Reviews
“Artefact Cards have changed the way I think. Rather than get stuck in front of a screen they bring my thinking to life in a physical, more considered way. And they're a far better medium for collaboration than a powerpoint slide.”
Gareth Kay
“A way of tidying an untidy mind.”
“Historically speaking, notions of ‘Design Thinking’ have been long on methodologies and short on tools. Artefact Cards are, for me, a portable & highly-customizable system of applying the lenses through which we view the world to the constantly-shifting problems that firms like our own are increasingly tasked with tackling.”
Ian Fitzpatrick
“In pretty short time, my Artefact Cards have become an authentic part of how I work through ideas - both alone and with others. They make concrete what would otherwise be conceptual, tangible what would other wise remain verbal, help me/us explore the real underlying connections between ideas and in so doing help us break out of the tyranny of sequential thinking (you know, the A then B then C routine that powerpoint enforces) and the dominance of one - egotistical - voice. And did I say I liked them?”
Mark Earls
Whether I'm mapping out priorities, personal projects or decks for clients, Artefact cards are my go to. Somehow the sturdy yellow cards are less intimidating than blank pages and more indelible than post-its. Sure they get others to take you seriously, but more importantly, they remind you to be playful while taking yourself seriously ;)
Rosie Siman
“Service designers love sticky notes. We’ll fix them to anything that stands still. Trouble is, they're _too_ disposable. I reckon the best ideas deserve better. That’s when I reach for my deck of Artefact Cards. They force me to slow down, consider more carefully, and make my points more clearly.”
Matt Edgar
“Artefact Cards are a great thinking tool. Many people use them collaboratively, but so far they have been something I reach for need to when I need to think deeply about a complex thing, be that creating a strategy or structuring an ebook. I love them because they create focus, get me into an open frame of mind and change my perspective. Invaluable things.”
Antony Mayfield
"I'm never without my Artefact Cards and a sharpie. Whether its sketching out a deck or adding flair to a PowerPoint presentation I use the immaculate yellow an white cards to organise, discipline and show off my thinking"
Richard Huntington
“On my desk I have a small pile of Artefact Cards on which I've succinctly outlined my major goals & priorities for this year (one per card). When I start to feel overwhelmed by incoming ideas, data, or other inputs, I pause and look at each cards. This process helps me slow down and regain perspective.”
Brian Clark
“Artefact Cards are wicked little things that beg to be used. Flipcharts, whiteboards and Post-it notes all have their place but the "cost" of adding another idea to them is almost zero. The Artefact Card is more material and pleasurable. It teases out decisions. And ideas on cards demand to be shuffled.”
Henry Hicks
“Artefact Cards are putting an end to lazy and flippant ideation. Amen to that.”
Tim Jones
“I use Artefact Cards to shape my thinking for my PhD research. Allowing one idea per card, using pictures only has been a revelation. They allow me to mix up ideas and think of relationships and ordering I would never be able to see if I wrote them on paper.”
Louise, PhD student
“Artefact Cards bring order and process to what can only be described as my 'scatter brain'. Sometimes an idea can last only a fleeting moment and they are prefect for getting that idea down, before it is gone and lost forever.”
Anthony Oram
“All projects have a beginning, a middle and an end, but they very rarely emerge in that order. The most useful thing Artefact cards do is make managing that process more fluid.”
Tom Abba
“My head is full of thoughts, because I am awesome; the only problem is getting them out in a coherent fashion, as opposed to a rambley waterfall of brain-noise. Artefact cards force me to be structured, but in a really fertile and exciting way - the nonsense becomes sensible.”
Dan Shute
“Artefact Cards fill that space between back-of-envelope-scribble and flash bang powerpoint. They've helped me shuffle and reshuffle my thoughts, simplify charts and even present to client. They're tactile and well rounded. Thick enough to feel like something special and cheap enough to not feel too precious. Get your hands on some if you can!”
Anthony Harris
Artefact Cards are great at making you focus on what you really want to say, what the key messages are and how will you express them. They also help to visualise ideas and shuffle the order more easily than working on other formats.
Philip Shepherd
“Artefact cards help free my creative juices so that I give seed to new creations every week”
Joe Roberson
"My amazing wife, she's a radio producer and was due to do some mad big speech in front of 250 people. Ideas and content - yes, flow and order - no. An hour of scribbling points on Artefact Cards, shuffling them around on the lounge floor - done. If only they formatted themselves into Keynote"
Matt Hardisty
"Artefact Cards are magical, giving you a bridge between ideas and solutions, a flexible step from concept to realisation. Your ideas solidify on the cards while their interrelationships remain fluid. You get a physical way to interact with your own thoughts and discover new ways to put them together - amazing.”
Kev Metta
“We find artefact cads to be a great way to organise our thinking - and an even better way to remix that thinking. Like nothing else, the cards let you find patterns and make connections from disparate thoughts. A magical tool.”
Simon Andrews
“Adland” there’s a tendency to treat "The brief" as a tablet of stone, which hinders collaboration and limits outputs. I use Artefact Cards as conversation starters when briefing. People are compelled to touch and play with them; triggering conversations and ideas, resulting in more collaborative, and exciting, work.
Dena Walker
“They both make me work better and my work better. Being able to shuffle and reorganise is what does it for me. “
Steve Curati
“They're so good for so many things. Working out the shape of content, workshopping ideas, planning how to work a narrative into a pitch deck, plotting stories... I'm still finding new ways to use Artefact Cards and I'm not sure I'll exhaust the list for some time to come.”
Simon White
“Artefact cards are a conversation starter, a point of difference and so tactile. I use them for most of my early stage thinking and planning activities. Oh and they're only the best planning tool I've used in a long time.”
Craig Pitt
“When building presentations, I’ve always started with a brain-dump into Word and scribbles on a sketch pad, before reordering my thoughts through cut and paste into a deck structure. Instead, I can use Artefacts Cards to create key slides/thoughts - both visual and text – re-order and build as I go.”
Terence Challenger
"Fag packet? Envelope? Ideas and thinking deserve the love that only Artefact cards provide"
Mark Ralphs
“In a world of increasing real time responses and continual lightning fast connectivity, any tool which makes you STOP.... and think about an idea for an extra few seconds is becoming increasingly scarce and valuable. Artefact Cards do exactly that, a tactile quality which makes you think for that extra valuable couple of seconds longer before you commit Sharpie to card.”
Mark Carroll
“I use Artefact Cards to organise ideas into stories. Often, to let the ideas organise themselves into stories. To spot connections between seemingly unconnected insights. If i could draw a well as @willsh i'd use them as the presentation too.”
Graeme Wood
“I love Artefact cards because they FACILITATE creativity, thinking outside the box, standing out from the crowd, easy curation, better mood, better handwriting/drawing, more humour, better presentation skills, visibility, quick doodles, easy changes, writing stuff down versus digital, brilliance and genius!”
Tina Bernstein
Having seen John and Mark’s Artefact-fuelled presentation on Advertising in 2020, I immediately ordered a couple of packs. Artefact is a great brand with a perfect brand voice that makes me, the customer, feel inspired - even before I’ve opened the pack.
Even better – we’ve used them to help us design 3 new products since they arrived!
Sandra Pickering
“I absolutely love Artefact cards. Drawing ideas on cards helps me get ideas out of my head, off the screen and into my hand. Shuffling them around me clarifies my thoughts and forms new connections between ideas. Their low fi nature is unthreatening and invites other people in. An indispensable tool.”
Ben Maxwell
“We have used and continue to develop our use of the Artefact cards in two main areas. Internally to explore strategy shaping and development in its early stages. And in the media planning team to shape a client issue into a structure.
We have found that mapping out a problem takes on a shape of cards, and you can usually tell a problem has not been cracked as the card distribution is too linear we re looking for random patterns, and the easy movement of thoughts. Writing down ideas and the physical movement of the cards speeds up idea connectivity, and of course we like the because... they are real.”
Tim Hamill
“My favourite use of the Artefact Cards so far is note taking during a keynote, a presentation,or a focus group. The constraint of the size forces you to capture one idea per card, which is perfect to play with its afterward: Each card becoming a seed for other ideas.”
Olivier Legris
“There's a school of thought that says, 'there are no bad ideas'. It's a crappy school. Not everything's worth writing down, just as not everything's worth blurting out. Post-Its are the equivalent of blurts: You scribble banalities as fast as your sharpie will let you, then they float off the wall and die on the floor like it's autumn on some hideous planet. Artefact cards are for people who care about ideas. Who turn them over in their heads a while, wonder what shape they are, and how to draw them. They slow things down in a good way.
And people who aren't like that, who are at the 'let's write every idea down so everyone can be a winner' school - they get slowed down too. It makes them think for a beat, to consider their words, to condense, to expand, to get just right. In other words, to craft something. Ideas deserve to be crafted. They deserve to be turned into artefacts. That's what artefact cards do.”
Brian Millar
“Freed the spirit, joined the dots, collected the thoughts, secured the future”
Colin Tyler
“The Artefact cards have added a new dimension to my presentations and idea generation sessions. Highly tactile, they connect our thinking with our expression in a more thoughtful way than the tried-and-true Post-It Notes. And this encourages more conscious deliberation around an idea rather than a rush to write and forget.”
Gavin Heaton
"They are a great research and planning tool. I can capture ideas from on, offline and audio sources, at my desk or at school pick up (I keep some in my purse) and the size keeps me concise. I can rearrange the flow of ideas, many times and photograph them and send to others for review."
Victoria Richardson