skillset of design and teaching. Since 2017, Rachel works as a full-time senior instructional designer for a global asset manager. She is also an instructor at CSUS-CCE, teaching eLearning Visual Design and Architecture, and Instructional Design 101.

In 2019, Rachel earned her graduate certificate in Instructional Design from the University of California, Irvine. Currently, she is working toward her Masters in Instructional Design & Technology at CSU-Fullerton with a projected graduation date of May 2022. She is working on her thesis to go deeper into the science behind visual design and learning retention and how instructional designers with graphic design foundations create more engaging learning.

Become virtual friends with the IDIODC gang on twitter. Remember you can always stay in the loop by searching through the #IDIODC tag:

Rachel: @RachelADillon

Brent: @BSchlenker

Chris: @Chris_V_W

IDIODC: @TeamIDIODC

Brent Schlenker is dominKnow's Community Manager. Chris Van Wingerden is dominKnow's Sr. VP Learning Solutions.

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