Storytelling Drawings

Sketch Notes: Small scale graphic recordings provide audience engagement after the event!

Barb Luhring draws pictures that explains ideas
Toni Sikes presents “Does stubborn have a bad reputation?”

Audience engagement is important during your presentation. But if you don’t have the proper set-up for a graphic recorder – Sketch Notes may be the solution for you! I’ll come to your event and sketch your presentation from a seat in the audience Following your event, I’ll combine the images, add color and deliver digital assets that can be distributed to your audience, once again reinforcing your message. Your message lives on in words and pictures. Questions? Contact me.


Use pictures to help tell the story of your services and products – Contact We Draw Ideas today!
Email: barbaraluhring@gmail.com or Call: 920-246-7234 • Connect on LinkedIn

Project your organization’s inclusiveness…with a drawing!

Designing an inclusive illustration brand

I love that illustrations have become such a key part of the tech branding landscape. But here’s an observation: tech illustrations often feature the same sets of things: young, white people (usually men), surrounded by gadgets, with a cup of coffee, in a beautiful tech world.

For consumer-oriented products, this creates an incredibly limiting and exclusive brand image, unless you are solely targeting city-dwelling, coastal tech millennials.”

Alice Lee

From We Draw Ideas founder Barb Luhring:

Working with Alex Smith, program director for The Farmory – an urban farming project in Green Bay. Alex needed a graphic that can raise awareness of the good work the organization is doing that could also help in fundraising.

After a conversation, I created a watercolor painting featuring volunteers and participants portrayed as community superheroes. I then dropped off my watercolor image to be scanned by Melanie Wishart of Inkdrop Arthaus and when it’s completed will deliver it to Scott Riha of Van Lanen Printing. Scott digitally printed the artwork at 3′ x 6′ on Gatorboard for easy mounting at The Farmory facility. Other digital assets can be created to facilitate fundraising and more. 

Here are the Details….
Client:
The Farmory Original Painting: 12” x 24” Watercolor on Arches 100% Cotton Paper • 140lb • Hot Press Watercolor Block Digital Retouch & Enhancement: Adobe Photoshop CC • Digital Scan: Inkdrop ArthausDigital Printing: Van Lanen Printing • 3ft. x 6ft.
Illustration printed on Gatorboard and hung at The Farmory
Additional Digital Assets: PDFs, Slide Decks, Silk Banner(s) are being considered.



Use pictures to help tell the story of your services and products – Contact We Draw Ideas today!
Email: barbaraluhring@gmail.com or Call: 920-246-7234

Connect on LinkedIn

The importance of Representing Diversity in Visual Communications

Diversity is present in every part of life, whether it be the food you eat,
the music you listen to or the idols you look up to.

“At Getty Images, we recognise our responsibility, and the great opportunity we have, to help drive change in promoting a more diverse, inclusive and representative visual language. I am proud to say this is a key focus for our editorial and creative teams and that we have searched out and are working with content creators who put this issue at the heart of everything they do.”

Andrew Saunders
Senior Vice President, Creative Content at Getty Images


We agree with Andrew Saunders and focus on including diversity in all of our illustrations.

Diverse LGBT illustrations


Want to attract diverse audiences and customers,
but don’t currently have photos of diverse customers in your place of business?

Diverse millennial illustrations

 


Trying to recruit diverse talent to your company?

Diverse women and girl illustrations

No problem! A picture is worth a thousand words and We Draw Ideas’ diverse illustrations
are respectful AND attention grabbing.

 


Diverse cartoon graphics

Our drawings can be playful or buttoned down and my out-of-the-box approach is customized for your specific situation


Barb Luhring of We Draw Ideas provides engaging, inclusive, diverse, creative rich media content for her advertising and graphic recording clients. Is your business ready to welcome diversity?
If the answer is yes, contact Barb and her team today.
Email: barbaraluhring@gmail.com or Call: 920-246-7234

Graphic Recording: Economic Development

 

Engaging, inclusive, diverse drawings for graphic recording projects.

smartgrowth_sturgeonbay

Smart Growth Sturgeon Bay • November 2014

In November of 2014, Charolette Baierl and Caitlin Oleson sat down for a conversation about economic development in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Their plan involves evaluation of physical and human resources, creation of an economy that offers young people a great place to thrive and offering entrepreneurs of all ages the tools they need to succeed in a small town.

We Draw Ideas founder Barb Luhring illustrated their conversation.
(original Illustration above is 4′ x 8′)


We Draw Ideas provides engaging, inclusive, diverse, creative rich media content for her advertising and graphic recording clients. Is your business ready to welcome diversity?
If the answer is yes, contact We Draw Ideas founder Barb Luhring today!
Email: barbaraluhring@gmail.com or Call: 920-246-7234

Connect with Barb Luhring on LinkedIn


Digital & Analog Illustration: PowerPoint

Identify and then tell the story

When we give a presentation, we are doing it to tell a story that has one or two goals…A presentation should not just be a data dump. If our goal is just to provide data, then we would be better off cancelling the presentation and just sending out the data. The presenter is providing a perspective that the data cannot provide, by itself.”
Robert Frost, Instructor and Flight Controller at NASA


 

Get a Website check-up!

 Barb Luhring creates memorable PowerPoint Slide Decks that can help you tell your story. Let her create a custom PowerPoint Slide Deck for your next presentation.

Website Checkup

Visual Learning

Death by PowerPoint

Download a PDF of We Draw Ideas founder Barb Luhring’s Samples – Click Here


We Draw Ideas provides engaging, inclusive, diverse, creative rich media content for her advertising and graphic recording clients. Is your business ready to welcome diversity?
If the answer is yes, contact We Draw Ideas founder Barb Luhring today!
Email: barbaraluhring@gmail.com or Call: 920-246-7234

Connect with Barb Luhring on LinkedIn

Logos, Ads & Package Design

 “Working with Barb is an absolute delight. When you share a thought or an idea she is always enthusiastic and willing to brainstorm to help bring your vision to life. She is timely, creative, and without a doubt an outside-of-the-box thinker. You will absolutely enjoy your experience working with Barb. “
Ashley Rothmann, Precision Paper Converters

We Draw Ideas provides engaging, inclusive, diverse, creative rich media content for package design, advertising and graphic recording clients. Is your business ready to welcome diversity?
If the answer is yes, contact We Draw Ideas founder Barb Luhring today!
Email: barbaraluhring@gmail.com or Call: 920-246-7234

Connect with Barb Luhring on LinkedIn

Diverse Illustration of Community Event

How Diversity Makes Us Smarter
Simply interacting with individuals who are different forces group members to prepare better, to anticipate alternative viewpoints and to expect that reaching consensus will take effort.
From Scientific American by Katherine W. Phillips

NoH8 PDF

Barb Luhring draws diversity.

In early December 2016, organizers held a NOH8 Event in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. The event was held to raise awareness of the importance of extending kindness and inclusion to all our neighbors. In honor of that effort, I created a 4 ft. x 3 ft. drawing that will permanently hang at the Door County Maker’s Space where the event took place.

I also created smaller PDF versions of the poster that can be downloaded, printed and hung in homes, businesses and public places.


We Draw Ideas provides engaging, inclusive, diverse, creative rich media content for package design, advertising and graphic recording clients. Is your business ready to welcome diversity?
If the answer is yes, contact We Draw Ideas founder Barb Luhring today!
Email: barbaraluhring@gmail.com or Call: 920-246-7234

Connect with Barb Luhring on LinkedIn

Graphic Recording: Brainstorming

The Importance of Brainstorming
Just as idea generation through brainstorming is important, so is the implementation of that idea. It is the ultimate goal for the creative process to come into fruition.
Hub Pages

Barb Luhring Graphic Recording

Barb Luhring’s Graphic Recording will help you bring your ideas to fruition!

On January 4, 2016, Barb Luhring created a graphic recording for the roll-out meeting of Great Lakes Research Institute (Now the Lake Michigan Research Institute)

My client, Great Lakes Research Institute (Now the Lake Michigan Research Institute), is an environmental start-up that began planning their future on a freezing January day – just after New Year’s – in 2016.

The conference, held at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay, was the kick-off event of an organization dedicating itself to collaborative Lake Michigan research opportunities for the University of Wisconsin faculty and students as well as the citizens of northeastern Wisconsin.

Kick-off time was 8:30 A.M. at a conference room at the UWGB. I arrived early to set-up my work space. Conference facilitator and organizer Caitlin Oleson was setting up her Power-Point presentation and huddling with breakout session leaders Nancy Aten and Dan Collins of Landscapes of Place, LLC.

The invite list – 30+ people – included science faculty from 5 state universities and state of Wisconsin employees, private citizens. All in all, an eclectic mix of public and private stakeholders ready to discuss an exciting new venture.

My work space attracted some curious inquiries and I explained what I was up to, as I sketched out the beginnings the drawing in pencil. My tools included pan pastels, markers, and an approximately 4′ x 8′ piece of white paper.

As the conference commenced and I set to work capturing the most critical elements in visual form – a.k.a. – the graphic recording!

Hours later as conference leader Caitlin Oleson was summarizing the road ahead, I was wrapping up the work of the previous 4 hours. People stopped by to view the finished drawing and ask questions. The electricity in the room warmed the frigid January day and animated discussion about the road ahead.

I put the finishing touches on the drawing, wrapped it up and dropped it off to be scanned.

Per the client’s request, an 8.5″ x 14″ PDF would be retouched and emailed to all attendees in order to keep everyone on the same page moving forward. The final work was 4′ tall by approximately 7 feet wide and will act as a road map of sorts for the establishment of the Lake Michigan Research Institute.

Reaction from conference Breakout Session leaders:

At the first conference for our new venture,  Barbara heard the sparks of insight and the key questions, and wove them into a graphic recording. Her visual responses during our conversations boosted the energy in the room. Now, her work is keeping us focused and introducing our venture to new colleagues – beginning good conversations for us with those we want to engage. She’s a valuable resource that was a revelation to us.

Nancy Aten, Principal
Dan Collins, Program Manager
Landscapes of Place LLC

Graphic Recording Case Study

 
Got a gig that could use graphic recording services?
Get started now! Click here to contact Barb.


We Draw Ideas provides engaging, inclusive, diverse, creative rich media content for package design, advertising and graphic recording clients. Is your business ready to welcome diversity?
If the answer is yes, contact We Draw Ideas founder Barb Luhring today!
Email: barbaraluhring@gmail.com or Call: 920-246-7234

Connect with Barb Luhring on LinkedIn

Explaining Technology with Cartoons

From: Teaching Ideas Gallery

There are a number of benefits to using cartoons in teaching because they can: motivate students to engage with the lesson’s teaching point, arouse interest in a particular idea or topic grab and maintain attention.

Barb Luhring is an excellent cartoonist! Her work can help you explain difficult concepts AND technology.

Explanation of 3W Media Hosting Plans for 2017
How many times have you tried explaining technology to your audience or for your client? A picture is worth a thousand words and that’s exactly what Barb Luhring excels at!

Web pioneer 3W Media needed tight visuals to help explain their 2017 hosting changes. Two of the pages in the PDF highlighted the Web challenges they faced when 3W started offering services in 1995 vs. today’s challenges on across multiple platforms.


Barb Luhring provides engaging, inclusive, diverse, creative rich media content for her advertising and graphic recording clients. Is your business ready to welcome diversity? If the answer is yes, contact Barb today.
Email: barbaraluhring@gmail.com or Call: 920-246-7234