“Graphic recording” means recording the content of meetings and events using illustrations (graphics).
It is essentially a form of “meeting minutes,” but organizing the information visually makes it possible to see it from a different perspective than the text-heavy, formal minutes.
It is commonly called “grareco,” and you may have been hearing the term more often lately.
Seven people attended in person and five joined online for the “Graphic Recorder Course” at the Takahashi River Basin Workstyle Discovery Marche Kuraboro.
It seemed that each person had their own reasons for taking part.
I also took part and tried it out, so here is my report.
The information presented was current when this article was published in October 2022. Please note that it may differ from current information.
About the Kuraboro “Graphic Recorder Course”
The grareco workshop I attended was the fifth session of the “Takahashi River Basin Workstyle Discovery Marche Kuraboro,” held at Sumiyoshicho no Ie Bunbuku in central Kurashiki City.
The instructor was Momoko Itoshima of the Takahashigawa Presentare General Incorporated Association.
After graduating from a design vocational school, Itoshima worked as a designer at a sign shop, but took a short break from work to raise her children.
Recently, she has gradually started taking on design-related work again.
Her experience with grareco is surprisingly recent: she says it all began when a friend taught her how to use iPad software in March 2021.
After that, she honed her skills mostly through self-study. Following projects such as creating content introducing well-known bloggers, she seems to have received more grareco work.
First, start by “drawing four circles on paper”
At the beginning of the workshop, Itoshima gave us the following guidance.
“Even if you’re not good at drawing, you can start grareco anytime as long as you can draw circles and lines.”
Could even I, who am not good at drawing, really learn to use grareco?
We began with, “First, draw four circles on a piece of paper.”
Next, we drew faces in the circles to express people’s emotions—happiness, anger, sadness, and joy.
Then, as the first exercise, we started playing a drawing shiritori game.
The idea was to play shiritori using pictures drawn on the white paper provided.
Given “cup” as the prompt, I struggled to draw a picture of “pudding,” without even thinking about the rules of shiritori, and ended up making everyone at the venue laugh. (laughs)
Introductions and summer vacation memories summarized with grareco
In the second exercise, we used grareco to introduce ourselves.
I wasn’t able to express myself very well.
But looking around at the other participants, I saw that they had drawn easy-to-understand self-introductions.
I was very envious.
For the third exercise, we formed groups of three and took turns as listener, speaker, and illustrator, summarizing memories of summer vacation.
The illustrator in my group somehow managed to express the story of struggling with science and math homework over summer vacation using equations, a flask, test tubes, and other images.
From the Writer
The workshop lasted two hours, and included many exercises where we actually worked with paper and pens. I realized that what matters is not drawing well, but finding ways to express ideas through drawings that can communicate as icons.
Most of the other participants also expressed positive views, saying they wanted to use grareco in some way in the future, as shown below.
- It’s still a high hurdle for me because I’m not good at drawing, but I plan to look for opportunities to keep practicing
- I’m good at drawing, but I can’t keep up with what the other person is saying, so I felt I need to get used to it, for example by increasing my speed
I also felt that compared with the bland records made up of text alone that I’ve kept until now, drawing helps deepen the understanding of the person doing it.
The “Takahashi River Basin Workstyle Discovery Marche Kuraboro” will apparently continue with sessions on taxes, blogging and article writing, and more.
Participation is free, so if you’re interested, why not get in touch?
Takahashi River Basin Workstyle Discovery Marche Kuraboro Information
| Name | Takahashi River Basin Workstyle Discovery Marche Kuraboro |
|---|---|
| Dates | Scheduled to be held from October 11, 2022 onward *Past sessions can also be taken as archived courses using recorded videos ・November 26, 2022 (Sat): Work-from-home course from a tax perspective (knowledge) ・December 10, 2022 (Sat): Blogger/article writing course (skills) |
| Location | 2-13-3 Chuo, Kurashiki City (some sessions held at a venue in Hayashima Town) |
| Participation fee (tax included) | Free |
| Website | Takahashi River Basin Workstyle Discovery Marche Kuraboro |
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