Blog

Graphic recording, Terry LaBan, Philadelphia area graphic recorder, Breakthrough Visuals, sketch notes, illustration

Executive Retreats: The Big Picture

An executive retreat to rethink company culture is a challenge for everyone involved. Think about it: you ask a bunch of people who are used to controlling their respective domains to spend a day or more, often on a weekend, sequestered in a hotel conference room. There, a tirelessly cheerful facilitator tries to get them […]

Graphic recording, Terry LaBan, Philadelphia area graphic recorder, Breakthrough Visuals, sketch notes, illustration

Doing It Digitally

I’m usually tucked in by 11:00 pm but at 2:00 am on April 30 I found myself graphic recording. No, it wasn’t for a conference of insomniacs or vampires—it was for an organization called We Love Reading. In Amman, Jordan where their event was held, the time was a reasonable 9:00 am. The work was […]

Graphic recording, Terry LaBan, Philadelphia area graphic recorder, Breakthrough Visuals, sketch notes, illustration

Don’t Lose It!

When I tell people about graphic recording they often ask is if it’s like being a courtroom sketch artist. The answer is, not really. Courtroom artists don’t try to record everything that happens at a trial. Instead, they produce a few representative drawings to serve as a record when photos and video aren’t allowed. Graphic recorders, […]

Powerpoint presentations, Power Point presentationsinfographics, graphic recording, Breakthrough Visuals, Terry LaBan

The Magic Mirror

There are a lot of benefits to making graphic recording part of an event. It increases understanding and engagement, makes information memorable and leaves participants with a visual touchstone they can return to again and again. But there’s something else graphic recording contributes that’s no less important– it makes magic happen. As a graphic recording […]

Graphic recording, Terry LaBan, Philadelphia area graphic recorder, Breakthrough Visuals, sketch notes, illustration

The Illustrated Conference

Everyone loves illustrations. They add visual interest to books, articles and blog posts, creatively sum up content and attract reader’s attention. It’s true that most grown-up books don’t use them, but these days books are outliers. Look around and you’ll realize that it’s rare to find web content or magazine articles that don’t include images. […]

Graphic recording, Terry LaBan, Philadelphia area graphic recorder, Breakthrough Visuals, sketch notes, illustration, #RealCollege 2018

#Realcollege 2018 at Temple University

On September 29 and 30, I was honored to graphically record the events at #Realcollege 2018, a conference organized to address the needs of needy and homeless college students at Temple University in Philadelphia. The conference attracted over 500 attendees from across the country, both social services professionals and students. The energy was palpable, especially […]

Graphic recording, Terry LaBan, Philadelphia area graphic recorder, Breakthrough Visuals, sketch notes, illustration

Graphic Recording For All It’s Worth

When a client hires a graphic recorder to add excitement, engagement and clarity to a speaking event or workshop, they’re getting more than just the recorder’s time onsite. For openers, following every session, graphic recorders typically send clients high-quality digital photos of the charts they’ve created, cleaned up with editing software to even out lighting, […]

Graphic recording, Terry LaBan, Philadelphia area graphic recorder, Breakthrough Visuals, sketch notes, illustration, Philly Tech Week 2018

Philly Tech Week 2018

The good folks at Technically Philly asked me graphic record 9 hours worth of sessions at their day-long Introduced Conference on May 3rd at the Science History Institute in Center City, Philadelphia. It was a whole day of speakers on a variety of fascinating topics, attended by numerous movers and shakers in Philadelphia’s booming tech […]

Graphic recording, Terry LaBan, Philadelphia area graphic recorder, Breakthrough Visuals, sketch notes, illustration

Telling Visual Stories

People were telling stories with images long before they could write them with words, images we can still see on rocks and in caves all over the world. The invention of writing meant you no longer needed an actual person to explain what was going on, or even images at all. But today visuals are […]