FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What materials do you require for your graphic recording?
What’s the investment needed for graphic recording?
What’s included on the investment?
Will the audience be distracted?
What type of industries have you worked with?
What happens to the finish visuals at the end of my event?
What about confidentiality (e.g., during strategy meetings or a customer journey brainstorm)?
What type of visual content do you create?
Can you work within our budget?
How much do I need to invest on a project?
Do you charge on a project or an hourly basis?
Will you provide us with the working/ native/ source file(s)?
GRAPHIC RECORDING FAQs
What is graphic recording?
Graphic recording or live scribing is the art and skill of visually documenting ideas and insights.
Graphic recorders (like Sheilvy, our amazing graphic recorder in residence) convert ideas, insights and decisions into something tangible by transforming spoken words into powerful and striking visuals —
- to support groups to do their best thinking,
- to creatively present complex challenges,
- to showcase achievements and
- to organise information
— in a way that is memorable and inspiring.
Please click here to go to our graphic recording page for more details.
What materials do you require for your graphic recording?
Pre-event
- Specifics on location, event name, branding guidelines (if any)
- Agenda or reading materials on the topics to be discussed
- Presentation slide deck if available
- Profile pictures of the speakers if available
Knowing the details of the content to be discussed is not necessary, although having an agenda or an idea of the topics ahead of time can help in the preparation.
On the event (GR on easels and paper)
- Space to draw with a clear view of the stage and screen
- Chair or table (roughly 2 x 4 ft.) for our pens/paper
- Good lighting is preferred
On the event (GR on iPad)*
- 2 power sockets to charge laptop and iPad
- Chair and table (roughly 2 x 4 ft.)
- WiFi connection
*iSTORYa Studio will provide the iPad, Laptop, chargers, HDMI adaptor
What’s the investment needed for graphic recording?
iSTORYa Studio’s basic fees are for a half day (under 4 hours) or full day (under 8 hours) sessions. We are open to discuss package options that will work for you depending on how much support or solutions you need that fits your budget.
What’s included in the investment
The investment includes one main graphic recorder, all basic stationery (excluding boards that may be needed) and a PDF file (digitisation).
Will the audience be distracted?
Live scribing is a good ‘distraction’ — instead of the audience’s attention drifting into unrelated distractions, the graphic recorder’s illustrations will divert them back to the content and into what’s being discussed in the room.
The graphic recording becomes an anchor for keeping the audience on-track, engaged and focused on the key points (no matter where they are looking – on the presenter, on the screen or on the live scriber.)
Analogue Graphic Recording
At your preference, our graphic recorder can illustrate in front of your audience where they can see what is being discussed come to life as it happens which quickly engages all their learning capacities: visual, auditory, and kinetic; or our graphic recorder can illustrate at the back where the audience can have conversations on the topics discussed based on the illustrations and concepts on the graphic recording during breakouts and/or after the event.
Digital Graphic Recording
Our graphic recorder is usually on the sidelines drawing on an iPad. The graphic recording is then projected on a screen.
Don’t you need to be an expert in our industry and understand our technical terms to graphic record for us?
Our graphic recorder(s) has worked with a broad spectrum of industries such as government, healthcare, oil and gas, retail, airlines, pharmaceuticals, construction, technology, hospitality and consulting and is equipped with an extensive visual vocabulary and technical knowledge spanning across multiple disciplines.
Although our graphic recorder is not considered as an expert in comparison with the people who are specific industry specialists, our graphic recorder makes sure to reserve enough time for planning and to get as much information to deliver what iSTORYa Studio is an expert of – we are expert listeners, visual mappers, documenters, information organisers, idea synthesisers, visual storytellers and illustrators. We are here to work with specific industry specialists to illustrate their expertise, pull out their ideas and transform them into visually compelling stories.
Do you travel out of Dubai?
Yes, we are happy to travel wherever your event will be taking place. Please note that additional investment for travel expenses applies (flights, accommodation, et.al.)
Depending on the location, it is important that our graphic recorder arrives the day before an event to set up, assess the space and get enough rest before the event.
What type of industries have you worked with?
Our graphic recorder(s) has worked with a broad spectrum of industries such as government, healthcare, oil and gas, retail, airlines, pharmaceuticals, construction, technology, hospitality and consulting.
What happens to the finish visuals at the end of my event?
The fully paid basic investment includes a high-resolution digital file in PDF format.
Analogue Graphic Recording
Aside from the PDF format, you will also receive the original chart. The original chart will be scanned and couriered to your specified address after the event.
The graphic recording can be:
- display/ exhibited (original or print)
- an engaging space for people to have meaningful conversations
- printed as a giveaway for the participants and speakers
- distributed instantly and shared (for digital scribing assets)
- used for presentations and reports
- turned into GIFs, poster, emailers (for digital scribing assets)
— the possibilities of how you can use the visuals from the graphic recording are endless.
How do we work together?
Contact us with the dates of your event, meeting or conference so we can make sure we have availability. We will discuss your needs and how we can help you achieve your goals.
Once we have finalised and decided that we are the best fit for what you need, we will send you an invoice for the 50 percent deposit to secure those dates and the balance is due on the day of the event. We are unable to hold dates until we receive a deposit but we will notify you if someone else is interested.
What about confidentiality (e.g., during strategy meetings or a customer journey brainstorm)?
We fully respect requirements for confidentiality. Our graphic recorder(s) will sign your NDAs as needed.
Do you offer graphic recording workshops?
Yes! We offer both for organisations (teams) and for individuals (open-for-all). We at iSTORYa Studio is keen on sharing our learnings and skills on graphic recording to expand your and your team’s visual vocabulary and building a community of visual practitioners.
Please click here to go to our workshops page for more details.
VISUAL STUDIO FAQs
What type of visual content do you create?
Our visual studio services include graphics, presentations and visual communication.
- Graphics – infographic, GIFographic, video graphic
- Presentations – for meetings, keynote, reports, sales pitch or proposal
- Visual Communication – strategic maps, customer journeys, social media posts, company communication collaterals, murals or office graphics, eBooks, publication design, eLearning visual elements, et al.
Please click here to go to our visual studio page for more details.
Can you work within our budget?
A budget is crucial for any project and there’s a different story for each one. Let us know your requirements and our team will provide you with a solution. We will work as agile and as lean as possible to meet your goals. If iSTORYa Studio is not able to work within your budget we are happy to recommend alternate resources that may be able to help.
How much do I need to invest on a project?
Your investment is based on the following main factors:
- Scope and complexity of work: the bulk of work, the quantity of content, the level of involvement
- Type of work: graphics, presentations, visual communication – we work in an assortment of mediums, some of which are costly in terms of time, money, and resources
- Timeline: year-long, a quick turnaround
Each project is unique, let us know the details and we will create a custom plan for you.
Note that your investment is paying for the extra time you gain where you can now spend doing what you do best, and with your guidance, leave us to do what we do best.
Do you charge on a project or an hourly basis?
Knowing the total investment before the actual work begins helps in managing budgets, the reason why most clients would prefer a project-based pricing. We will inform you of any additional charges for requests beyond the scope of the project initially agreed on, especially for events where late-stage stakeholder feedback may result in major changes. We will work together to avoid “scope creep” to protect the integrity, quality and purpose of your project/s.
Some projects that do not require a final product like consulting or ideating are most of the time best suited to an hourly basis.
Talk to us on your preferred billing requirements and we can create a custom quote for you.
How do you handle meetings?
It mostly depends on your project. Throughout the timeline of your project we will schedule a number of meetings to discuss progress and listen to any feedbacks you have.
What is your turnaround time?
We do our best to refine and streamline our processes to accommodate your requests. We can always work at a reasonable timeline based on your deadlines and our availability.
Will you provide us with the working/ native/ source file(s)?
Specify the files you need in the initial agreement and we are open to discuss.
In general, native files are not part of the deliverables on your investment as we highly respect, value and protect the rights of our designers and illustrators and the work they create. We will however provide you a digital file format ready for web and print.
WORKSHOPS FAQs
What workshops do you provide?
We currently run two workshops:
- Visual Practice
- Intro to Graphic Recording
Please click here to go to our workshop page for more details.
Who can attend the workshops?
People who are keen on building their visual vocabulary to create visually impactful messages. People who are eager to learn how to draw visual metaphors and communicate stories in a more engaging and powerful way. We have had participants from consulting, airline, education, government, well-being, oil & gas and construction.
Do I have to draw or write well?
Not at all. Visual recording/ note-taking is not fine art and it is more than just being good at drawing. Our workshops will introduce the discipline of drawing simple lines and shapes combined with the art of listening, filtering and synthesising.
Where can I apply what I have learned from the workshops?
You can apply it anywhere and to various contexts. Visual recording/ note-taking can be used to share information for yourself and for others. As a skill, it will help you clarify, sythesise and share ideas and insights individually and in teams.
Can you customise a workshop for my team?
Yes. We can create bespoke workshops tailored to your team and your needs. Get in touch on how we can help level up your team’s visual vocabulary and we will provide you with a custom quote.
How much do I need to invest on a workshop?
For an updated information on the prices (non-customised workshops) kindly send us an email at hello@istoryastudio.com or contact us.
What is the schedule for the individual workshops?
You can follow us on our social media platforms for announcements on workshop dates. If you are interested on future workshops, you can send us an email at hello@istoryastudio.com or contact us with your desired type of workshop and the tentative dates/ month you plan on attending.