Project Category: Conversations

BLOG-A-THON live capture by Visual Thinkery

It’s a BLOG-A-THON…

What is a blog-a-thon? And can we make sense of it on one page?

That was the challenge that presented itself at this week’s ReclaimOpen online conference. I hadn’t quite appreciated the format until it started to unfold before my eyes – but essentially, a blog post was syndicated via the conference site every hour, with a chat available for people to comment alongside the post. This was interesting for a number of reasons. As it was an online conference, people were in all the timezones. This meant that I could come back the following morning and have a look at the posts that I missed. I could take my time, skim over some, re-read others, jump down a rabbit hole… This felt like the web that was when speeds were slow and we weren’t in the rush to make or consume content like we are today.

The blogs were all on a loose theme of rewilding the open web and I’d already created artwork for the conference having absorbed some dialogue from the organising team. I tried to capture a landscape of the blogs as they appeared, attempting to take each title, and from the blog post get a steer on what I should draw.

This was a different sense-making challenge – like making a patchwork quilt of meaning from random squares of written thought…

Combobulating the Wild by Visual Thinkery for Combobulating in the #WildDS106 by Sarah Honeychurch et al.

Montaigne and the open web by Visual Thinkery for Things change (or, Montaigne and the Open Web) by Doug Belshaw

My website is a junk drawer by Visual Thinkery for My website is a junk drawer by Laura Hilliger

Blogging as a superpower by Visual Thinkery for Blogging as a professional practice superpower by Maren Deepwell

Bozos on the bus by Visual Thinkery for I Think We’re All Bozos on This Bus by Mark Corbett Wilson

Designing student build teams by Visual Thinkery for Designing student build teams by Pete Rorabaugh

Lessons from rewilding landscapes by Visual Thinkery for Lessons from Rewilding Landscapes… in the Wild by Alan Levine

We’re not computers, Sebastian by Visual Thinkery for We’re not computers, Sebastian, we’re physical by Jim Groom

Open web zines by Visual Thinkery for Open Web Zines by Pilot Irwin

A backwoods CMS adventure by Visual Thinkery for A backwoods CMS adventure by Taylor Jadin

Take back your privacy by Visual Thinkery for Take Back Your Privacy by Chris Blankenship

7th November 2025
GenAI Sandbox by Visual Thinkery for UCD.

Bringing your research to life

Visual thinking and articulation has so much to offer the world of academic research. After listening to this podcast featuring Paul Nurse from the Francis Crick institute, I was ready to walk into their London offices and offer my services. Why spend months and years on a piece of research, only for it’s findings to be represented by a diagram that makes the reader’s eyes bleed?

We’ve used the Visual Thinkery creative process for many different research projects. We’ve created diagrams, illustrations and cartoons that summarise, highlight, or draw a reader into the research work that has taken place.

The Big Diagram

When it comes to an overarching diagram, things can get pretty complicated. How the pieces fit together, how important each part is, and how colour can be used to help understanding are all things to be considered.

Assessment for Inclusion by Visual Thinkery for UCD. Making a diagram feel easier to understand actually makes it easier to understand. This is Cognitive Ease.

Regional Resilience Journey by Visual Thinkery for Pathways2Resilience. Talking through the complexities of a diagram, explaining to someone from the outside world how it fits together and what it means, is essential in producing a visual that can be easily understood. We can reinforce words with icons to underline their meaning.

CEO’s Communication Content by Visual Thinkery for UKRI. This 3D landscape was a rework of an existing 2D arrow diagram belonging to UKRI’s CEO. By adding humans we make it feel more human. By adding hand drawn elements, it feels more genuine.

The Relationship Model by Visual Thinkery for University of Limerick. We used conversation with practitioners to explore every part of the model. This provided both the stories for each element, and the central metaphor of the mugs.

Visual Thinkery’s conversational process allows for exploration by talking around the subject. By stepping into the researcher’s world, we get to play the curious idiot (a phrase stolen from Einstein), and our questions prompt explanations. And in explaining anything to someone outside your world, you naturally reach for metaphors, stories and humour to illustrate your explanation.

Highlighting a particular point

Quite often, we create visuals that highlight a particular point made during the conversation. This can result in very simple portable cartoons useful for all sorts of contexts.

The Issue with Ranking by Visual Thinkery for UCD.

To use or not to use by Visual Thinkery for UCD. Often a cultural hook presents itself within the conversation, that can then be used to develop a visual idea.

Glimpses of a Parallel World

Cartoons allow the exploration of serious stuff through an alternate, more playful, lens.

Atmosphere of Legal Risk by Visual Thinkery for Thirty Percy Foundation. This cartoon for the Fiscal Hosting report breaks down an abstract point into a story – something the reader can touch and feel.

PhD Supervisor Archetypes by Visual Thinkery for GO-GN Guide to Doctoral Supervision. Penguins were originally a sort of mascot for the GO-GN community, and now they’ve sort of taken over. This visual uses the playful mask of the penguin to explore a very serious topic: different types of PhD supervisors.

Playing the Game by Visual Thinkery for University of Limerick. Here were exploring an invented world of a roleplay game. This allows us to situate the humour in the recognised world, and make a meaningful point about Teacher Training and tricky social justice issues.

Cascading Knowledge by Visual Thinkery for University of Limerick. This research project was based in Gaza, and the wider conversation often provides the context for the specific cartoons.

Ableism by Visual Thinkery for University of Limerick. Sometimes cartoons are created by joining a number of clues together, often from different parts of the conversation. Again, here we’ve created a related but recognisable world of Sporting objects to make a point about Ableism in Physical Education teaching.

16th July 2025
AI and the Future of Education (webinar)

I had the pleasure of live cartooning a webinar on AI and the future of education. facilitated by Doug Belshaw and Laura Hilliger of WeAreOpen Coop. They were joined by fellow thinkers Helen Beetham, Bryan Alexander, Ian O’Byrne and Karen Louise Smith.

The conversation was harvested in real time, using the hybrid approach of capturing ideas on paper during the webinar, and then developing them further afterwards on an iPad.

Some ideas came from the panelists directly, whilst others originated from the chat.

You can use these illustrations under a CC-BY-ND licence. 🙂

Rear View Mirror by Visual Thinkery

Ethically engaging by Visual Thinkery

The AI Cognitive Amplifier by Visual Thinkery

Behind the scenes of AI by Visual Thinkery

Distinctively Human by Visual Thinkery

Cognitive Development by Visual Thinkery

Safe Spaces and Walled Gardens by Visual Thinkery

An Educators Repository of Ethical Statements by Visual Thinkery

9th June 2025
Visually recording a conversation

Most of what I create has its roots in conversation.

Open conversation sits at the heart of Visual Thinkery’s “10 ideas” process. Usually I’m able to record it and then go back through and visually harvest the conversation for visual ideas. However, I employ the same tricks when capturing live conversation in a sketchnote. Drawing anything can seem like a conjuring trick – and there’s definitely something to be said for that magical feel. I take a messy conversation as it wisps through the air and I lay it out in a visual landscape for others to wonder at, both during and after the event. An artefact is created from a unique set of people and their thoughts at a single point in time.

Watching it unfold

Both online and in-person, it’s possible to display what is being captured in real time. But displaying the visualisation of a conversation as it’s being conjured changes the nature of that conversation. People can point to where a previous part of the conversation left off – and add their penny’s worth. Have you been in a meeting where you realise you have a great bit of insight, but the conversation has moved on? Having a visual map allows you to go back, insert a piece in the emerging puzzle and jump back to where the conversation is. It can be a really useful feature when capturing a conversation of a large group.

There are a lot of knobs to twiddle when thinking about visually recording a conversational event. Some of which might be fixed depending on the intended output whilst others may be flexible.

Here are a few things to consider:
- Setting – Where are people? Does the technology enable everyone to have an equitable input to the conversation?
- Voices – How may people will their be? What does this mean for the quality of the conversation?
- Openness – How open is the conversation? Will it be a one-way monologue (like a keynote address)? or sequential monologue (like a webinar)? or multi-way dialogue?
- Facilitation – How guided with the conversation be? Is there time and persmission to explore tributaries and cul-de-sacs?
- Structure – Is there a certain bunch of material that we need to step through? Or certain themes and topics that need to be covered?
- Context – How much context do I need in order find meaning in the conversation (or even facilitate it). Can I play the curious idiot or do I need a PhD?
- Audience – Who are we ultimately creating for? An internal or external audience?
- Form – Where is the priority: to create something pretty? or create something meaningful?
- Granularity – Are we trying to capture all the things? Or should we focus on a nugget if come across it?
- Humour – a cartoonist’s greatest weapon – how will the conversation encourage the possibility of humour?
Here are a few examples

Facilitated conversation between a group of social activists about what they have in common.
Setting: offline Voices: some Openness: dialogue Audience: Internal Form: ideas

Panel discussion at all day event.
Setting: offline Voices: a few Openness: sequential monologue Audience: external Form: art

Keynote at OER24 conference on Open Education (Cork, Ireland)
Setting: Theatre Voices: one Openness: monologue Audience: external Form: art

Keynote at OER24 conference on Open Education (Cork, Ireland)
Setting: Theatre Voices: one Openness: monologue Audience: external Form: art

Internal Project Brainstorming conversation
Setting: online Voices: a few Openness: dialogue Audience: internal Form: ideas

If you’d like to talk more – please get in touch!
1st July 2024
Documentary Cartooning

At a recent two-day gathering where I was busily trying to capture insight in cartoon form, a man came up to me and said – “I’ve figured out what you’re doing – you’re documentary cartooning!”. On reflection, he was quite correct. I’m trying to lean into conversations as they arise and when a visual idea presents itself, I grab it with both hands and let it come to life on my page – documented for others to derive meaning from long after the event has taken place.

For the last few years I have been experimenting with different ways of capturing and documenting live conversation as it unfolds. There are a few different techniques.

The Conversation Landscape

One way to capture the richness of a group’s thoughts or reflections is to live draw the session as it unfolds. The drawing above represents a 60min reflective session where a group of 25 people had previously split up into small groups to think about shared values and behaviours and write their responses on postcards to help with feeding back to the main group. There was a bit of overlap between groups, so as a point was made, it was grouped with others and group’s audible response gave an indication of resonance.

Output: Gives the feeling of having collaboratively created something meaningful. After the event it’s a great aide-mémoir for those who were part of the conversation, as technically the conversation has been mapped.

Nuggets of Insight

When people get together and share in conversation, nuggets of insight appear amidst their words. Metaphors, humour and storytelling all provide clues as to what the insight could look like as a visual expression.

The “Struggle Bus” example below is a good example of an off-the-cuff comment that resonated with a room full of social entrepreneurs. It tells a story of how hard it can be to get a social project off the ground – but that we can still get there. And it helps to know that there are others on the bus too! Interestingly, as a visual, there is plenty of productive ambiguity in the cartoon. Am I ready to get on the bus? Maybe if I sit beside the right person, they can help me? Different people will add different meaning.

Output: As individual cartoons, these digital assets can have impact long after the event, and inspire people who weren’t there. They can be a useful hook for a blog post and on social media, and can be made available to the participants to use under a Creative Commons licence.

Thanks SO much again – your thinkery captured the nuance and metaphor of our dialogue as always, and it’s made the follow-up communications a pleasure to do <3
Bex Trevelyan, Platform Places

Keynote Sketchnote

A keynote sketchnote is a visual landscape created live while tuning into a person deliver a presentation, usually at a conference. The example above was created during a keynote by Anne-Marie Scott at the ALT conference.

To me, a keynote feels like a journey. There’s usually a defined theme which flows through the presentation. Some pitfalls and highlights. An opening gambit and a measured conclusion. Often there are visual clues provided by the speaker in the way of slides. The challenge here is to be playful with all of the above, and see if it all can be balanced on a single page.

Output: This form of illustration can be a great way of sharing the “gist” of what someone just spoke about to the wider group who might be connected to the event but weren’t able to attend.

26th September 2023
25 Years of EdTech

Martin Weller, Professor at the UK’s Open University, got in touch regarding the aesthetic for a book he was earnestly applying the finishing touches to – 25 Years of EdTech.

Of course, as Martin knows, the Visual Thinkery process means that together we’ll create 10 book covers, as well as anything else we pick up along the way. This includes even suggesting alternative titles for the book (which is outrageous, when you think about it) but even this creates a different lens to get an alternative glimpse through.

Interestingly, the first idea was the one that eventually stuck:

But there are a few others that I think deserve an honourable mention. I was tickled by the idea of a relationship between parent and child (but I want to go this way!)

And it’s not long before I’m drawing robots. (And then the world of assessment will be miiiiiiiine!)

I like “The Web Years” as it reminds me of the common biographical strapline (the wonder years, the wilderness years…) and suggests that there has always been some sort of technology in Education, but only recently has it involved the web. Here we go again, here we go go go to the temple of consumption… (apologies – you probably didn’t need reminded of that song…)

ISDN – Now that will change everything…

We’re never far from someone taxonomising all the things. But not me – I’m more of an alchemist…

In reflection, there were small elements from a number of these ideas that made their way into the final cover. Some consciously, and others less so.

Now Remix this…

As part of the promotion of the book, AU Press asked if would be possible to create a remixable front cover. So I (Bryan) set about separating the visual elements so that they could be remixed using the Fabulous Remixer Machine. Hair highlights, skin tone, background – but maybe more importantly the text on the glasses and the strapline at the bottom. Have a go!

And Finally…

Quite often ideas appear as mini-stories in 3-panelled comic strip format. A couple of these made it into the book. I don’t think it matters what the content relates to, there is always a place for visual humour…

2nd October 2020
GO-GN

I love a wide brief. Getting people together, and using dialogue to see what we can be unearthed. GO-GN is a postgraduate research programme, connecting and furthering those involved in researching Open Education. They asked if I could help with a brand refresh, and create a set of visual assets along the way.

In order to capture all the voices, we took the approach of facilitating two conversations: one for participants and a second for the GO-GN team.

We had two really rich conversations. I live draw while the conversation is taking place, by using a document camera, but also record the conversations so I can go back through them later and harvest and clues I can tune into.

Ideas

A rich conversation also leads to many ideas. My aim is always to capture as many of them as quick sketches.

Creating a Visual Language

The trouble is, creating a fresh brand for an organisation is tricky. In some ways it’s like buying a bold new coat. Liking it isn’t enough. You’ve actually got to wear it. What are you as an organisation trying to say? To whom are you trying to say it? If you find an aesthetic that fits well enough, it can be used as a visual language, to communicate a feel which is sub-consciously absorbed.

One of the prompts in our discussion used a poster-making technique to unearth ideas from the participants on the call. An idea emerged relating to “the golden age of travel”, which led to us nailing down a bold visual language. It’s quirky yet intentional. It has momentum built in.

A quick shout out to the Fabulous Remixer Machine – for providing the necessary inverted earth projections too!

Listening with your eyes open

Video conversations underpin the Visual Thinkery 10 ideas process. By seeing someone as they talk, it’s possible to hear a richer voice. One of the participants in the call, Caroline Kuhn, used this gesture while speaking of the care and respect that exists in the GO-GN network. And it had to be drawn…

28th November 2019