At See In Colors, we believe in the power of visuals to enhance understanding and retention. That’s why we’re excited to offer a free resource to help you bring your ideas to life with our Visual Notetaking Tip Sheet. You’ve seen our team at work graphic recording, well you can use the power of visuals too!

What’s Inside the Tip Sheet?

Our Visual Notetaking Tip Sheet is designed to make it easy for anyone to start drawing out their ideas, regardless of artistic skill level. It covers five essential elements:

1. Text: Learn how to use fonts and styles to make key points stand out.
2. Containers: Discover how to frame information with boxes, clouds, and banners.
3. People: Simple techniques for drawing people to add a personal touch.
4. Bullets: Create clear, organized lists with various bullet styles.
5. Connectors: Use arrows and lines to link concepts and show relationships

Download Your Free Tip Sheet

Ready to take your meeting notes to the next level? Download our Visual Notetaking Tip Sheet for free and start transforming your ideas into visual stories. Click the link below to get started:

Download the Visual Notetaking Tip Sheet

At See In Colors, we’re dedicated to helping you design and facilitate meetings that are not only productive but also visually engaging. Whether you’re brainstorming, planning, or strategizing, our resources are here to support your journey.

Happy drawing!

From the See In Colors Team

The See in Colors team is trained to provide two types of personality assessments that are highly beneficial to company teams no matter the size or industry. The first personality type test our team can provide yours is the Myers Briggs assessment. There are 16 types in total, each one with unique skills, traits, and abilities. You can learn more about the various types here. The second type of personality test our team can administer is the DiSC profile assessment. While Myers Briggs is a little bit more on the individual side of personality tests, DiSC is more organization/group driven. You can learn more about DiSC through their website here. 

Both tests provide great insight into your team strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to get a better picture of your team dynamic. Each test is a great option for your next team building activity or staff retreat. Take some time to review each test. See which one would be best for your company. Each one provides great insight and helps reveal some great things about your team you may have not noticed before. 

Before your staff retreat, participants will complete a computerized test. After everyone has completed their test, we gather the results and prepare them to share at your meeting. We have trained team members that know all of the ins and outs of each personality type to walk you through it all. 

We use graphic facilitation to guide you through the results using powerful visuals that keep everyone engaged. During your retreat, we sketch the qualities and skills of each personality. We understand it can be a little difficult to keep up with all of the types, so through visual storytelling, you and your team can easily digest them. 

Wondering about next steps? We can share best practices on how to utilize each team member’s traits for the good of your company and the overall team goals! Want to learn more? Visit our contact page to get started! 

Make your presentation stand out

Forget the days of black text on a white background. Been there, done that. Adding images into the mix allows people to engage with the material shared. Looking at a screen with just text is dull and certainly doesn’t spark creativity. 

Encourages participation

If you are creating a presentation that includes feedback and discussion, make it time well spent with visual elements to get people talking. Using visuals takes your presentation to a more relaxed and comfortable set up as well. Don’t let your material be stiff and stale. 

Focus on the important stuff

Getting a presentation together can be intimidating and overwhelming, especially if you aren’t a fan of public speaking. Use visual thinking and graphic recording elements to take some of the pressure off of composing the right words for the slides, but let the images do the talking for you. 

Let visual thinking ignite action

Visual thinking gets the gears turning for your team and leads to motivation for putting those thoughts into action. If you have a more significant project or company goal, let visual thinking get your team ready to take it on and get things done efficiently with high spirits. 

Think about it! What could visual thinking do not just for you, but also your team? While we covered these techniques for a presentation and group setting, all of these ideas could also work on an individual level. Want to learn more about visual thinking and graphic recording? Visit our website!

A great way to get feedback is through the ‘I Like, I Wish, What If’ method. This meeting facilitation technique is used quite often during design thinking. These three prompts can provide your group with some ways to get feedback flowing!

You can set this up for an online meeting or an in-person meeting. Here’s how:

• Online Meeting: Use our free template, click here to download.
  • You can ask participants to print out the form and write their thoughts out.
  • Here’s another idea, you can share the form on your screen and ask participants to report out using Zoom breakout rooms and the annotate feature.
  • Not sure how to easily navigate virtual meetings, we can support you. Contact us here.

• In Person Meeting:
  • Creating a large poster board or post-its with these three phrases at the top.
  • You can use the blank space underneath to collaborate and sketchnote everything that comes up. 

I Like

The first section of this method pulls all of the existing things from the project that team members like about it. Think about the overall structure or organization, or you could point out some visuals or colors within the project that you enjoy. Be thoughtful about this section and try to pull at least one thing per person that is already working with the object that is being reviewed. 

I Wish

The second section is for critical thinking about things that may be positive about the project but could be improved a little bit. Potentially the length of a project or the number of slides in a presentation. These refinement suggestions can change things for the better, but without completely altering the integrity of the original work. 

What If

This section is for brand new ideas or evolving ideas. You can open the door to a solution of a challenge, but don’t limit yourself to the possibilities that can come from this specific part of the exercise. Free-flowing ideas are welcome! 

Make sure to cover each section of this method, no skipping! It can be used for getting feedback from a workshop, strategy session, or retrospective. There are so many ways to implement this strategy. Check out other posts on our blog! 

When planning a staff retreat for your team there are so many options to consider, but all exciting things for sure! You may want to keep things more relaxed or keep things structured – either way being strategic about your agenda is key.

Use your staff retreat as a chance to show your team how much you appreciate all of their hard work. Recognize some key players, but acknowledge the team as a whole during your time together. Present certificates, awards, or gift cards to recognize behaviors and performance. Let them know how important they are to your company’s success. They will love the gesture, and it will increase team morale as well!

Another item to add to your agenda is a period of reflection of the past year. Create a safe space for each team member to be heard and allow your group to connect at a deeper level. Give each person time to share their thoughts.

To compile the discussion together – hire a graphic recorder to visualize and capture the input, ideas, and key points. Visual summaries tell a story and bring emotion to your meeting by incorporating colorful images to the activities. One of our clients recently held a staff retreat and shared with their team, “Your ideas are important to us, we want to hear you, that’s why we hired See In Colors to draw out what’s being said.” Let your team know you want to understand their point of view and allow each opinion to be valued.

Want to add graphic recording to your staff retreat? Learn more about our services here!

My Toolbox

My ArtBin Sidekick supply box holds everything I need with a little bit of room to grow as well! This product is perfect for when I have to travel and compact enough to take with me anywhere. It fits so well in my carry on next to my clothing and personal items. It stays locked shut, so I don’t have to worry about any ink spills happening in my suitcase. It’s super durable and effortless to clean. This product has three different sections for storage, and I have each spot filled with items.

Section One – Personal Items

This part of my ArtBin storage box has miscellaneous personal items that are great to have on hand during any job. I have hand sanitizer, lotion, business cards, and See in Colors pencils to hand out to clients and connections that I make at events. I always make sure to keep a plastic bag handy in case there is not a trash can close by, or I need to clean up some items in my workspace during an event.

Section Two – Work Supplies

In the final two parts hold the majority of the items I use during my graphic recording process! In this particular section, I have chalk, a pencil sharpener, erasers and some markers included. I always make sure to have child-proof scissors in there because they are TSA-friendly for when I travel! Whiteout is also an item I double check for when packing because it is so useful whenever I have a small error to fix or something to cover up on a drawing.

Section Three – Work Supplies (part 2)

This division holds my Neuland marker collection along with some refill ink. Artist tape and duck tape can always be found in this spot too! Duck tape is a universal go-to tool to keep in your kit. I like to keep some on hand at all times.

Want to learn how you can draw ideas with visual notes? Sign up on our interest list for the Learning Lab.  Be the first to know about online courses, coaching and public workshops.

While the event itself has most of the fun with the drawing, colors, and conversation, we love what happens next with our visual summaries. After the event has wrapped up, we hand over the physical artwork. The visual notes are yours to keep! Have your event coordinator display the physical charts in a high traffic area or frame it (great for speaker gifts, or the head of your department). We can give you lots of ideas to get extra mileage from our graphic recording!

Here comes the Big bonus…you will also receive digital copies in JPEG and PDF formats. Including the digital rendering in your services package is our pleasure. Your digital images are great to include in your final report, newsletter, or website. Share the visual notes with sponsors or team members that were unable to make the event. This is how your bring the uniqueness of your event to the masses.

One more great idea! The digital images are great for promoting future events to potential partners. You can also use them to get the team excited for other opportunities down the road. Plus posting your digital copy on social media is always a good idea. Followers love the colorful, fun, one-of-a-kind design that comes out of a presentation through visual notes.

You can share these materials online, internally or externally to keep the conversation going long after the event is over.

Want to learn more about our services and how we can help your business? Visit our Graphic Recording page through the link here!

Create Visual Summaries – Hire a graphic recorder to summarize your panel through visual notetaking. No more “death by powerpoint” or scribbly meeting notes, bring something fresh to the experience. These visual summaries can include the main points, fun details and encouraging words from the panel. Bonus Tip: Let your graphic recorder know if want to include panelists names and social media accounts so participants can continue to follow along long after the event is completed.

Encourage Photos – Encourage your panelists to take photos with attendees in front of the visual summary. This could serve as a fun backdrop! Have them stand by their favorite quote from the panel or devote a section of the visual summary to each panelist for them to pose by.  

Get Social with Sound Bites – Pulling quotes and strong snippets from the panel can be great for social media sharing. Tell participants to take photos and post on their platforms with a specific event hashtag. Tag panelists as well to promote your event and content reach with their followers as well. When your company is sharing on social, be sure to include details about ways to stay in the loop to encourage sign-ups for future gatherings. Once people see what is shared through these visual summaries, it will undoubtedly pique interest for the next event!

These are just a few ideas to get you started! Want more ways to engage with your audience for your next event? Check out our services for more information and ideas!

Below are our top four tips for visual thinking!

Incorporate more color. Sticking with black and white can be a little dull and on the boring side. Bring some color into the mix. You can color code ideas to represent goals, topics and more. Don’t forget to add some neon post-it notes to the mix. This is where your creativity can come out!

Connect similar thoughts. Draw an icon in the center to represent the topic.  Draw lines to branch out from the central image. Now group fresh ideas and thoughts inside thought bubbles or clouds to keep things organized. Need some help with your drawing skills? Take our FREE icon course for more tips! Another way to keep ideas grouped is through highlighting similar topics. Allow your color coding to come into play again through this organizational tip.

Go big. Big paper means BIG ideas. Don’t limit your space with small pieces of paper. Grab some poster board or large pieces of butcher paper. If your company has a print shop, ask them for some plotter paper which tends to be 30” inches or so wide. You can draw and write large ideas and have smaller topics or action items branch off of your big idea. Bring a few pieces to make sure you don’t run out of room and can keep the ideas flowing!

Encourage participation. Get the office or team involved with this process. You can expand your original ideas or let them bring new thoughts to the table. One way to encourage participation is to bring colored dots to your session. Allow each participant to use their dots to identify which idea they like the most and contribute their vote! The dots could also serve as a representation of their roles in the company as shown in the image below. See where everyone adds their talents!

Dream big and have fun! If you think your not sure how to plan a brainstorming session, we can support you,  just contact us. We would love to help!

Here are some ideas for using reflection for meaningful discussions and recall.  These reflections can be captured by a graphic recorder as well!

1. Previous Year Reflections: Allow each member around the room to highlight what worked well and lessons learned from the past year. You could also suggest that they collaborate with their department for their contributions to the discussion.
2. Internal Reflections: Prompt participants with the question, “What have you learned about yourself so far?” before lunch or scheduled break in your meeting. Give your team a heads up that you will be asking this question during the session so they don’t feel “on the spot.”
3. Silent Reflections: Set a timer for 5-10 minutes for a period of silent reflection. Calming background music is also a great addition to this part. While the silence may feel a little odd at first, it will provide time for those in the room to reset of their mind. At the end of the timer ask if anyone would like to volunteer a thought or two from their “meditation.”

Let the group think back to what they learned throughout the meeting and share their takeaways. Give time for the graphic recorder to illustrate each members thoughts. At the end, you can decide collectively how to share these visual notes. Are you facilitating an annual meeting? Breakout sessions? Let our team help with the visuals! See our portfolio and learn more here!