It's Magic! – a quick guide to graphic recording

At a meeting the other day I was asked how did I do that?

I had graphically recorded (or sketchnoted) a gathering of trustees for ALT, the Association for Learning Technology. In my response, I found myself listing some do’s and don’ts, and issuing the usual skills-related tropes the more you do it, the easier it gets. Honestly though, when I think about it, I’ve made up the rules as I’ve gone along, and so have become a self-appointed authority in the matter. The graphic above is my attempt at quickly gathering some of those pointers together in a visual landscape, so if it’s something you’d like to get in to, this may well be of help. However if you’re anything like me, the biggest barrier to learning a new skill is always getting over one’s self…

I’ve used this graphical recording method as the starting point on a whole bunch of creative exploits: 

• working with activists to create visual campaigns around plastic pollution
• interviewing stakeholders across an organisation with regards to a fairly large tech project the org was about to embark on
• creating a visual language with groups of people from a membership organisation
• capturing the progress of a number of recipient organisations as part of a social funding journey

In fact, most projects that involve harvesting insight from groups of people, the people who know.

Every conversation is different, with different insight to discover. Thar’s insight in tham thar conversations… Listening intentionally with a pen in hand, you’ll hear different things. And to others it often looks like magic.

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