Dyslexic Design Thinking

Dyslexia affects as many as 1 in 5 people, yet its benefits remain shrouded in mystery. With Dyslexic Design Thinking, Gil Gershoni set out to show how dyslexia offers a heightened advantage, what he calls his “hyper-ability.” Using his experiences as a creative director and entrepreneur as a lens, Gil shares how he transformed a perceived weakness into a strength and how dyslexia influences the way we think, create and relate to one another.

Instagram: @dyslexicdesignthinking

Medium: @gilgershoni

For media inquiries and booking information, contact dyslexia@gershoni.com

Stay current with the latest posts from Gil and Dyslexic Design Thinking on Medium. In this ongoing series, Gil explores different aspects of the dyslexic experience, from highlighting its unique benefits to building neurodiverse teams to leaning into the dyslexic mind-set to achieve professional success.

Dyslexic Entrepreneurs Are Successful By Any Measure. 
It's All in the Way We Think.

While dyslexia is often seen as an impediment, its impact on the business world is undeniable. From IKEA to FUBU, dyslexia is a driving force in the modern economy.

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How Leading With Neurodiversity Improves the Workplace Dance

Dyslexia forced me to organize my team around a different framework, one that resembled an ecosystem rather than a factory.

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I Was Always Told My Dyslexia Was a Disability. Then I Developed a Relationship With It.

We should stop looking at dyslexia as a disability and look at it as a specialized ability, a hyper-ability, a struggle to read words but a gift in reading objects.

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Gil frequently speaks to audiences around the country on how dyslexia has influenced his 25-year career as a creative director. Festivals, schools and business groups have all benefited from his interactive approach, which weaves firsthand experience, storytelling, science and audience Q&A into a compelling session.

On March 12, 2017, Gil Gershoni and April Durrett spoke in front of a sold-out audience at Austin's annual South by Southwest. In their dual presentation, Gil and April shared their unique approach to solving problems—Gil as a creative director with dyslexia and April as a creative strategist who employs a more traditional, linear way of thinking. Together, they used the lens of dyslexia not only to look at a problem but also through it, around it, above it and below it to unlock the best possible solution. They demonstrated how others can harness neurodiversity in their own lives by transforming a disability into a hyper-ability.

More than a century ago, the Humboldt Bank Building rose from the ashes of the 1906 earthquake to become one of San Francisco’s original skyscrapers. It’s atop that landmark structure that Gil and Amy Gershoni moved Gershoni Creative Agency a decade ago. Celebrate San Francisco Design Week inside this striking space with Gil's talk, Dyslexic Design Thinking, as well as an evening of wine and a tour of the branding and design firm.

From disability to disruption, Gil shares the secret powers of dyslexia with members of UC Berkeley’s engineering program. Gil uncovers the dyslexic artists, writers and entrepreneurs who changed the world, then weaves their stories through his own journey of self-discovery from an artistic childhood to the founding of his own business, Gershoni Creative.

In this collaborative discussion with participants, Gil Gershoni and Ken Goldberg challenge common myths such as the threat that artificial intelligence will steal our jobs or that dyslexia is a debilitating mental limitation. Together, they share stories and explore how these and other dangers can be turned into advantages for artists and designers.

A “hyper-ability” that offers unexpected benefits, dyslexia has changed the world—whether you know it or not. In this guided conversation, Gil leads an intimate gathering of thought-leaders from the worlds of arts and entertainment, business and academia in an exploration of how dyslexia impacts the way we think, create and interact with one another.

Gil Gershoni is the founder and creative director of Gershoni Creative Agency in San Francisco and Dallas. For more than two decades, Gil has worked with clients like Google, Apple, Deloitte, Patrón, San Francisco Art Institute, BBC and Nike, and he has presented at the Whitney Biennial, Sundance Film Festival, South by Southwest, Vancouver Institute of Media Arts, Contemporary Jewish Museum and San Francisco Design Week. He also serves as a senior advisor to UC Berkeley’s Center for New Media and frequently consults with national design schools on design and new media curriculum. Gil is an advocate for the reframing of dyslexia as a hyper-ability and regularly speaks on neurodiversity’s influence on design thinking.

WIRED MAGAZINE

How Technology Helped Me Cheat Dyslexia

By Lisa Wood Shapiro

I began writing with the help of an AI-powered browser plug-in so adept at correcting my linguistic missteps, it ended up sending me on a quest to discover what life might be like in a technologically enabled post-dyslexic world.

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ADFORUM

Gershoni Creative Co-Founder Gil Gershoni Talks Culture & Success

Over the years, through university and into my career, I started to look less at the medium or a single story and more at person-to-person communication and how words and images affect us and connect us in a deeper way.

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DIGIDAY

‘I’m just wired differently’: Why advertising seems to have so many people with dyslexia

By Tanya Dua

For many execs, perhaps the biggest reason they all found themselves in advertising was also due to the nature of the industry. Advertising encourages people to think and express themselves differently.

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