SXSW Interactive 2012

ImageThink returns to sxsw 2012 with Ogilvy Notes

The response to our work with Ogilvy Notes last year at SXSW Interactive 2011 was so big, we are coming back! This year Nora Herting, Heather Willems, Andrew Federman, and Liisa Sorsa will be creating graphic recordings, live responsive drawings, of all the keynote s and featured speakers. Watch us live in the conference center. Too many sessions to choose from? Not to worry, our visual summaries will be uploaded each day to the Ogilvy Notes blog and Flickr stream, or you can get your own limited edition prints of each day's session at Ogilvy's Booth at the Day Stage.

See our graphic recordings from SXSW 2011 here. 

Going to? Stop by and say "howdy". 

Disney Institute: Inspiring Creativity with StoryTelling

Last week I (Heather) flew from New York down to Orlando to, you guessed it, DISNEY WORLD!

I had the opportunity to graphic record for Austin Brock from the Disney Institute. Austin has an amazingly rich visual language and practices what she preaches when speaking on the art of storytelling to Build a Business. I was excited to scribe for Austin, it seemed like a perfect match between her visual language and our visual storytelling!

In the presentation, Austin spoke to the importance of "storytelling your culture," stating that the key is to connect experiences with your customers through sharing stories. She encouraged the sales folks in the audience to take a shot at "storytelling your business practices" by letting people know your history, your identity, and your vision.

Not only did the Disney Institute share the secrets of their well practiced story telling elements, but they also offered good storytelling techniques, and my personal favorite, "The DOs and DON'Ts of Storytelling."

As a graphic recorder, some of our favorite speakers follow these rules. They increase the value of the presentation by insuring clear understanding, greater memory retention, and just plain ol' enjoyment from your audience!

I'd like to share some of the Disney Institute's Tips: 

DO use plain-speak

DO choose length wisely (and inform your graphic recorder *wink*)

DO be careful about claiming someone else's story as your own

DO use inclusive language (be careful of acronyms) 

DO practice (If you say you will make 3 points, you want to remember to state all 3)

DON'T begin with "I want to tell you a story"

DON'T characterize the story as "This is a really funny story." They can decide

DON'T muddle the point by fussing with statistics. It just matters that action happened

ADDED BLOG BONUS:

When I am not graphic recording client's stories, I like to make sketchnotes at different storytelling events around New York City. These are some organizations that we love!

IgniteNYC

The Moth

RISK!

Pecha-Kucha NYC

You can even take storytelling classes with Kevin Allison at The Story Studio

Happy Story Telling!

Inaugural NYC Sketchnoters Workshop

Last night we attended Amanda Lyons' first ever NYC Sketchnoters Workshop at WeCreate. It was great to catch up with some of the NYC Vizthinkers and meet new people. In particular we were happy to meet Brad Heckman from the New York Peace Institute, where we will be teaching a workshop on graphic recording at the Peace Institute in May. 

This is Brad's drawing visualizing the act of finding common ground, something as a mediator, he is keen to do. 

 

Our favorite activity was a rapid fire visualization exercise Amanda led the group through. We were challenged to illustrate random trivia in 30 seconds. Featured here are some facts about animals, like sharks are the only fish that can blink both eyes and almonds and peaches are from the same family.

 

SOPA Bill Explained Visually

Here at the ImageThink offices in New York, we are following the free speach protests against SOPA. But we had to ask, what exactly is the SOPA bill? As visual thinkers, our favorite explanation was this animated video produced by the Guardian. 

The visuals we produce at ImageThink are based on, and inservice of the content of our clients, we do generate creative property that the SOPA bill is theoretically protecting. About once a month, we will get requests from journalists, researchers, or student's who are excited to find one of our visual summaries is the perfect support for their article or research.

We are happy to grant them permission to publish and distribute our work, provided of course that the content is public. As business owners, and artists, we feel empowered to share what we do with as wide of an audience as possible. The more people who see our graphic recordings, the more visibility we and our entire field gain. That exposure eventually translates to more business opportunities. 

Synthesizing TED

As Graphic Facilitators, our primary skill set here in New York is listening to conversations, synthesizing key ideas into headlines, and creating responsive drawings that capture the ideas in words and pictures.

Sebastian Wernicke has taken on a similar and entertaining task of summarizing 1000 TED talks into 6 words. Having fun by referencing the story attributed to Ernest Hemingway: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn" and also the Six-Word Memoir project by SMITH, Wernicke uses crowd sourcing to achieve this daunting and amusing task. Check it out!

Sebastian Wernicke thinks every TEDTalk can be summarized in six words. At TEDxZurich, he shows how to do just that -- and less

Watercolor and Wall Drawings at Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York

Fishing Day (Huck & Tom), 2011, watercolor and collage on paper, 48 x 60 3/4"Last night I went to a few gallery openings here in Chelsea. I was struck by one installation at the Paul Kasmin Gallery. Artist, Santa Moix created collaged watercolor painting that illustrate a dark interpretation of Mark Twain's Adentures of Huckleberry Finn.

What I personally love about the work was the Paul Kasmin Gallery's installation. The framed paintings themselves are hung salon style and the artist chose to sketch images directly onto the walls in charcoal (floor to ceiling.) As the room fills with viewers, the illustrations smudge and smear, ghosting the images and visually creating the presence of energy and movement. Fantastic!

If you are in the NYC area, swing by 27th Street and 10th Avenue to check out Santi Moix on Huckleberry Finn: Watercolors and Wall drawings at the Paul Kasmin Gallery. January 5th - February 11th, 2012

Santi Moix

How to have a really good New Year's Party...

Happy New Year everyone!

As you are getting ready to bring in 2012, remember these handy tips from Chris, the "Simpsons Artist." 

See you in 2012!!!

click for larger image

Destination: 2012- Artistic Maps to Get You There

In the last days of the year, we have been taking stock of all the activities of 2011 as we look forward to another year. One of the best things in 2011 was all the invitations we received to graphic record in other countries. ImageThink made real-time visuals from Istanbul to Basel and Riyadh to Malmo this year.  

Visual Information in Hand Drawn Maps

Even while traveling, I am always aware of visual information, and have sustained an old habit of saving maps of all the far-off cities I have visited. That is why I was so excited to learn about the website We Travel and Draw, from Illustrator Cybele Pritchett today. We Travel and Draw features artistic maps from artists around the world. I've selected this map from a country we hope to visit in 2012, India. 

Gifts ImageThink loves to give and get

Still looking for a special something? Below is Nora's list of gifts graphic recorders love to give and get. 

642 Things to Draw

Are you starring at a blank page, your pencil hovering hesitantly above? Maybe you know someone who wants to give their left brain a good creative jog? 642 Things to Draw solves these problems with by challenging readers and artists to visualize concepts and objects such as, "a broken toy, a saint, and first love." I love to open my copy on a rainy day and expand my visual vocabularly. 

Retro Card Belt Buckle

As New Yorkers, we know what it is like to try to juggle our graphic recording kits, rolls of paper and dig for our Metro Cards. This Retro Card Belt Buckle By Total Metal Resource New York is the perfect marriage of design and function.

I can't crack open Indexed, with out marveling at the funny genus of Jessica Hagy, who uses simple charts and graphs to visualize complex, amusing, axioms. This tiny book should go directly into your favorite visual thinker's stocking. 

Travel 101 Luggage Tags- Add some personality to your roller bag

Our work as graphic recorders takes beyond New York and beyond the Atlantic Ocean. We are no strangers to the protocols, adventures, and hassels of travel. 

Flight 101 in Carroll Gardens has stylish solutions to every travel headache.

This universal adapter ensures that if I mix up the sockets in Switzerland with the adapter in Germany, I won't be left with a dead iphone. In bright pink, I won't be likely to forget it in the hotel, either.  A Lucha Libre luggage tag might just protect my bag from snoops at the TSA, if not, atleast I will be able to spot it in luggage claim!

Nomad Stylus Brush for iPad

We don't just graphic record with markers and paper, we also create visual summaries on the iPad. The Nomad Brush: Paint Brush is a special stylus with wire bristles that acts just like a paintbrush on the surface of the ipad. 

Neuland Facilitator Case

For all the meeting facilitators we know. The Novario Workshop Bag carries all the requiste supplies that a facilitator needs to conduct a creative, productive strategy session or workshop. 

The Power of Visuals in the Virtual World- ImageThink Webinar

Today we gave a Webinar on "Graphic Recording Goes Virtual: Using the Power of Visuals in the Virtual World" for the Minnesota's Facilitator Network. Nora gave the presentation while Heather wielded the digital pen on the Intous Wacom tablet to create graphic recording virtually. Thanks for all who attended!

Below is a list of resources we would like to share with our audience.

We know that many of you have links and books that you refer to for increasing your team's collaboration. Please feel free to leave a link in the comments box to share with others!

Books:

Back of the Napkin, Dan Roam
http://www.danroam.com/the-back-of-the-napkin/

Game Storming, Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, James Macanufo
http://www.gogamestorm.com/

Visual Thinking, David Sibbet
http://www.grove.com/site/vm_book.html

Business Model Generation, Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur
http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/book

Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud
http://scottmccloud.com/2-print/1-uc/index.html

Drawing with the Right Side of the Brain, Betty Edwards
http://www.drawright.com/

Online Learning:

AlphaChimp University
http://learntoscribe.com/classroom/

LooseTooth
http://www.youtube.com/loosetoothdotcom

Materials:

Neuland Markers
http://www.neuland-world.com/EU/index.htm

Copic Markers
http://www.copicmarker.com/

Articles:

Graphic Recording vs. Facilitation
http://www.makemark.com/articles

Center for Graphic Facilitation

A comprehensive blog on the industry

http://www.alphachimp.com/weblog/tag/graphic-facilitation
 
Globaloria students have been boldly demonstrating how art and design and creative cognition can re-ignite STEM learning
http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/full_steam_ahead_on_cs-stem/
 
People who Doodle Learn Faster
http://io9.com/5834081/people-who-doodle-learn-faster
 
See What I Mean: The Power of Visual Learning
http://www.fastcompany.com/resources/learning/conner/013006.html

The Miseducation of the Doodle
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/the-miseducation-of-the-doodle

The Power of Doodling: How Doodles Can Lead to Great Ideas
http://education-portal.com/articles/The_Power_of_Doodling_How_Doodles_Can_Lead_to_Great_Ideas.html

The Power of the Doodle
http://brandonrike.com/the-power-of-the-doodle

Sketchnotes 101: The Basics of Visual Note-Taking
http://www.core77.com/blog/sketchnotes

Why Integrating Art into the Classroom May Improve Content Retention
http://artplantaetoday.com/2011/09/30/why-the-arts-improve-content-retention/

Working Paper: Creativity Models
http://www.directedcreativity.com/pages/WPModels.html

(Thank you to AlphaChimp University for compling many of the links in the "Articles" section!)

Graphic Recordings about Graphic Recordings, how Meta!

Anthony Weeks

People often ask us if we ever get nervous about draing in front of a room of hundreds, or thousands of people. With 10 years of graphic recording experience between us, or answer is  "no, with one exception." That is at the annual IFVP conference, graphic recording in front of the industries top graphic recorders is a bit anxiety inducing. At this year's conference, Aloha 2011, I was comforted to discover that the feeling is unanimous. When each scribe was asked about his or her experience at the front of the room, everyone admitted nerves at the prospect of drawing in front of our peers. ( I have featured my favorite, by Anthony Weeks, above) 

Now, all the visual summaries have been digitized. The variety of styles and years of experience makes each one a valuable reference.  Check out the full set on Flickr

IFVP attendees at Aloha 2011. Its not all about markers!

Conference Attendee Shares her Experience with Graphic Recording

We met co-speaker, Janet Gregory at the Oredev conference a 2 weeks ago. She kindly attended our presentation and later, during the conference, showed us the sketchnotes that she had been taking during the sessions. We are thrilled that she blogged about her graphic recording and the memory recall that she experienced of Rob Lambert's session 2 weeks later! 

Thank you for posting Janet!

Graphic Recording of Awareness Session at Agile Testing Days

I attended Rob Lambert’s session “Do agile teams have wider awareness fields” at Agile Testing Days in Potsdam, Germany in November this year. The ‘doodle’ I have included in this blog is from that session. I learned about this medium from ImageThink who recorded all the keynotes at the Oredev conference in Malmo Sweden, and gave a session on how to do it. I don’t hope to compare my scribbles to theirs, but I did find it an interesting practice. My test was to leave my book alone for 2 weeks and then go back and see what I could understand. Here’s my takeaways from Rob’s session.

To broaden one’s awareness, we need to widen our choices, and surround ourselves with different types of thinkers. Too often, we concentrate or focus on an idea too narrowly and then are constantly surprised by the outcome. Rob suggested creating a learning time line – what do you want to learn, and then set yourself some ideas about how to get there. That way you can slowly move items from the “Can’t Do” list to the “Can Do” list. The first step is awareness. Only when you can see choices, can you begin to accept. Start with yourself, and then start raising awareness to the team, and so on. In my classes, I talk about scope of control, and Rob pointed out when you think about concentric circles in your scope of control, you see that when you widen your awareness, you can widen your influence. Of course, there can be a downside of too much awareness – information overload.

 

I think I need to keep practicing with this medium, but I found I remembered most of it. If you follow the Rob's link, you can find the slides there.

Alexis Ohanian and ImageThink rock the Swedish Software Media

If someone told me I would be in the center page of Computer Sweden, I would laugh and tell them that the only C+ I ever knew was my middleschool grade in gym class. Yet, when Oredev 2011 was featured in this month's issue, there I was, graphic recording Reddit founder, Alexis Ohanian's opening keynote, 

From the look of my visual summary, Alexis was about 40 minutes into his talk "No one cares about your website but your mother." You can see the finished work below. 

In the Studio with John Rasimus

After graphic recording at  Oredev Userverse in Malmo Sweden, Nora paid a visit to fellow Triangle Artists Alum, and friend, John Rasimus at his home in Falun, Sweden.

After a much anticipated visit to John's studio to see his prints and the original blocks he created. Nora asked  John to work on some collaborative drawings. In his kitchen in Falun, after a traditional Swedish Pancake dinner, they made these drawings together.  

Many thanks to John for hosting me and for the whirlwind tour of Falun. This month you can purchase both Nora's and John's work AND support Triangle artists association at the Triangle On-line Auction. 

What Does Your Mustache Say About You - A Visual Guide

A much needed guide to facial hair - be sure to reference this before your next shave!