What Does a Graphic Recorder Actually Do? (It's Probably Not What You Think)

If you’ve never worked with a graphic recorder before, you might have a fairly logical idea of what we do. We go to conferences. We listen to people talk. We draw what they say. Which is technically true. In the same way that saying a chef “puts ingredients on a plate” is technically true.

Because the drawing is actually only the visible bit of graphic recording. Most of the work is happening somewhere between my ears. I’m listening, filtering, making connections, deciding what matters, simplifying complicated ideas and turning a fast-moving human conversation into something other people can actually follow.

All while the conversation is still happening. No pressure then.

So, what does a graphic recorder actually do? Let me take you behind the scenes.

First Things First: What Is a Graphic Recorder?

A graphic recorder listens to conversations, presentations or discussions and captures the key ideas using a combination of words, illustrations, diagrams and visual metaphors.

You might also hear this described as live illustration, visual note-taking, sketchnoting or information illustration. There are differences between each discipline, but they all share the same basic principle: making information easier to understand by making it visual.

I work digitally on my iPad, either in the room or remotely, creating illustrated summaries as conversations unfold.

But importantly, I’m not creating illustrated minutes. I’m making sense of what I hear. And there’s quite a big difference.

A Lot Happens Before I Draw Anything...

Good graphic recording starts before your event does. When a client books me, I’ll ask for information about the event, the audience, the agenda and what they want people to leave understanding. If there are speaker notes, presentations or background documents available, I can look through those too. I’ll familiarise myself with terminology, get my head around the subject and make sure I understand the context I’m walking into.

I’ll also prepare the visual side of things. That means working with your brand colours, logos and event identity so the finished illustrated summary feels like it belongs to your organisation rather than something generic that could have come from anywhere.

I don’t need to know exactly what everyone is going to say - that would rather defeat the point of doing it live - but preparation gives me the foundations I need to respond intelligently when they start saying it.

Then the Slightly Bonkers Brain Work Begins...

Once an event starts, I’m essentially doing several jobs at the same time. I’m listening to what’s being said while deciding what deserves space on the page. I’m noticing when three different speakers have accidentally touched on the same idea. I’m spotting themes, contradictions, challenges and connections.

I’m also working out how to represent all of that visually. And I have to make those decisions quickly because, annoyingly, speakers don't stop talking while I have a little think.

This is why I sometimes describe myself as a human sieve.

Everything comes in at the top and I’m constantly filtering it:

• What matters here?

• What’s the bigger idea?

• Is this a useful detail or a distraction?

• Have we heard this theme before?

• How does this connect to what somebody said an hour ago?

• What does the audience need to see to understand the whole conversation?

That process of listening and synthesising is really the heart of graphic recording. The drawing comes afterwards.

Graphic Recording Isn't About Capturing Everything

This is probably one of the most important things to understand if you’re considering hiring a graphic recorder for an event. I am absolutely not trying to record every word. If you need every word, you need a transcript. And there are much cheaper ways of getting one of those. Graphic recording is about finding the meaning within all those words.

Think about a conference with six speakers, a panel discussion and a couple of workshops. By the end of the day, your attendees have heard an enormous amount of information. The problem isn't that nothing valuable was said. The problem is that so much was said that it becomes difficult to work out what mattered most. My job is to find the thread running through it. That might mean connecting an idea from the morning keynote with something that emerges in an afternoon panel. It might mean noticing a challenge that keeps appearing in different forms. It might mean capturing one sentence that perfectly sums up what everyone has spent 40 minutes trying to articulate. That’s why I see graphic recording as sensemaking, rather than simply drawing.

There’s Psychology Behind Visual Communication Too!

Before becoming an information illustrator, I spent nearly 10 years as a teacher. So although I now spend significantly less time asking people to put their chairs under the table, a lot of what I learned about communication and learning still sits underneath my work.

We can only process so much information at once. When we’re faced with presentation after presentation, speaker after speaker and slide after slide, our brains have to work incredibly hard to decide what to pay attention to and what to remember. Visual communication can help give that information structure. Instead of remembering a long stream of disconnected words, people can see relationships between ideas. They can see hierarchy. They can see where one thought leads to another.

And crucially, they have something they can return to when their memory inevitably lets them down later. That’s why an illustrated summary can look deceptively simple when it’s finished.

You look at it and think: “Oh. That makes sense.” Exactly. That’s the point!!

So Is a Graphic Recorder the Same as a Visual Facilitator?

Not quite, although there can be some overlap. A graphic recorder primarily listens to and visually captures a conversation or event as it happens. A visual facilitator usually plays a more active role in guiding the conversation itself, using visual tools to help a group think, explore ideas or make decisions.

In my work, the focus is predominantly information illustration and graphic recording: listening to complex conversations and creating a clear visual record of what matters. That might happen during a conference keynote, a leadership event, a strategy day, a workshop, a panel discussion or a training session.

What Do You Actually Receive After a Graphic Recording Event?

This is another place where graphic recording gets underestimated. You don't just get “the drawing.” You get a visual record of the thinking that happened in the room. Because I work digitally, my clients receive high-resolution illustrated summaries that can continue working long after everyone has gone home and the conference lanyards have made their inevitable journey into a drawer. Organisations use them in internal communications, reports, follow-up meetings, presentations and on social media. They send them to attendees as a recap. They share them with colleagues who couldn’t be there. They use them to restart conversations weeks or months later.

I can also turn larger illustrations into smaller, social and marketing-ready assets, which means one event can generate a bank of useful visual content rather than disappearing the moment it finishes.

For me, that bit is really important. I don’t just want to capture the day. I want to make what happened during it easier to use afterwards.

What Kinds of Events Benefit From Graphic Recording?

Graphic recording tends to be most useful when there’s a lot of thinking happening. Conferences are an obvious example because attendees are trying to process ideas from multiple speakers and sessions. But it’s equally useful during strategy days where ideas are still evolving, leadership events where shared understanding matters, or training sessions where you actually want people to retain what they’ve learned.

Panels, workshops, away days and offsites can all work brilliantly too. Essentially, if the conversation is complex, fast-moving, human and worth remembering, there’s probably an opportunity to make it visual. If you’re simply delivering a straightforward piece of information that everybody already understands? You probably don't need me. And I’m quite happy to say that.

Why Do Organisations Invest in Graphic Recording?

This is where I think the biggest misconception sits. Hiring a conference illustrator can look, from the outside, like you're spending part of the event budget on something creative. But organisations aren't really investing in drawing. They're investing in understanding.

They’re investing in helping attendees stay connected to the conversation while it’s happening and giving them a way to revisit it afterwards. They’re investing in capturing valuable thinking that might otherwise disappear into notebooks, forgotten slide decks and the slightly murky collective memory of “what did we actually decide?” And they’re creating something tangible from conversations they’ve already invested significant time, money and expertise in bringing together. That’s a very different proposition from hiring somebody to make a nice picture.

So, What Does a Graphic Recorder Actually Do?

The short answer?

A graphic recorder listens to complex conversations, identifies what matters, finds connections between ideas and translates that thinking into a visual story people can understand, remember and use.

Yes, I draw at conferences. But really, you're hiring me to listen. To filter. To notice. To make sense of the messy bits. And then to make all of that thinking visible. The illustration is simply what you get to see at the end.

Looking for a Graphic Recorder for Your Next Event?

I provide live graphic recording and information illustration for conferences, strategy days, leadership events, workshops, panels and training sessions, both in person across the UK and remotely.

If you’ve got a room full of good thinking coming up and you'd quite like it not to disappear afterwards, get in touch.

Tell me what you're planning and we can work out whether graphic recording is the right fit.