5 + 1 ways to use illustrations to tell your story in a memorable way
Graphic recording created live at a conference
1 - If you have lots of data or a complex process, infographics are the best!
Infographics are a great way to tell a complex story or one that includes lots of numbers that are important to the narrative. When creating infographics, the goal is the simplify the subject enough so that a non-expert audience can understand it, but without oversimplifying or “dumbing it down”.
Whether you are trying to explain scientific research or a robust and detailed policy issue, infographics are a great option because they:
Summarise the facts and key points
Combine them with visuals to make them easy to understand and memorable
Are easy to share and can be edited to use in different online and offline contexts
Infographic for a Spanish online medical campaign
2 - Illustrations for a website or an online campaign
If you have a lot of information you would like to include on your website, it’s a good idea to include some visuals, otherwise your audience can be put off without engaging with otherwise important information. In this case, people usually use some stock images to break up long blocks of text, and while this is a good option, these photos are often not too specific to the subject. Enter illustrations! With an illustration, you can be as specific as you want or need to be, and the illustrator can create a set of illustrations that you can use and reuse as necessary related to specific policy areas.
Website and campaign illustrations for a Belgian school inscription campaign
Website and campaign illustrations for a Belgian school inscription campaign
Illustrations for a policy paper on sustainability
Illustration for a website
Illustration for a website
Illustration for a website
3 - Visualising your story in space - illustrated maps
You can use illustrated maps to tell the story of your growing company as it related to the neighbourhood, city or country where you are based. The way a company moves in space can tell a lot about its growth and its values. You can also show the development of a neighbourhood or city by showcasing the different businesses that have opened in the last few years, or compare the change by looking at an area in a specific timeframe. Maps are also a great device if you want to offer tourism advice or list culinary, art and entertainment options.
Illustrated map of the Flagey neighbourhood in Brussels
Illustrated map of the St-Catherine neighbourhood in Brussels
4 - Illustrating your company culture, values and purpose - collaborative team murals
Team murals are an incredible tool to bring your team together and reflect on your values and purpose as a community. Furthermore, as a collaborative and creative project, it’s a great way to inspire your team and lead to deeper bonds among them. By rediscovering your mission and purpose and turning them into a coherent large-scale illustration, your team will feel a bout of energy that will help them work together even in a hybrid workplace. Check out these examples of past murals:
Collaborative mural painting - a great team building activity for companies
Collaborative mural painting - team building activity
Collaborative mural painting for Too Good Too Go
5 - Live illustration and graphic recording at conferences
The purpose of graphic recording and live illustration is to create a visual summary of conference sessions, and with that, engage and activate the conference audience by offering them visuals takeaways at the end of the sessions. This activity can be made interactive, which then functions as an event activation and turns attendees into active participants in creating the artwork.
Interactive graphic recording at conference
Interactive mural at a conference
+1 - Temporary tattoos at events
Whenever I do temporary tattoos, people go crazy about them. So if you want to animate your audience or celebrate a big milestone, I think these are a great way to do that.
Temporary tattoos at an event
Temporary tattoos at an event
Temporary tattoos at an event
Do you have an upcoming project where you would like to use illustrations? I’d love to hear about it, feel free to reach out!