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It has been evolving ever so quietly since the 70s, when people first began drawing live and large to capture group process on the west coast of the US. These days it’s certainly more common to see a graphic recorder capturing content at conferences and events both online and in person – but it’s a career many may not consider – even if they are quite suited to it!
Seeing a need to grow awareness about this field of work, Graphic Recorders Australia launched in October 2019 at the second annual VisConf in Melbourne. VisConf is a conference for Australian and New Zealander visual thinkers and doers – a perfect audience for such an announcement!
GRA is a wonderful not-for-profit membership association that supports the growth and quality of the Graphic Recording community in Australia – and as the Secretary and Member Liaison – I am proud to be a part of it! Since the launch, GRA has grown to a national network of more than 45 visual practitioners, teachers, coaches, and facilitators. We currently have 19 professional members, and 26 associate members.
GRA’s values include quality & professionalism, community, collective progress, transparency and knowledge exchange. I love these values – I see them in all apsects of the group (with a side of nerding out about colour and lettering, of course!)
Membership is absolutely cracking with awesome resources for newbies and professionals alike. If you are interested in the area of graphic recording and visual facilitation it’s a great place to sink your teeth in and get learning on everything related to our field! Australia’s graphic recorders are such a generous bunch hosting monthly Lunch & Learns and sharing their expertise – there’s a catalogue of videos on everything from finances and contracts, to drawing diversity and partnering with facilitators. Being a member also gives you access to monthly virtual sessions where you can learn and grow in a safe space, and we also have a thriving Facebook group where there’s always plenty of questions being answered and successes being celebrated.
GRA was already awesome, but has recently launched a gorgeous, new, you-beaut website to further support the industry. Members have access to some really great resources. The public can learn about graphic recording and also find a professional graphic recorder in their area.
You’ve gotta love a little subculture. Just as the swing dancing community or bullet journaling community is highly engaged and tight, so too is the community of graphic recorders and visual facilitators globally. The community of graphic recorders in Australia are just the loveliest bunch of clever and creative humans – it’s especially wonderful to see associate members and those new to graphic recording learning from the more experienced professional members. It really is an awesome network.
GRA has a new website! Huge shout out to Luke Chambers for his work on this.
My graphic recording of lettering LEGEND, Heather Martinez’ session – Lettering for Lefties! at VisConf 2019 – talk about fan girling! This is after spending 2 days learning from Heather, as I gushed about HERE.
