We do corporate work but we don't like to talk about it…
Our scribes have graced the doorsteps of many of the big brands of the world. A quick glance of the FTSE 100 and at least 25% of the current batch have seen us put up a bit of paper in their HQ’s, attend workshops or plug iPads in at events. But the tiny problem is, we can’t show you any of the stuff we did! The big brands trust us not to show off their visualised inner workings. Not only do they trust us but they get us to sign legally binding contracts to that effect. Reminiscent of 90’s DJ Mike Smash and his phrase ‘I do a lot of work for charity, but I don’t like to talk about it’ the question has always been, how can we show off about this? Well here is a hugely self aggrandising blog post where we will attempt to do just that, without exploding any NDA’s. And if there is a brand we haven’t mentioned, it's probably because the contract said we couldn’t.
Media & Tech
An image from the Global Innovation Forum featuring a well known brand
We’ve been at events for the likes of Spotify, Netflix and even crept into Apple’s amazing new HQ that’s actually in Battersea Power Station. And we will not be showing any of that artwork at all. The BBC at one point made use of scribes and we’ve helped with pitches, workshops and even a very popular Facebook stream for the 2017 election (250k viewers). But that's all under wraps too. Big names such as Microsoft, HP and IBM have all had our pen work adorn their walls. But no, we cannot show you a single bit of it. I guess you’ll just have to take our word for it! Likewise we are very familiar with LinkedIn’s style guide, we’ve done work for Facebook before and after it was called Meta and we did go to Google once, and during the lockdown we illustrated a few of their D&D sessions - it was a weird time for everyone.
Live Illustration is best used in media & tech for internal engagement, sales kick offs, transformations and strategies.
Health & Pharma
This image supported an in depth workshop on when its best to stick a camera up your nose and into your stomach
Over the years, not all at once, we’ve stepped foot in the hallowed halls of GlaxoSmithKline, we’ve done exhibition stands for AstraZeneca, visited Novartis in Basel (they have their own tube stop), been at innovation workshops with Merck and once drew a series of patient personas at Roche. The list of life science organisations we have been involved with is long and distinguished. Our director's very first scribing job was for NICE (that work is under wraps for reasons beyond IP). From CAR-T, complex patient journeys to bizarre fungi and its treatment we’ve had a front row seat to an era of medical innovation. Which we will not show you. But luckily we can share examples of our work with our very own best of British NHS. We’ve had some fantastic working relationships with many of our NHS trusts over the years, and in this example you can see we had a great time drawing a - in actual fact really quite serious - gastrointestinal workshop. In the world of health perhaps our proudest association has been with late WHO Ambassador Sir David Nabarro whose work on Ebola led him to tirelessly campaign on getting the facts right during COVID in his regular broadcast. We built up a huge library of work, covering every twist and turn of the crisis from a public health view. We can show you that.
Dr Sir David Nabarro was a tireless campaigner and an inspiration to us all
In healthcare a scribe is can used in many ways such as regulated interactions with HCPs, public health communications to patients, internal patient journey workshops and internal staff engagement.
Banking & Finance
2019 - what could possibly happen next to disrupt the global economy? This ended up on a wrap around cover of the magazine.
The incredibly complex world of banking and finance probably has as much to do with geopolitics as it does the numbers. But it is of course mainly the numbers. In many ways our most challenging sector we work with. Having to hop from knowledge of bond markets, to gas prices and the impact of pork belly pricing means a scribe needs to be at the top of their game. One of our top banking clients has resulted in us scribing talks from the likes of Tony Blair, Jeremy Hunt and once a standing room only silent room which hung on the every word of none other than Mario Draghi himself! (if you’re not into global finance you probably won’t be very impressed by that). Of course absolutely none of that work will be published here. We have featured a blast form the past with an image from a fantastic event we did for a conference entirely dedicated to the bond markets. But yes we have had a long and happy relationship with big brands like HSBC, Barclays and more.
Life comes at you fast, and if you blink, you might just miss it
As a bonus we can share an item from energy trading week here in the UK which gives a nice overview of a particularly volatile sector. It’s also how we know so much about gas. You always know how worried you should be about the state of the world based on how many Trumps and Putins you have to draw.
Live Illustration in finance is often used for customer facing corporate conferences, virtual events and audience engagement in business forums.
Consumer Goods & FMCG
For a great many years we have done a lot of work with a certain fizzy drinks manufacturer who is credited with turning Santa red, can be found all over the world and in America people have third tap for it in their sinks. Yes.. it’s Coca Cola. We have done loads for them. And we checked. We can’t show you any of it at all. Our roots are in the world of FMCG, our director, Chris Shipton got into the world of live drawing via innovation workshops. As he puts it ‘I had to draw a lot of cheese’. That stuff is firmly under wraps too. But we do, as regular readers of this blog will know, work with the Global Innovation Forum and here is an example of one of their many FMCG brands they work with. Recently we have worked with Nomad, Costa and we did do a Starbucks workshop once about ten years ago.
A graphic recorder is in their natural environment supporting the rapidly evolving world of FMCG innovation. Illustrated customer panels, internal visual workshops and complex Rich Pictures all have a home here.
Higher Education, Museums and Institutions
If you get the chance to go to Dundee take it - all of our scribes have been and love the place
Oxford University, Cambridge University, Edinburgh University, UCL, Glasgow University, Strathclyde Business School, London Business School, The Open University, Reading, Lincoln and many more have used our services. Research seminars, workshops, conferences, rich pictures and the infamous university ‘poster’ - the UK’s incredible higher education sector knows how to use a scribe. And happily a lot of that work is available to the outside world. We’ve supported the Royal Society of Edinburgh on their public engagements, and in the lockdown too. Perhaps our most in depth and longest relationship has been with the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Dundee where we have scribed ten years worth of events detailing the interactions between the justice system and forensic science. Like CSI Miami but it’s in a nice meeting room in Dundee.
The rich and varied world of academic research can be brought to life with the addition of live illustration, from conferences to panels, publications, workshops and research papers.
Government and the Public Sector
This is a design for a commemorative mug sent out to delegates alongside challenge coins
The COP21 Paris Climate Conference was a highlight of our work in the realm of government and policy. In the following years we’ve worked with all sorts of local and national governmental bodies. From the Cabinet Office in Whitehall assisting in their continuous quest for innovation to the hyper local in Oxford working on Community Cohesion, Autism and Child Services. We are extremely proud of our interactions with UKRI, we once went on a national tour with them covering the four corners of the UK. One of our most fascinating, if slightly scary, engagements has been working with various sections of NATO in their public facing and not secret parts. Those events as well as engagements with the Foreign Office, the Navy and MOD have always served to remind us that more than a passing knowledge of geopolitics is relevant to everyone, not just our friends in the bond markets. And we’ve even worked with everyone's favourite institution HMRC! Beyond the UK we’ve worked with UNEP, the OECD and the European Parliament.
The art of political communication is simplifying incredibly complicated multi-layered challenges into a format easily understood by the most amount of people. That is also the art of live drawing.
Infrastructure
There are many canvases that synergise with Rich Picture Illustration - the BMC being one of the best
We love a good train drawing and our very recent work with Network Rail has been on display in Oxford. We recently worked with Southwest Rail as the new programme of nationalisation of the railways rolls out across the UK. Here you can see a nice bit of work from the archive here showing off both a collaboration with WSP and National Highways using the famous business model canvas. Our work on the Super Sewer Rich Picture has set the agenda for our Rich Picture work for many years to come (see here). From Morgan Sindall, The RSSB, Atkins, Arup, Rolls-Royce, JLR to Siemens we’ve managed to draw something for some of the biggest names in infrastructure and engineering. Here you can see another of our drawings featuring offshore energy infrastructure. We can show you that one.
Drawing an infrastructure project in all of its intricate forms is a joy for any illustrator. Project explainers, external and internal project engagement and bid work all benefit from live illustration and rich pictures.
Charities: a social good
The great thing about charities is that they absolutely want to share everything we do for them. Most recently we worked with the Young Women's Trust on a series of highly engaging images that found their way into Parliament. Across the charity sector, we have worked with the Arts Council, Active Oxfordshire, Capability Scotland, Sport England, Revolving Doors and many more. We’ve featured one of our works with Revolving Doors who are a marvellous charity who help people in regular contact with the justice system, working tirelessly to break the cycle of reoffending. And we do offer a charity discount.
Charities can bring a wow factor by having a scribe in the room, and virtual scribing, pocket illustrations and little workshops can all be designed to fit the smallest budgets.
What does this all mean?
This means we have an extensive list of some of the most prominent, biggest companies in the world, all of whom trust us to draw for them. And it also means our scribes are experts in multiple sectors, and at the forefront of every part of the business world. Our scribes can not only engage at a high level with the content of any sector, but bring the knowledge of multiple other sectors to bear in that work.
If you are thinking about a scribe for your event you not only need someone who can engage an entire audience with their artwork, someone who can interpret and understand the conversation in the room and add to it via their artwork, who can do this in any sector bringing a huge breadth of knowledge with them, then look no further you are in the right place!
