I have become a ‘Corporate Cartoonist’. Readers of chrisshipton.com, which has been around in one form or another since 2006, will be used to the zombies, robots and cartoons that get posted here from time to time (mental note must do more robots). I have discovered that there is a growing need for companies, events, groups and the rest for drawing. And while these businesses tend to use less zombies and Orcs in their work they still make use of drawing. Think of it this way, people in business are dominated by powerpoint (or PPT) and constantly have to go to meetings. Nothing is worse than arriving in a tiny beige room with uncomfortable seats and being told ‘lets brainstorm’. Everyone starts to look at their shoes, ers, ums, and finally the meeting leader suggests all the ideas they had before it started and no one gets anywhere. Believe me I know what its like, thats why I had to do ‘The Business Park of Doom‘.
Detail from a live illustration of Marcus Du Sautoy’s presentation made at TEDx Oxford 2011
What I do is go into these companies when they are coming up with ideas and draw them. By doing this the cycle of relentless power point is broken, processes that use the analytical ‘left brain’ suddenly use the creative ‘right brain’ too. David Sibbett says in his book ‘Visual Meetings’ using drawing adds 80 IQ points to the room.
This work can manifest itself in lots of different ways. It can be grabbing ideas as they are conceived and coming up with quick fire cartoons. It can be attending a speaking event and recording what people say on huge whiteboards and pieces of paper. And it can involve actually running a meeting and using drawings as the focal point for progress, rather than letting powerpoint and clip art do the work (can you sense I don’t like powerpoint?).
So now I have founded Livescribes with Rikki Marr and James Huyton and we are travelling the country using drawings for business. You can check out the website here where there is loads more info about what we do.
Detail of from a live illustration of Rory Sutherland’s presentation made at TEDx Oxford 2011
Is it selling out? Definitely. I have always said ‘I plan to sell out as quickly as possible’. Whilst I am waiting for Hollywood to call to option Orc-tober or The Business Park of Doom I am am very happy drawing anthropomorphised cheese and talking pharmaceutical bottles for corporate entities. It’s a way of rescuing people from that beige room. But most importantly, it’s fun!
Full sized image of Kevin Warwick’s presentation at TEDx Oxford 2011
