What do you call those live, visual notetakers? ▫️
My graphic facilitation client today had a great answer:
Guest.
But that is not the job title that they searched to find and hire me.
No guidance counselor in grade school could tell me I would be a 'graphic facilitator' when I grew up.
And yet, that was the name of the role when I stumbled into this work in 1996.
This page will:
- List some common phrases and job titles used in the field of graphic facilitation
- Point out some patterns that may help you find who you are looking for
- Share why there are so many terms for this work
My hope is that this works like a disambiguation page on Wikipedia and helps clear up any confusion.
What do you call those people who draw live during meetings?
Let's begin with the most common titles folks call themselves and the description of the work itself:
Phrases most often used in the United States and Canada:
graphic recorder
graphic recording
graphic facilitator
graphic facilitation
scribe
scribing
And in Europe, you are more likely to see:
visual recorder
visual recording
visual facilitator
visual facilitation
Some broader terms you may see:
visual practitioner
visual practice
graphic capture
group graphics
visual notetaker
visual notetaking
'Recorder' and 'facilitator,' what's the difference?
The answer varies person to person. Here's how I would summarize the distinction as I see it:
Recorders are folks more focused on detail-filled capture of conversation. Often their work is more text-dense and 'granular.'
These colleagues are more likely to work as a stand-alone addition to your meeting. Like parachuting in with paper and pens.
Facilitators by comparison are actively organizing the information as they are capturing it, pulling out themes, and synthesizing the group's work.
These colleagues are more likely to be a thought partner on the agenda and flow of the meeting.
What about the visual or graphic part?
Those who enter into this rich field of visual practice, come from two different directions —the Art Side and the People Side.
Those coming from the Art Side, may call themselves:
flipchart artist
flipcharter
flipcharting
live illustrator
live illustration
real-time illustrator
real-time illustration
On the People Side, you may hear:
dialogue mapping
dialogue mapper
process art
process artist
visual harvester
visual harvesting
Fundamentally, looking at someone's work and asking them about their process will help you find right person for your event.
Even though I am also an artist and an illustrator, I don't use either word to describe my role here. Sure, I do plenty of drawing, but my focus in on synthesizing and organizing what I hear, not drawing illustrations of what I observe.
Are their other terms for this?
Sure! Here are additional terms:
brainstorm mapping
concept mapper
concept mapping*
conference mapping
conference mapper
conference visuals
conference drawings
conversation mapping
conversation mapper
corporate art
corporate artist
idea capture
ideation mapping
information murals
keynote drawings
keynote artist
knowledge mapper
knowledge mapping
knowledge maps
live meeting notes
meeting mapper
meeting mapping
meeting maps
meeting visuals
mindmapper
mindmapping**
onsite visuals
visual communicator
visual communication
visual meetings
visual thinker
visual thinking
☝️ All great things, but these are umbrella terms that can include more than this live, large-scale drawing work.
* concept mapping, concept artist, or concept illustrator can refer to those who sketch prototypes for product ideas.
** mindmapping is a technique popularized by Tony Buzan that has a hub-and-spoke shape to organize your thoughts.
What about sketchnoting?
A term coined by Mike Rohde, sketchnoting is often live drawing as well. Sketchnotes tends to be small scale, like letter/A4 paper or in a personal sketchbook.
Someone can promote themselves as a sketchnoter-for-hire. But I think of sketchnoting as personal work, not professional.
I would guess they would be drawing what they here in real-time, but at a small scale.
In that case, they are not facilitating the group's live process because the participants can see their work take shape.
Why are there so many terms!?
Good question! It is frustrating and confusing.
Here are a few reasons there are so many different variations:
- The work is relatively new and unknown to most people.
Graphic recording and graphic facilitation started in the 1970s. I've been in the field since 1997. But it is definitely still new to the vast majority of people. - Clients have experienced the power of the work in the room, but didn't catch the job title of the person doing the work.
Being listened to is a powerful force. But a good graphic facilitator should feel like a seamless team member, and you may have not caught their name or title. - Practitioners often stumble into the work and don't know what to call it themselves.
With no frame of reference, or without doing some online sleuthing, they choose their own term. - Colleagues want to give a unique spin on their work.
Makes it darn hard to establish an educated client base, but many, many visual practitioners want to brand themselves something distinctive.
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