A Guide to Graphic Recording Styles
- Julia Bakay
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
Graphic recording styles are fully customizable. Colors, fonts, shapes, and the overall visual feel can all be adapted to align seamlessly with your brand identity. Whether you’re drawn to clean minimalism, playful cartoons, or a more sophisticated approach to visual storytelling, there’s a style to suit every message and audience.
Getting the style right really matters, and it’s something I really enjoy. In this article, I’ll walk you through some of the most popular graphic recording styles I use, along with their strengths and limitations.
As you look at the examples, try imagining them in your brand colors. Notice which ones resonate with you, and feel free to let me know what catches your eye. From there, we’ll adapt the style to tell your message in the most effective way possible.
Simple Graphic Recording Style
Sketch noting with simple monochrome stick-figures
The best approach to Graphic Recording if you're looking to capture as much content as possible!
These little illustrations allow for speedy real-time drawing, so you can enjoy watching it as it evolves
These visuals don't have to take up much space either, so there's more space to capture text!
This Graphic Recording style allows for monochrome capturing if you're looking for something simpler; we can pick a few of your brand colours (as seen above) and use them for the color palette
Because all characters are the same - and non-representative of any race, gender, age, etc. - this approach is inclusive in a simple way
It allows for a humorous, witty way of capturing - for example, I can combine random objects or give them personalities!
Graphic Recording with Small Colorful Illustrations
Visual Scribing with more diverse and colorful stick-figures
This Graphic Recording style is a slightly more elaborate and colorful alternative to the previous one.
We'll likely pick a few more colors from your brand palette to work in this style as we'll need all basic colors (red, yellow, blue, green), and various skin and hair tones
Perhaps the main difference is that unlike the stick figures, here each figure has some characteristics added. If portraying diversity is important to your message, this could be the way to go!
Each idea can get a little illustration, which makes for a nice, organized and balanced canvas
This cartoon-like and playful Graphic Recording approach allows for more humor and creativity!
Sketch notes in a Cartoon-like Style
Graphic Recording with more dynamic and expressive characters
Good old cartoons...
we can use a wide range of colors or work in a limited palette like in the image below
This approach lends itself really well for a dynamic collage of the key ideas!
Cartoons allow for more playful and witty illustrations (than the following categories)
4. Elegant Linework Graphic Recording
Graphic recording using clean lines with shading or highlights
If stick figures or cartoons don't feel right for your work or event, this elegant style will serve it well!
This dynamic and classy approach works really well with most topics. If you're not sure where the conversation will lead, this is a safe one to go for
We can keep the colors to a minimum - all we need is one of your brand colours to base it on!
Silhouette-based Graphic Recording
Relying on silhouettes only while graphic recording
Quite similar to the above, but relying consistently on silhouettes - this Graphic Recording style is also brilliant for most conversations.
Silhouettes are my personal favorites as they are so simple yet expressive
They allow us to very few colors, if that is your preference
Above all, when it comes to a visual map like this one, silhouettes help to make your visual map tidy and cohesive!
There's not that much room for humor, as the illustrations don't have face expressions. However, it also means that the graphic stays more sophisticated
Elaborate, detailed Graphic Recording
Fully colored, realistic or artistic illustrations across the visual
We have to be realistic, this style suits certain events better
if the event is a bit slower paced
if we're only capturing the session at a high level
or if we're creating a Visual Conference Summary of an entire day!
It also lends itself well to 'Big Picture Graphic Recording', where I get to lean into the overarching metaphors and artistic touches. It's made possible by the fact that I'm not looking to capture as many notes, and I'm not insisting on creating tiny illustrations to accompany each idea (like in many styles listed before). I take a step back and look for the bigger ideas and how they interact.
This level of detail is not suited for sensitive topics, for those, I'd recommend using (4) Linework or (5) Silhouettes
Though some of the styles above are better when it comes to capturing a topic in detail, something like this image will be effective at drawing people in from outside the industry! With vivid colors and keeping the capturing at a high level, this style works well on social media if that's a purpose of the Visual Note-taking.
What else is possible?
We'll look at your brand guidelines and see if anything else emerges!
Now that you've explored this break down of the styles available, enjoy browsing more examples and learning about the process!
