Most of the time, graphic recording at a conference is a bit of a solo undertaking. You go into the zone, and begin synthesising the speaker’s words: just you and the wall.
But when the EOS Conference in Kansas City asked us to create an illustrated timeline of their entire 10-year history at the conference reception while people were enjoying their dinner, we knew we’d be up against the clock and would need a different approach.
How would we distil a decade of conference notes from the client into a single canvas, all before delegates received their dessert? The answer: we shared the load.
- Andy took care of of the illustrations (a gorgeous architectural drawing of the iconic building from each host city across the decade)
- I handled the layout and lettering
- All three of us (Andy, Gloria, and I) divided up the colouring
We were positioned right next to the bar and the band, and I like to think we brought just the right energy for the task at hand.
It was delightful having attendees who had been to *every single conference* come up and chat as our masterpiece took shape. They’d point to a city and tell us what they remembered: the hotel, the dinner, the speaker who changed something for them.
That doesn’t happen when you’re synthesising a conference talk. What we created was something different: part archive, part conversation piece, part nostalgia trigger.
Collaborative live sketching is genuinely unusual. Most clients don’t think to ask for it, and it does require a team who can work in the same visual language without bumping into each other. We’ve been lucky to build that with Sketch Group over the years.
This was really fun. Here’s to more collaborative creations!
What ways have you found to collaborate on creative work lately?