Science in Society

Visualise your communication for impact

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

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Illustration, graphic recording (or scribing), graphic harvesting, whiteboard animation and information graphics are a powerful tool for communicating research, capturing workshop conversations or enhancing participatory research processes.

This is a highly specialised skill and one would have to employ a live graphic illustrator.

Who to go to for these services?

There is a growing group of South African illustrators and animators working in this field.

  • Fine Line Illustrations has done graphic recording in the field of science and research with great success.
  • Roy Blumenthal is a live, digital sketchnoter. He uses graphic facilitation to make live sketchnote paintings of the ideas swirling around in conventions, meetings, tv shows, conferences, and workshops. He does his graphic recording on a tablet pc hooked up to a large screen. He can be on the premises, or he can drop into your event virtually.
  • In addition to graphic recording,  3 Stickmen also conducts visual thinking workshops aimed at teaching visual thinking that can increase problem solving and solutions creation.
  • Robert Dersley: www.illustrious.co.za
  • Talia Lancaster calls herself the Sketching Scrum Master
  • Free To Grow strengthens growth and engagement in organisations through programmes that inspire and enable positive change.

How it works

Impact Centre colleagues are available to support the efforts of HSRC divisions and units to produce science communication outputs.

Link to the next section:

  1. Who is my target audience?
  2. What do I want to share?
  3. What should my word count be?
  4. How do I structure an article?
  5. How can I use stories in my communication?
  6. I need help with language and style
  7. What about footnotes/bibliographies/references?
  8. Tick box
  9. Talking about the HSRC: Are we diluting our brand?
  10. Focus on the researcher: Conveying the So What? and writing a short biography
  11. How do I structure a PowerPoint presentation?
  12. How do I take a useful photograph?
  13. How do I plan the structure of a short video?
  14. Useful links on science communication
  15. I am no digital native and need help with these: ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​creating hyperlinks, tracking edits in Word, making edits in Pdf, sending large documents and folders via WeTransfer
  16. Visualise your communication for impact
  17. HSRC events: Requirements for drafting and sending invitations

This toolkit is designed to help HSRC researchers to communicate information about their research effectively to maximise impact.​​​​​​​

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