How I sharpened up my flipcharts and you could too

It wasn’t my idea to go on a half-day course on “Fabulous Flipcharts”. I do use a lot of flipcharts in workshops and, well, in much of my life. But really. How much is there to know about using a flipchart?

Well it turns out. Quite a lot. In fact I haven’t stopped telling people about the course and what I learned ever since.

Helen Frost is an actual, proper artist. She provides graphic recording services and this course was essentially a synthesis of some of the key tools she uses in graphic recording.

Now I cannot draw. I do not have an artistic bone in my body and my flipcharts reflect this lack of skill. In half a day Helen has not turned me into a graphic artist. But she has given me a load of simple, easy to apply tips.

My top tips were:

• Consider typeface. I know all about font selection and having different sizes of typeface for headings and subheadings on webpages and reports. Now I see that the same thing can (and should) apply to flipcharts. I even know how to make my headings and sub-headings consistent (4 fingers height for headings, 2 for sub headings).
• Layout matters. I now see how I can design a flipchart before I start writing on it to convey its message clearly. Layout, borders, colours can all be simply used to help create something that really gets its message home.
• Stand straight on. My handwriting on flipcharts as well as being pretty untidy and hard to read has a tendency to slope and indeed wander off completely as I get to the end of a line. This can be avoided if I stand straight on to the flipchart, and if I shuffle to the right as I get to the end of the line. This may be obvious to loads of you. But it’s a revelation to me.
• There is a simple formula to drawing people’s faces. I genuinely cannot draw. And yet by following Helen’s prescription I can sketch faces that are sufficiently not-terrible that I would show them to a workshop full of strangers. Or to you, here, on the Internet.

You can find Helen Frost on Twitter and it looks like you can still book a slot on her next fabulous flipchart workshop. Go on. You won’t regret it.

Thanks for reading.

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