Hello, I'm Libbi.
Alongside teaching and making, I'm interested in what happens between encountering an idea and producing an outcome — the thinking, sketching, experimenting, questioning and reflecting that happens before something becomes resolved.
My work sits between visual thinking, design education and creative practice. I'm particularly interested in how handwriting, drawing, sketchnoting and other embodied forms of making help us understand information, develop ideas and build creative confidence.
As generative AI becomes increasingly capable of producing polished outcomes quickly, I am interested in what happens to the parts of the creative process that are easier to skip.
What helps us think, make sense, develop ideas and retain a creative voice when technology can increasingly produce the outcome for us?
This site brings that practice into the open: the cards I teach with, daily drawing prompts, visual notes, creative experiments, journal reflections and the messy thinking that happens along the way.
Research
My research explores visual thinking, creativity and design education, with a growing focus on the relationship between human creative processes and generative AI. I am interested in how people think through making — how sketching, handwriting, visual mapping, experimentation and reflection can support sense-making, creative confidence and intentional decision-making. My current research asks how these skills might influence the way students engage with AI: not simply whether they use it, but whether they are able to use it thoughtfully, critically and as part of a wider creative process.
Visual thinking and AI in design education
Exploring how visual thinking skills, including sketching, sketchnoting and hand lettering, influence the way students work with generative AI in graphic design education. The research considers whether stronger visual thinking and sense-making skills support more intentional creative decisions, clearer communication and a greater sense of authorship when working with AI-supported tools.
Writing by Hand — A Journey of Creative Self-Discovery
My doctoral research began with handwriting, lettering and the hand-to-mind connection, but gradually became a wider investigation into creative confidence, sense-making, play, experimentation and creative identity. Looking back, I thought I was investigating handwriting. I now think I was investigating how people find their way through creative uncertainty.
Testing ideas in the studio and classroom
Many of these ideas continue to be explored through teaching, workshops, studio practice and creative experiments with students. The classroom provides an important space to observe how people generate ideas, respond to uncertainty, build confidence and move between analogue and digital creative processes.
Thinking Through Making
I thought I was investigating handwriting. I now think I was investigating how people find their way through creative uncertainty.
Thinking Through Making is a collection of short research reflections exploring creativity, visual sense-making, handwriting, sketchnoting, design education and AI.
These pieces revisit ideas from my earlier research and place them into the context of contemporary creative practice.