Event artist for recording live visuals
Graphic recording Live scribing, live drawing, visual scribing and graphic facilitation.... so many different names! It's the process of capturing a live event as engaging colourful visuals.
For anyone who is a visual learner, and that's quite a lot of folks, live scribing is a great way to make an event have impact and have the information sink in.
It's a great way to create inspiring graphic artwork for a conference or community event. The big advantage of live scribing is capturing what happens in the room on the day. Opinions, stories and light bulb moments are captured and remembered, attendees are inspired and motivated after the event has passed.
On this page are examples from various live events around the UK I've worked at, I've also created graphic recordings virtually for hybrid events.
As an illustrator, I'm naturally curious. I've created visuals on diverse topics such as wellbeing, fitness, and the dilemmas faced by those in the fire fighting service. My favourite so far has probably been a talk on obesity by Dr Giles Yeo.
Live events, hybrid and online
Graphic recording / Live recording / Live drawing (it has many names,) is a niche gig.
It's a challenge I relish and very much feeds the same part of my brain translating word into images. I have to be present and adapt quickly to the visuals I'm creating. If I spend too long on one drawing, the speaker might have moved onto a new subject by the time I'm done. Writing down keywords is good, but not too many, as a sheet full of words is just words. The goal is finding the balance of words and pictures to summarise the theme of the talk.
There's a graphic design shorthand at work. Connecting what speakers are saying with what images are commonly represented by the subject being spoken about. There's also humour, more my own take as I like to add appropriate humour into visuals. Just my opinion, though I think with more serious topics, using a little light humour can help with how people engage with difficult subjects.
Hard for me to be objective about my own work, but the responses are always was very positive. Attendees are often encouraged to photo the art and share it across their social media. It's a great way for them to remember the event and what was covered, but also increased the engagement and reach of the event as a whole.
For more info and bookings, contact me here or email info@johncooperdesign.co.uk
