If you and I have met and had a conversation about visual thinking, there’s a good chance I’ve enthusiastically shared that I believe anyone can draw, and anyone can take visual notes.
Aside from the fact that we are innately visual creatures and a few tips can spark creativity, I’ve learned through the years that there are things I can do that help me feel more confident and consistently help me produce my favorite work.
One secret is that taking time to prepare before live graphic recording really helps me set myself up for success. These are strategies I use all the time that you’ll be able to implement at your next meeting to infuse your own notes with some visual flair.
Each tip is followed by a snippet from my sketchbooks as an example. Here we go!
Look through an agenda and practice sketching ideas for how to visualize concepts that will almost certainly come up – specific animals, equipment, or activities.
Play with potential layouts – even if I don’t know how the conversation will emerge, if I have some ideas sketched out I’ve found I’m more confident and it’s easier to adapt or add more detail if I’ve already spent some time thinking about it.
Pick your colors – as Brandy Agerbeck says, use color MORE, rather than using more color! Pick colors for very important ideas, or to add patterns in the background. This is especially helpful when working digitally and you can use literally any color – paring down up front helps make decisions quickly in the moment.
Draw out session titles and key names/affiliations if you know them, that way you’re not trying to spell someone’s name correctly while listening to their brilliant ideas and trying to get it all down.
Keep scratch paper nearby for taking notes. I do this less working digitally as it’s easy to move or erase ideas, but it’s still helpful to have a sketchbook nearby to jot down a great quote or statistics to incorporate later.
Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.
Cheers,
Where in the Virtual World is ConverSketch?
Back from Idaho: Where we spent two weeks unplugging and whitewater rafting! Here’s a shot from the South Fork of the Salmon River. Photo: Josh Metten
Procinorte: Even though I was offline most of the time, I was still able to jump back into Zoom for two days of agriculture and climate researchers from Canada, Mexico, and the United States discussing how to improve collaboration across borders for food and climate security.
