My name is Map, Mind Map!

On October 5th 2012, the world celebrated the Global James Bond day which marks the 50th anniversary of Dr. No, the very first 007 film in 1962. Here is for you a new and impressive creative mind map which celebrates the event from a personal perspective. Last Friday, on October 5th 2012, I waked up with the news that the world was celebrating the fabulous British spy, James Bond. It was announced to be the Global James Bond day which marks the 50th anniversary of Dr. No, the very first 007 film in 1962. Of course, during the day and the following week-end, it was the occasion for a lot of radio and television channels to remind the list of the different films and their very creative titles, the name of the great British actors who played successively the main role and those of the lovely girls that accompanied them. I could also listen to several famous soundtrack.

Given that context, I've been suddenly inspired by the subject and I decided to draw a mind map which would celebrate the event from a personal perspective. I'm very happy to share the result with you, especially because I think it can be very useful if you want to refresh your knowledge or discover more about the topic. Who knows, you could find there the answer for the next time you play a quiz!

James Bond 50th anniversary mind map with iMindMap

How to manage the complexity of the information?
This article is also an opportunity for me to give you some recommendations that could help you to limit or reduce the complexity of your maps. Indeed, creating mind maps with a lot of useful information is not an easy task because it can become quickly unpleasant or even painful to read. As I used to say: “Many people can draw mind maps, very few can draw simple ones”.

The problem when you write a short piece of information (a keyword) in a limited context, it’s nearly impossible for the reader to understand what you mean. For example, if I write the number “100” next to one of the film title, there are very few chances that you guess what it represents (it can be a lot of different things). However, when I write “1962”, the pattern and the context make you think about a date and most probably, the year when the film was released. I admit that I take a risk if I do not add a branch in between with “released in” written on it. On the other hand, I save some space and gain in clarity, preventing a lot of useless repetition of the same text. So, if the probability to misunderstand the meaning of your text on a branch is small, you can leave it as is without adding contextual keywords or image.

For the James Bond girls and the singers, the problem clearly exists. If I write “Carly Simon” on a sub-branch of a film branch, you may guess right or wrong that it was the soundtrack singer, or the main actress or anything else. Here the risk of confusion or mistake is high. Therefore, I must either add additional branches to mention what I'm talking about or find another solution. The former would have led to a much more complex, less readable mind map with a lot of redundant labels. I made the choice to add nice icons (pictograms) instead, illustrating the meaning of the branch text (or at least providing a better context so that your guessing becomes more accurate). It’s also important to use different one throughout the map in order to help your brain to better associate and memorize the information. Because an image is worth a thousand words, a small icon can really help you to reduce the amount of text you need to write on your map in order to make it correctly understood.

I hope you will enjoy this new creative mind map about James Bond. I'm impatient to read your comments and feedback. Your contribution is key for the development of my work and my studies, as well as for all the other visitors who are more and more everyday to discover the beauty and the utility of mind mapping.

Be open minded.
Be creative.