For some pleasantly surprising reason, the Austin-American Statesman decided I was interesting enough to feature on the front page of the Life and Arts section. So I thanked them for their attention by brushing my hair for the shoot. (You’re welcome, Statesman!)  The timing of the article was excellent because it came out during SXSW 2009, right in the midst of the other hubbub due to being on a visual thinking panel  and graphically recording the keynotes. Read the article below – for people who had never heard of graphic recording, they did a pretty good job of depicting it. The link to the article in its original context is here.

Notes artist draws visual meaning from conferences

By Ricardo Gándara
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, March 13, 2009

Brandon Badillo says, “Networking,” and Sunni Brown quickly draws two cartoonish people shaking hands. The colorful image cleverly depicts happy people meeting and exchanging ideas. The people in Badillo’s seminar about planning, organizing and staging musical festivals and public events listen carefully and also glance over to Brown, who is in front of the room, too, “graphically recording” on artist’s paper.

“I’m like a modern-day scribe,” says Brown, 31, owner of BrightSpot Information Design. This weekend, Brown can be found among the techies at the SXSW Interactive Conference and Festival, where she will produce visuals on paper ­­- a combination of words and graphics – at some of the keynote addresses. In front of crowds of up to 1,000, Brown will write and draw the key points of speakers’ remarks for all to see.

“Translating words into pictures has momentum in the interactive industry,” says Hugh Forrest, event director at SXSW Interactive and the person responsible for booking Brown. “One of our underlying themes is visibility and making things easier. Sunni Brown fits well with what we are trying to do.”

“It’s definitely a performance,” Brown says of her work. “You’re in a zone up there. There’s some pressure because I’m accountable for my presentation based on what the speaker said.”

At a recent seminar that Badillo of Bemba Entertainment was facilitating, Brown was there with 32 square feet of artist paper on foam board held with two A-frame easels. She supplemented his presentation by producing a large rendering of his key points. She used hearts shaded with pastels for bullet points. One key point, “Form the Idea!” was embellished with a light bulb. “Music,” of course, was accompanied by a musical note.

“What I do is the equivalent of meeting minutes in visual form,” she says. She calls her work “visual language and thoughtful design of information.”

“Most people are visual learners,” says Brown. “What I do is a learning tool. It helps people remember things. My goal is to present them a big picture and something visually rich. And I think that people love to see someone drawing in front of them. It’s a basic instinct.”

Her work shows her spatial consciousness and organization skills. Her large display is packed with information, in sequence and appealing to the eye.

Typically, she shrinks her renderings to 81/2-inch-by-11-inch paper so people can take her visual notes with them. In some cases, she presents clients a digital format so they can post her work on their Web sites.

“My visual notes will be helpful to the group when they have follow-up sessions,” Brown says.

To give her a head start when working with a group, she will get an outline of material to be covered. Her tools are artist paper, usually about 4 feet by 8 feet, several markers and pastels. Brown’s penmanship is impeccable, but she’s never had artistic training. Her library has comic books, graphic novels and books on how to draw cartoons and people. “And the Internet is useful. I can find an infinite number of images that I can associate with a concept.”

She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and linguistics and a master’s degree in public affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. Her people experience is broad, having delivered newspapers, waited tables and baked doughnuts.

She trained in graphic recording at The Grove Consultants International, a San Francisco-based company that pioneered the use of visual tools in meetings. She is still a consultant for the company. She is also the co-founder of VizThink Austin (vizthinkaustin.net). The group meets occasionally to share business practices and learn how to apply visual thinking in daily life.

Brown started her company, BrightSpot Information Design, in May 2007 and is the lone employee. She also has a broad network of subcontractors who help her design, illustrate or animate content. For example, she did work for a social network Web site, vois.com, and had to come up with a computer-illustrated process map (visual instructions on how to use the site’s services).

“I had to partner with an instructor from the Austin Museum of Art,” she says.

Her local clients include Caritas, the University of Texas, the Lower Colorado River Authority, Leadership Austin and Pluck, an Internet marketing company. The city of College Station used her to help at a strategic planning retreat for managers.

Her work works. “That is a beautiful piece,” says Jeffrey Miller, an attendee at Badi­llo’s events seminar. “When I first saw what she was doing, I thought it would be distracting, but she and the presenter worked well together.”

Brown’s weekend work will be posted on the SXSW Interactive Web site (sxsw.com ) and hers (sunnibrown.com). But she won’t hang around the conference long. By midweek, she’ll be in Miami doing graphic recording at a two-day retreat of “entrepreneurial masterminds.”

rgandara@statesman.com; 445-3632

At SXSW Interactive, Sunni Brown will be recording Tony Hsieh’s opening remarks Saturday at 2 p.m. and the Nate Silver keynote interview at 2 p.m. Sunday. She will be part of the panel ‘Shift Happens: Moving From Words to Pictures’ at 10 a.m. Monday. Panels are for registered attendees.