How Live Illustration Transforms Corporate Events
Live Illustration is not only the name of this agency, it's also the practice of drawing in front of people, known as scribing, event scribing or more formally as graphic recording.
Chris Shipton drawing on a large board at a corporate event
“Back in 2015 when Live Illustration was set up the more commonly used term was graphic recording, but I think businesses should be called after what they do. If I had a cafe it would be called ‘The Cafe’. So you can see where I got the name from.”
Using real time hand drawn visuals to capture the key concepts, conversations and insights form a corporate event can allow planners to really maximise the impact of their events.
The Key Benefits of Live Illustration:
It’s human - having a real person in the room responding and interpreting the information inspires people in the AI era
High information retention - it’s well documented that spatially organising information and linking it to imagery helps people to remember.
Real-time audience engagement - whether its an ipad on screen or a person at a board the evolution of a blank canvas into a visual story keeps people interested, and wins them back from phone screens
Inclusivity - People with different learning styles or perhaps a degree of neurodiversity really benefit from having presentations made visual and accessible, live
Post-event assets - after the event the artwork helps people who were there remember, and those who were not find out what happened.
“Graphic recording benefits the audience’s understanding and memory. It benefits the scribes too. You can’t help but build up an enormous repository of business experience across multiple sectors. It helps with pub quizzes too.”
The Core Services Live Illustration provides
Graphic Recording
This is analogue - drawn in person on paper or boards forming a set piece at a conference
It can be large scale and create a focal point in many meeting contexts - such as a conference booth
It can be a very effective facilitation support tool in workshop settings - for example a world cafe
Chris Shipton drawing on a big board at a corporate event
“We digitise every in person graphic recording we do. In the process we add to the image, we like to make them ‘pop’. So even if we drew the piece with a pen, it can be reworked digitally after the event. And we always give the physical original board to the client after the show.”
Digital Scribing
This can be done at an in person event as well as virtually
For very large events with hi-tech screens digital drawing can have a huge impact
This form of iPad drawing can easily sync with Zoom, Google Meet and Teams for virtual events or further broadcast
Behind the scenes a scribe uses their iPad to draw real time onscreen at a corporate event
Rich Pictures
This is a highly tailored, individual and unique service for specific goals
Using graphic facilitation and workshops we help teams prioritise their strategies and concepts
We use illustration to create complex engaging images which have a big impact when cascading concepts to corporate populations
A classic Rich Picture from the archives - the Sewer is done now
Event Planners Checklist
Whether you are a professional event planner considering having some Live Illustration for the first time or the person delegated with organising this years meeting, here’s a handy list of what to look out for:
Event context & objectives - this helps your graphic recorder know what to look out for
Event schedule - the single most important piece of information as we need to make sure we draw the right things at the right speed
Jargon and Acronyms - every organisation has their own
Brand & Design - digital in person ipad drawing allows us to work with official palettes and logos, hand drawing we use accent colours
Sensitivities - always let us know if there are areas to avoid or ‘not hear’ - unannounced financials, drug details or the CEO’s least favourite word
Logistics - we need to know where to go, where to set up and when to be there
More logistics - A graphic recorder live illustrating at a big event will need space (approx 3m) and light, they can’t draw in the dark
iPad Logistics - the event artist will need a chair, a table and a plug at the very least, they are best situated with the AV team
Image formats and licensing - all our work is licensed and a huge array of options are available, the easiest thing to do is have an idea of what you want to do with the image afterwards. We can deliver in most formats analogue formats
“Now I’m not saying I’ve stepped out of an airport in a far flung foreign country with no idea who I am working for, what the event is about or where I’m going but… well... I’m a lot better organised these days!”
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