When working live, you never know what's going to happen. I usually only have the same information the people in the audience have, which is a basic agenda. So I know the speaker's name, title of their talk, and how long they are scheduled to speak. That's it!
It's not uncommon for talks to go longer as planned, like the one above. That's usually a good sign, as it means the audience is really engaged. But it can be a challenge to capture all that extra content on the same page.
Color is a great way to keep things organized when there's not much space available. Grouping concepts and thoughts according to color allows you to have completely different ideas right next to each other without things getting confusing.
See more visual notes created live at One Squiggly Line's graphic recording page.
Visual Thinking Words & Pictures Together
Hand-drawn visual created in real-time
increase an event's impact by:
allowing the audience to see what they just heard — increasing engagement and retention.
literally showing the audience the big picture of each talk and, when displayed together, the event as a whole. (Great for social media!)
providing a visual document of the day that can be shared during and after the fact...for years and years to come!
bringing underlying themes and patterns to the surface and deepening conversations.
piquing curiosity or spurring action when gaps in information or next steps become apparent.
Visual Thinking: Real-Time Illustrated Visual Notes
I had the pleasure of drawing for the wonderful NetApp folks at their Insight conference in Las Vegas. Instead of drawing the keynotes or break-out sessions, they placed me in The Cube, a live-stream video platform.Check out the replay!
As you can see above, I was positioned near the speakers. I drew while they talked and was pretty much finished when they stopped. While the focus of the live-streaming was the speakers, I appeared in the background and during breaks.
The visual notes were then displayed where people could continue to discuss the content throughout the conference.
These were drawn on 40"x60" foam core board with Neuland markers.
Here's another image I created at NetApp Insight last month. I was given a quote from the press and asked to make make it visual. There was no pre-planning — I just picked up a marker and started to draw it out...in front of the camera!
This was drawn on a 30"x40" foam core board and took 23 minutes to draw. The final video is on their blog where you can watch me draw it in 26 seconds.
This is just another way hand-drawn visuals can help bring information to life!
Visual Thinking: Simple is Powerful
Friendly hand-drawn visuals can breathe new life into an old message. The topic of New Year's resolutions has been covered time and time again. So much so that people stop really paying attention to it. In effect, it becomes invisible.
When that happens, a new approach is needed. Something to break the pattern and grab people's eye. No need to make it fancy or complex. Simple can be very powerful. Plus, when you keep things simple, they're less scary so you're more likely to follow through.
Visual Thinking & Visual Notes: Live Graphic Recording
Hand-drawn visuals are far friendlier than standardized fonts and stock photos. And hand-drawn visuals are even more inviting when created live, right there where everyone can see.
The drawing above was created during the opening remarks at the Women in Cyber Security conference the end of March. It was then displayed near registration to welcome late-comers. Not a high resolution file shown here, just taken with my iPhone in the moment.
To see the whole set of visual notes from the Women in Cyber Security conference, check out this Flickr album.
Visual Thinking & Visual Notes: Live Graphic Recording
People often think I do a lot of drawing while taking live visual notes. If you really look at the image above, you'll see there's really not much drawing there at all. Just some squares, a couple of circles, and an arrow. That's it!
When you write words inside simple shapes, those simple shapes start making your own notes a bit more visual. They become more dynamic. More interesting. The image and the message become more unified. And far more powerful.
A great way to make your own notes more visual is to write some of your words inside simple shapes — circles, squares, triangles, arrows, etc. Give it a try!
The image above is a close-up of a 4'x8' drawing, created live, in real-time during a Design Thinking workshop. Be sure to check out the entire image!
Visual Thinking & Visual Notes: Live Graphic Recording at Events
There's never just one way to create visual notes, especially when they are created live. And at a large scale. That can make capturing a panel talk more of a challenge for some people. It takes a bit more flexibility than a clearly defined presentation.
I tend to capture panel discussions in a way that highlights the key points of the discussion as a whole. Not a series of summaries of what each person contributed. Since discussions tend to be rather fluid, the final visual makes much more sense that way. Speakers tend to like it better that way, too. So often key points build on what another speaker said, so there's no chance of misattribution when you capture the discussion as a whole.
The visual notes above were created during a panel discussion at TechInclusion last fall. You can see the whole set of visual notes created live, on-site there in this Flickr album.
Visual Thinking & Live Visual Notes: Graphic Recording
When working live, you never know what's going to happen. I usually only have the same information the people in the audience have, which is a basic agenda. So I know the speaker's name, title of their talk, and how long they are scheduled to speak. That's it!
It's not uncommon for talks to go longer as planned, like the one above. That's usually a good sign, as it means the audience is really engaged. But it can be a challenge to capture all that extra content on the same page.
Color is a great way to keep things organized when there's not much space available. Grouping concepts and thoughts according to color allows you to have completely different ideas right next to each other without things getting confusing.
See more visual notes created live at One Squiggly Line's graphic recording page.
Visual Thinking & Live Visual Notes (Graphic Recording): Demos & Pitches
Demos and pitches are a pretty common part of the business world. Actually, they're a big part of every world, even if you don't formally use the term "demo" or "pitch". At the heart of both demos and pitches is a quick, concise presentation of key points. Hopefully, that presentation is both entertaining and memorable.
Hand-drawn visuals are a great way to make your presentation more entertaining and memorable. The drawing above was created live, in real-time as the speakers gave their demo or pitch.
To see more examples of visual notes create live, in the moment, visit One Squiggly Line's Live Graphic Recording page. Or for visuals created to highlight key points, created before or after a presentation or from print materials, see One Squiggly Line's Synthesis Images page.
Visual Thinking: Live, Large-Scale Visual Notes (Graphic Recording)
Awesome. Passion. Both very powerful, positive high-impact words. Notice the difference between reading those words in standard print here and seeing them used in a hand-drawn illustration above?
If you look closely at the above drawing with an analytical eye, you'll see there's really not much drawing there at all. Just a big orange heart and two smaller black ones. Plus a few lines here and there. That's it! Nothing fancy at all, yet much more powerful than those exact same words printed out in a computer-generated font. And even more powerful yet when you actually watch someone write them.
That's just a small sample of how powerful live, large-scale visual notes and graphic recording can be. Curious to learn more? Check out the One Squiggly Line's "Services" page for a lot of examples. Just imagine how much more powerful those images would be if you were right there, watching them being created live, right before your eyes!