HOW Design Live is one of the largest annual gatherings of creative professionals in the world. In the past I’ve been an attendee and a speaker, but this year in Chicago I made a special appearance in the Expo Hall by doing live graphic recording.

At an “Interaction Wall” I captured attendees’ thoughts in response to 3 prompts:
“HOW Design will… create tomorrow”
“HOW Design can… make a difference”
“HOW Design can… be sustainable”

In real time I created a visual of their thoughts by using words, drawings, shapes and symbols. This provided an incredible visual summary for HOW attendees to reflect on in the moment, and remember in the future.

One of the high points of the conference was meeting Nora Herting, co-founder of ImageThink and co-author of Draw Your Big Idea. I was fangirling big time!
As if both being graphic recorders in a sea of creative professionals isn’t enough of a connection, Nora and I are also past clients of Ilise Benun of Marketing Mentor – who heads up the conference’s Creative Freelancer track – from whom I’ve learned everything I know about self-promotion of a small, creative business for the past, oh, 20 years or so.

When I wasn’t drawing on a large scale, I had the opportunity to attend several incredible sessions, so of course I made sketchnotes in my notebook.

Nora talked about how visuals can be incorporated into the design thinking process. You can learn more about her talk in this interview, How Designers Can Design the Client Experience.

Terri Trespicio is an amazingly insightful and entertaining speaker who spoke my branding language, encouraging the audience to pinpoint what makes each of us uniquely useful to our clients in our creative work.

Theresa Fitzgerald is the VP of Creative at Sesame Workshop and her down-to-earth, kind approach made me want to be the kind of boss and leader I imagine her to be (The presentation included this video of  Will.i.am from the Roots singing the catchiest and cutest song ever with a bunch of muppets, “What I Am“).

Priya Parker is a hot topic right now with her fascinating book, the Art of Gathering which explores why and when people are moved by an experience. She deftly interwove lessons from her research into questions and responses for and from the audience.

I’m not really sure what Chip Kidd talked about and I didn’t finish the sketchnote because I was laughing so hard the entire time he gave his talk (also, this drawing may or may not really resemble him). An amazing book designer and hilarious storyteller.

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Did you attend the conference? What sessions inspired you? What did you think of the interaction wall? I’d love to hear about your experience.