Storytelling Questions and Answers

All of our artists have a passion for different industries or topics. However, all our artists are expertly trained to listen and filter what’s being said in the moment– regardless of the content being discussed.

Our core team is based in Chicago, but we have an extended pro network in almost every region–and we can also support your event virtually!

Yes, whether we’re creating live visual notes, illustrations, or videos, we work with you to align with your brand. Keep in mind that we’re an illustration company, not a graphic design firm, so we create work that is hand-drawn. While we can match your tone and colors, the work on our website is a good representation of what we can create for you.

Yes absolutely! Though I may not be able to give you a specific example to your industry as it might breach privacy etc. There are plenty of examples of all types Visual Storytelling, Graphic facilitation, Graphic recording and Illustration and animation work on our website at www.Visstorytellers.com.au.

We always have a briefing to understand what the session is all about , how the agenda runs, what topics may be covered and what you are teaching. We can even view slides and other things to prepare ourselves. But this is more about understanding the lingo and context so we can listen and draw easier. We never really use these as tools to capture the work visually.
Really it doesn’t matter the content as we have worked across many different industries, contexts and countries. When we graphically record or visually capture a session we are deeply and actively listening and then drawing what we hear. Catching it at a level of understanding that anyone can understand. We have been in some seriously technical conversations and our clients have been really impressed with the visual capture and the experience of having a graphic recorder in the room.

The speed in which we can produce visual storytelling of your information is dependent on how complex and detailed this information is. It also depends on who needs to be part of the decision process around when the illustration is complete. We have completed things urgently in an hour, to taking a year to finish a specific product for communication of key ideas across an organisation and we have even drawn up a quick prop to be used in 5 minutes! So it is really varied how long it can take to produce a visual story. Different product types also take different time too. Animations being the longest timeframe to produce.

We literally just came off a graphic recording job that went for 6 days. We have been part of an innovation hub where we scribed every day for the 8 weeks we were there. The minimum time I would suggest we scribe for is an hour (though we have scribed a 15minute talk before) the maximum is really until our arms fall off! haha

Depending on how we have scribed the event will depend on what you receive.
If we have used:
Whiteboard Scribing: You will receive digital images of the scribes coloured in digitally. You can also have pure black and white line images too if preferred.
Boards/ Paper Scribing: You will receive the original graphic recordings on the boards and digital images of these boards too. The digital images will be cleaned up to brighten the colours and clear up the images.
Digital Scribing: You will receive digital images of each of the scribes and time-lapse videos of each scribe.
Irrespective of each way we have scribed your meeting/ workshop/ event. The output can be used in a variety of ways from creating graphical products like mousepads, mugs, posters etc. To creating a graphical magazine or digital magazine of all the content. Even sending a physical copy out to all your attendees. Recently we have also produced summary visual stories of the content as a gift for participants OR animations and explainer videos from the output to keep the momentum going. The simplest is people who have framed our scribes and hung them up in offices etc for posterity. The sky is really the limit!

You can brief your visual scribe in an hour or less. We will need the agenda to run through for this briefing and from there we can understand how we can best support your session from woe to go. But unless there is anything out of the ordinary your extraordinary visual scribe should only take an hour or less to understand what is needed ot get started on the day.

As they say proof is in the pudding. You will really only know as soon as we get started drawing what people are saying and engaging the people in the room in the visual storytelling of the session. I haven’t been in a meeting yet where people don’t get seriously excited when they see us drawing what they are saying. The people taking photos and sharing the visual scribes on social media is always a good sign! But if you are in an organisation when these scribes are used for tools of communication and information sharing this is where it can become a really powerful tool for engaging and inspiring communication.

This depends on how you would like us to capture your session:
Whiteboard scribing: We will need you to hire whiteboards for the session. We can recommend a great size and type and how many we will need depending on your agenda.
Scribing on paper or artboards/ Foamcore: We will bring all our own materials and easels.
Digital scribing: Depending on the size of the room/ type of event. We can bring everything ie screen/ projector and iPad. OR we can just hook our ipad into your AV system for digital scribing of your event.
Other than that its always important to have access to power, a desk and a couple of chairs for us to work our magic at.

For live or virtual graphic recording we have a range of pricing usually broken down into half and full days. But we also put together bespoke packages with packaged pricing to cover all forms and ways people use graphic recording and live scribing.

Visual Storytelling or graphic recording is a powerful almost magical tool and experience. When you see someone drawing what you are saying and capturing it in your words. It creates empathy and excitement. It helps you feel heard and understood. But when you see someone drawing your mirror neurons fire making it feel as if you are doing the drawing. Giving you the creativity, inspiration and positivity that comes from this. When participants get the visual minutes after your session they are blown away and treasure the content as it was masterfully captured. It is so much more than receiving a hand out!

Yes there are many resources online that we can point you towards but for now check out this website https://killervisualstrategies.com/blog/how-our-brains-are-hardwired-for-visual-content.html

No. Filming the event is about creating a visual story of what happened at the event on a much higher level than the detail you receive from the visual capture of each individual speech, panel, presentation or keynote. The visual scribing is also a live in real-time capture of what is happening interpreted into the artful, organised and structured graphic recording. Watching a graphic recorder do this in real-time sparks creativity, inspires conversation and creates engagement, interest and relieves the boredom of PowerPoint. It is so much more than a video of the event!

If the audience is losing interest or focus on the speaker, we are there to give them another option for how they can engage with and take in the content of the speech. Usually, we are to one side of the stage where the speaker is speaking from so that when audience members minds wander and drift we are there to capture them in the engaging way we are repurposing what the speaker is saying. That being said it isn’t our job to keep the audience engaged in the speech that is the job of the speaker. IF the speaker loses the audience completely, we can only do so much to help!

No. As we always have a detailed briefing with the client before we start any visual storytelling job or graphic recording of an event. We have a briefing to ensure that there is clarity on all sides about what we will be visually creating, how we will be visually creating it and clarifying expectations on all sides. If anything goes slightly away from these expectations, we have regular check-ins and progress iterations on a visual storytelling job to ensure that we can get back on track and deliver a powerful visual outcome for all involved.

One of the powers of having a visual storyteller or graphic recorder in the room is to create purposeful distraction. People are fickle creatures and are bound to have moments of daydreaming or boredom or just the need to move their attention and focus away from the main thing going on in the room ie the speaker/ presenter/ facilitator. By having a visual storyteller in the room capturing what is being said audience members are able to disengage from the speaker but still remain engaged in the content and topic being discussed. Most people will say they were wandering off in their minds when they saw what we were doing and were engaged even more in the speech because they suddenly realised that we were drawing what the speaker was saying in real-time in the moment. They were suddenly awestruck and excited to see what we would draw next!

Yes, of course we are happy to do what is needed for you to feel confident about having us in the room capturing your most important conversations in pictures live.

If we are available we can be ready and raring to visually record your meeting, conference, event, team day. Hoot-a-nanny in an hour! We just have to be able to get to you and setup which can be a challenge to do in person analog graphic recording with pens and boards etc. But if you have a virtual meeting we can be all set up and online in the time it takes you to say “Visual Storytellers Group are Awesome!”

It seems the only people it wouldn’t work for are those who cannot see it. We have used visual storytelling in all works of life and industries, and it always goes down as a real treat. We always get people who say that this wouldn’t work for their group because they are all CEOs or Execs or Partners but we disagree. We have worked at major partner conferences, for major consulting firms and ASX100 companies. With lawyers and company boards. Visuals are truly the universal language and we are all connected by them.

Absolutely. We come from a workshop facilitation background of over 15 years. Supporting large scale workshops that helped diverse groups of stakeholders solve complex problems in an accelerated manner. So are more than happy to work with you to co-design your event and the use of graphic recording so you get the best results for all involved.

Visual notes are based on live content and created during a speech, presentation, meeting, etc. Visual Notes aid in memory retention and recall long after the meeting or event ends.
Illustrations are intended to communicate to a broader (or more specific) audience as a stand-alone visual tool for viewers to navigate and learn. Our illustrations are based on carefully curated content iterated and visualized using multiple review cycles.