A Practitioner Process Talk with Emily Mills

Practitioner Process Talk with Emily Mills
- Designing Templates, Working Digital First, and Making Client-Centered Choices

In this Practitioner Process Talk, illustrator, author, and graphic recorder Emily Mills will take us behind the scenes of her end-to-end workflow. Known for her clean visual style, thoughtful template design, and deep experience working both digitally and on paper, Emily will walk us through how she prepares for events and why she makes the choices she does along the way.

Emily will begin with the discovery call, the moment when she clarifies a client’s brand, goals, visual tone, and technical needs. She will share how this first conversation shapes everything that follows, from color selection to layout to whether she builds a digital or analog-friendly template. You will see how she drafts early concepts on the iPad, how she adapts her tools if the final delivery will be analog, and how she avoids digital effects that markers cannot replicate.

From there, Emily will dig into tech rehearsals, a step she considers essential. She will explain why she never assumes screen sharing will “just work,” how she checks for overlays, cropped content, and lower thirds, and how she makes sure her live visuals will be fully visible in the final production environment.

Emily will also share the details of her digital recording practice using Adobe Fresco. She will talk about why she chooses Fresco over Procreate, how she manages vectors, layers, and scale, and how she handles inevitable changes when clients shift sizing or need alternate exports. Participants will hear her approach to lettering, marker handling, and simulating analog textures when working digitally.

For those who work on paper, Emily will cover her analog workflow and digitization process. She will describe how she plans boards when working in tight spaces, including the tricks she uses when sketching in small conference rooms and later stitching pieces together so they appear seamless. She will share the apps she relies on, how she photographs or scans large charts, and the steps she takes to prepare polished deliverables.

Whether you record digitally, on the wall, or somewhere in between, this session will offer practical insights into designing templates, avoiding common pitfalls, and creating smooth client experiences from the first call to the final file delivery.

You’ll learn:

• How Emily approaches discovery conversations to understand branding, goals, and constraints
• How she drafts analog- and digital-friendly templates and avoids mismatches between mediums
• Why tech rehearsals matter and what to look for before going live
• How she works in Adobe Fresco, including vectors, layers, and her marker approach
• How she adapts to last-minute size changes and client requests
• How she digitizes analog boards, stitches layouts, and delivers clean final files

Join us for a candid, process-focused conversation with one of the field’s most thoughtful practitioners. Bring your questions, your curiosity, and your favorite tips for managing mixed analog-digital workflows.

Emily Mills is an illustrator and principal of Flavor Graphics, a studio specializing in event graphic recording, visual facilitation, and strategy illustration. She is the author of "The Art of Visual Notetaking," a best-seller with over 20,000 copies sold worldwide in English and German. An expert in sketchnoting and visual storytelling, Emily has been helping capture complex ideas via drawing since 2015. She created Sketch Academy, an online learning platform with thousands of students worldwide, and has taught visual thinking to a range of audiences from Fortune 500 companies to creative communities. Emily is based in Bend, OR USA.

Get her book on Amazon! (Apparently, there's only ONE LEFT!)

Practitioner Process Talks is an ongoing NOVA Scribes / IFVP Learning Lab series where a visual practitioner walks us through their process from end-to-end for creating impactful visuals and experiences.

NOVA Scribes has entered into a partnership with the IFVP: the International Forum of Visual Practitioners! This workshop is an IFVP Learning Lab.

This workshop will be recorded and posted on YouTube for anyone who cannot attend. You can find the YouTube link in the Comments section of this NOVA Scribes Meetup event once the workshop video has been uploaded to YouTube.

We’re not charging for this workshop, but we will be asking for donations! Donations cover the costs of hosting events on Meetup, to honorariums for new graphic recorders, and scholarships.

Please be sure you are registered on Meetup! If your Zoom name doesn’t match your name on Meetup, you will not be admitted. (We’ve had Zoom bombers.)