I’ve been a graphic recorder since 2017, but that’s not really when this story starts. Back around 2002 or 2003 I was a graphic designer at an engineering firm in Brisbane, and I started sneaking into the civil engineers’ brainstorming sessions to draw their ideas up on the whiteboard. I was rubbish at it – I’m left-handed, so I smudged everything, and I had no idea what I was doing. But something in me lit up.
It took years to find my way back into it properly. Life got in the way, in the good way – kids, a career in graphic design, the practicalities of long days on-site. Then in 2017 a guru from Chicago, Brandy Agerbeck, came to Melbourne to run her three-day lab. six people in a room, learning and doing. I invested a big chunk of money for that lab, and from that day forward I was hooked. It was all I wanted to do.
What I actually do now: I sit in rooms – conferences, workshops, strategy days – and I listen, and I draw what I hear, live, as it’s happening. Words and pictures together, in real time. People call it graphic recording, visual scribing, visual facilitation – there’s a dozen names for it and most people have never heard any of them. Honestly, I usually just tell people: I draw what I hear while people talk in a room, live, and it helps them remember it.
The 20+ years I spent as a graphic designer are baked into my work – hierarchy, balance, colour, brand. My canvas isn’t just useful, it’s beautiful too, and that matters to me. But what really lights me up isn’t the razzle dazzle keynote stuff, though I love that too – it’s the for-purpose work. Our First Nations Elders talking about Country. Front line workers in family violence and drug and alcohol services. People sharing lived experience of mental illness or stroke. Work that has to travel from my ear, to my brain, through my heart, and out the pen.
I split my time between Melbourne and the Gold Coast – home is wherever my iPad is. In Melbourne I’ve got two teenage boys I adore, a husband who can fix anything, and Otto the miniature schnauzer, who turns up in my drawings whether a dog’s called for or not. Outside of work I’m obsessed with cooking, travelling, eating while travelling, lettering, and dog walks around the block.
If the idea of graphic recording interests you, do check out Graphic Recorders Australia. It’s a great association with fantastic members who are both learning the work and seasoned professionals!
Here’s who I work for
let’s start something
