Holger Nils Pohl

Holger Nils Pohl is an award-winning communication designer, visual strategist, author, and trainer who creates clarity — helping people navigate complexity through drawings, stories, and tools that reveal what matters. He's also autistic, which shapes how he sees, thinks, and creates.

He has written over a dozen books on creativity, innovation, autism, and emotional expression — including collaborations with Tendayi Viki and Alex Osterwalder. One of them he typed entirely on his phone while carrying his third child in a belly carrier. He has led hundreds of workshops and keynotes worldwide and taught at Berlin University of the Arts and Hochschule Macromedia Cologne.

In 2025, a stroke changed everything and nothing. Since then, he's been exploring what clarity, healing, and creativity mean when your brain has changed — and sharing that journey openly.

Holger lives just outside Cologne with his wife, three kids, three horses, a dog, two cats, and some very stubborn rabbits. When he's not sketching, writing, or building things from wood, you'll find him in the garden shooting hoops — or just staring at the clouds.



Photo by Selda Schretzamnn,
https://www.selda-photography.com

What others say about Holger

  • Dr. Alexander Osterwalder

    Bestselling Author, Strategyzer

    "We spend an insane amount of time on making our messages clear, simple, and visual. To achieve this we draw on Holger’s outstanding visual facilitation skills again and again."

  • Christian Rangen

    Strategy Innovation Consultant

    "Holger is one of the world’s leading visual strategy facilitators and visual recorders. With the magic of his pens & iPad, he can make the most complex information easily understandable. His expertise is working with companies and management teams, helping them visualize, understand and communicate their strategy, innovation and change efforts."

My Passion(s)

  • Business and Self Help

    I write about Clarity, Visual Thinking, Drawing, Change, Innovation, Problem-Solving and more. I'm deeply invested in the way we work together and how we can get better at it to solve the complex challenges of our world.

  • Autism

    I am an Aspie (someone with Asperger's Syndrome on the autism spectrum). With my creative work, I want to bring knowledge and experiences for and with Autists into the world. My first step is the kids' book, which is currently a work-in-progress.

  • Fantasy

    I write fantasy books with dragons, strange creatures, magic, new worlds, mysteries, and characters who still need to find their place in life. Those books are early stage work-in-progress (and yes, I love to write longhand).