Live Visual Scribing... tailored to your desired rates!
- Julia Bakay
- Jan 1
- 4 min read
Welcome!
I'm Julia Bakay, and I specialise in Remote Scribing.
I love what I do, but what makes it so rewarding is the people I get to work with, and the organisations I get to support through these visual collaborations.
Naturally, I always strive to find a pricing that is fair, and appropriate to the organisation and their actual needs.
Tips on how to make Live Visual Scribing more cost effective
While large international conferences and global summits usually have the budget for the full Graphic Recording experience (also known as Visual Scribing), smaller events and meetings could benefit from this wonderful service just as much. This is why I'd like this work to be as accessible as possible; finding ways to bring the greatest value with scribing while keeping the rates affordable. To allow smaller events, meetings or workshops to have some form of Live Illustration included, I developed a new, simpler approach to Visual Scribing.
Thanks to this, when an organisation approaches me and shares that their budget is rather limited, there’s always something I can offer. I start by walking them through the following; exploring ways we can reduce costs and see what’s possible.
Choose Remote Scribing to cut costs
The biggest cost-saver would be not having to travel there in person, as having to travel can raise Live Scribing day rates significantly.
Why?
Not only do you need to cover the travel costs themselves, but it also often means blocking out the day before and after for the artist as well (especially when travelling long distances).
If your event can tune the scribing artist in remotely, we can really start negotiating. When I’m able to do the live drawing from my studio, I’m no longer forced to charge for the additional time required for travel, which makes the whole process much more flexible.
It's a little known fact that almost any event (even in-person ones) can benefit from the artist joining online. Read on if you'd like to understand how Virtual Scribing works and why you might want to choose it!
Include Live Visual Scribing for only parts of your event
When you ask a Visual Scribe to travel to your event, even if it’s just for a couple of sessions, you’ll likely still need to pay for the full day. The artist’s creative time is spent in transit, handling logistics, and many also charge a travel fee to cover all of this.
However, when I join your event online to visually scribe, it can be as short as a 30-minute conversation; meaning you only pay for what you actually need visually captured.
Thanks to Virtual Scribing, I can simply hop in and capture a keynote speech, a panel discussion, or just one part of a meeting. You get to choose which part of the day feels the most meaningful to capture, and we'll focus on that.
Choose Digital Scribing to save on materials
There are many wonderful reasons to go with Digital Scribing, but from a financial perspective, the most important one is simply that it’s cheaper to do so! Analogue Scribing means that you'll be covering the purchase and shipment of the boards, sheets and markers; and more often than not, you'll of course need the artist in the room! :D
Pick a simpler, minimalist Visual Scribing style
The amazing perk of having such a wide range of Live Scribing styles is that we can go from simple to wildly artistic, depending on your preference and budget. Because yes, we can somewhat cut costs by opting for a simpler style of visual note-taking that is just simpler to build, and easier to edit (if needed).
Examples from Simple to Complex Visual Scribing Styles
Keep the Live Scribing at a high level for lower rates
It’s one of the first things I ask my clients during the planning call: what is the purpose of the visual? Is it meant to engage people on social media, or to serve as a moment-by-moment documentation of your event?
When we’re looking for the ideal rates, this can become a point of flexibility... perhaps a high-level visual is all you really need!
Post-event Visual Scribing is always a budget-friendly solution!
This links well into post-event capturing, which means that we can do the Visual Scribing right after your event, based on event recordings or your written meeting summaries. When the capturing doesn’t happen live, there’s no need to book a specific date, so it gives me more flexibility with pricing as well.
You can enjoy the benefits of Visual Scribing - on a budget!
All this to say that if you really want Visual Scribing for your event, meeting, or workshop, but you don't have £1000+ to spend on it, feel free to ask, because there probably is a way!
To see more examples and learn about the process, read on!
