I found school a bit boring as a child. We sat locked in a classroom listening to our teachers explaining us the world for hours. That was the perfect definition of prison to me. To entertain myself I used to doodle all the knowledge those brave people tried to impart into us, onto the table or into my notebook. My teacher ignored it for a long time but eventually he run out of patience and exclaimed: “Stop drawing and listen, David! No one will pay you for drawing”.

Little we both suspected that this joyous activity would become a serious profession called: Graphic Facilitation. Very in demand by big companies and financial services. Today much of my work as an illustrator is dedicated to graphic facilitation. I run a London-based company called Visual Scribing. We basically visualise content.

Standing in front of a gigantic white piece of paper fixed to the wall for the first time was daunting. I had to visualise in real time a speech on a topic I was not familiar with, and all this in front of an audience and in a language that was not my mother tongue. But luckily it went really well. In fact, it was the first time in my life I got standing ovations.

Scribing changed me profoundly as an illustrator. It removed any fear of an empty piece paper, any need of using a pencil before applying the ink. The process of scribing is so fast, so immediate that there is no time for much thinking or procrastination. I draw directly on paper and there is no way to erase or improve the drawings. Once drawn, that’s it. But after some time any anxiety of committing a mistake completely disappears.

Scribing increased the speed with which I draw significantly and it forced me to simplify my style so that the images can be easily understood. Probably what I like the most about scribing is that it forces the artist to be in the present and in the flow. You can’t think about last night soccer game or the next episode of “Stranger Things” otherwise your scribing session will turn into a disaster.

Graphic facilitation has become a very popular tool in lectures and workshops here in London. I get to know many people and companies from different backgrounds. From financial market to veterinary medicine, I have already illustrated everything. And the diversity of themes has been instrumental in the development of my career as a visual communicator.

If you want to know more about graphic facilitation, check out the Visual Scribing website: www.visualscribing.com