Polyglot, globetrotter, go-getter, Visioneer, these are just some of the ways one could describe Tikka Hun. Outside of being couth and clever and (quite literally*) down-to-earth, Tikka is also a designer, painter, graphic scribe & facilitator, concept thinker, and landscape designer*.
After 14 years of living abroad, with stints in London, Paris, Brussels, and even parts of Asia, she recently returned to her natal home in Malaysia. Here, she’s opened up a new branch of Tik-Tak Visual Solutions, widening its breadth from Paris to Kuala Lumpur.
Bridging the gap between vision and vernacular, Tikka offers clients – from corporations to conferences to NGOs – unique visual solutions to contextual challenges. Her team offers everything from graphic recording to whiteboard animation and even training for those who wish to learn or enhance the art of graphic scribing. So yes, Tikka is living her dream, and it’s a dream we’re lucky enough to be a part of.
Rolling Back the Wheel of Time…
In 2003 she left Asia to explore new territory (and, in a way, make her dream a reality. To draw, and to earn a living doing it.) Her first stop: London, England. There, she earned a degree in Visual Communication from Middlesex University; and soon thereafter, blossomed from freelance brand designer to award-winning art director at various advertising agencies. But Tikka wasn’t ready to stop there. In 2010, she discovered the magic of visual communication from a whole new perspective: graphic facilitation.
Learn more about graphic scribing and facilitation here.
Similar to Chris Holy, founder of Starfish Taylor, Tikka’s affiliation to the ASE network (associated with Capgemini) opened up several doors to the world of graphic scribing and facilitation. So it didn’t take long before Tikka and Starfish Taylor became connected. It’s a Small World After All…
Need a Graphic Facilitator?
At the time of her first Starfish Taylor-run workshop, in 2014, she and her husband had been living in Borneo, in a village with no Wi-Fi connection, and a rather sparse connection to the outside world in general. Nevertheless, she got the call and was up for the challenge.
Tikka Hun & Starfish Taylor…
Since then, she has scribed at eight other workshops alongside Peter and/or Chris in different parts of the world. Tikka loves the small-team, agile nature of working with Starfish Taylor, and the receptive, encouraging mentalities of Peter and Chris. She also appreciates the way her work experience goes beyond the workshop, like when she drank vodka with the Russian facilitator in the forests of Moscow or the time the team took her to a local square-dance in Texas.
What patterns or challenges do you generally notice with each client?
“Many companies see their problems as unique, and in some ways, they can be very unique. However, after working with clients in various industries, I began to notice a pattern that showed how the contemporary issues occurring in the macrocosm – like going digital and transformation – are really what most companies are facing on an internal level; a pattern that’s easier to grasp from the outside coming in.” – Tikka Hun
Tikka’s Graphic Facilitation Approach
Every creator has an indispensable tool. It might be a special lens for a photographer or specific software for a web developer. So we asked Tikka what tool, as a scribe she couldn’t do without. Her response? Neuland markers. She claims they’re “the easiest, tidiest markers that also last the longest (say, a 3-day workshop), plus they don’t leave stains on paper or walls” making them a worthwhile (and risk-free!) investment.
We also asked her to describe some of the methods she uses when capturing a discourse.
Tikka uses a method she calls “Raw Scribe,” which essentially allows her to capture key words, creating a sort of “skeleton” that she then adds to progressively over time. The skeleton gradually transforms into a colorful and intricate visual structure with various graphic elements; a body of insight that is both palpable and conceptual. To her, graphic recording is not just about listening and trying to catch everything at once, it’s about training your ears to extract the verbal “vitamins and minerals” from the discussion’s entirety.
On another note, when Tikka’s not in graphic recording-mode, she loves listening to artists like Billie Holiday or traditional Indonesian gamelan.
And now you can see why we love having Tikka on our Starfish workshops :).
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