If you (or anyone) still read this you’re probably aware I’ve been banging on about Centaurs for a little while.

I started idly sketching something that could become a shorthand for a ‘centaur’ actor in a system. The kind of visual shorthand that you might often use on whiteboards or in sketches of flows in designing interactive systems.

For example… back in 2006 I sketched this…

My first centaur symbol sketches… was trying to make it something quick and fluid but kept getting hung up on the tail…

 

I then progressed to subjecting colleagues (thanks Tim) to impromptu lifesize whiteboard centaur sketches…

But then I remembered Picasso’s 1949 light paintings of centaurs  which inspired me to do some quick long-exposure experiments.

 

Again, long-suffering colleagues were pressed into service (after buying them some beers…)

And I think that the constraint of having to paint the centaur body in a few seconds of long exposure got me to a more fluid, fluent expression

But then I think in the end it was Nuno who nailed the tail on this old designer…

More centaurs soon, no doubt.