The topic seems to be very complex. What was important for you to clarify in the assignment so that you could go into the event well prepared?

Above all, I was able to build on the great foundation laid by my colleague Andrea Biesler as bildwerk project manager. Together with the client, she designed a coherent approach for the planned event, for example, with guiding questions to better understand the goals of the event and to be able to offer customized visual accompaniment. Every project is different: sometimes an analog graphic recording in large format is the best fit, sometimes its several individual images in small format, sometimes its a digital recording on the iPad, and sometimes it’s an accompaniment by a visualizing co-presenter. Only through a focused, collaborative exploration of the client’s intent can we offer the right visual intervention. In this case, a large recording that is created analogously to the dialogue process and whose creation is visible to all present.

Based on this preliminary work, I can then work on the content. In my detailed telephone briefing with the clients, it turned out that (in view of the previously mentioned perspectives) the personal, narrative moments of the trainees abroad should be the core of the day. After all, it was the organizers’ declared goal to inspire trainees without any experience abroad to emulate them through authentic reports of the globetrotters’ experiences. They were then framed by statements from business and politics. The intention behind this was to convey to the trainees that a stay abroad is also worthwhile in terms of a professional career and also socio-politically.

For me, a thematically coherent image analogy is a powerful skill in graphic recording. In the clarification of the assignment, the theme of “travel” emerged as a narrative-creative thread: in my imagination, the reports of experiences were embedded in the visual framework of a diary with open pages and the lectures as postcards draped around them.

What conditions at the event itself made this result possible?

Depending on the start of the event and the travel conditions, an evening arrival and a relaxed start to the day of the event proved to be the best solution. In this way, I was able to clarify any last minute questions in the morning, e.g. about the exact wording. It’s also always important for me to have a contact person on site who can help me with technical terms or background information during the process, and who I can always invite to take a quick “look over my shoulder”.