Magdalena (“Magwie”) runs a street art workshop as part of our creative retreats in Berlin. They’re a huge inspiration to us, and we can’t wait to see how they inspire you too.
Mag is an artist of astonishing visual variety, with a truly impressive array of cool characterful work, from external and internal murals, to paintings and sculptures, to illustration, character design and graphic recording, and even stonemasonry.
It’s not every day you meet somebody who used to carve gravestones for a living. They have earned a master’s degree in stone sculpting (Meisterbrief im Steinbildhauerhandwerk), “just to be sure I had something in case drawing didn’t work out.”
We love Orble! Can you spot him here?
Paste-ups and murals: Mag the street artist
We’re incredibly excited to have Mag along to host a street art workshop as part of our Berlin creative retreat. When it comes to street art, Mag has a lot of experience with (legally) painting walls, and paste-ups. Paste-ups themselves are illegal to put up, but they do not damage walls or need expensive paint removal (like with spray paint).
Their attitude is to be present as much as possible. Slow down, feel the “now” and celebrate the little details that life has to offer… and maybe even add another one on top.
Networks and collaborations: Mag and Berlin
“Berlin was perfect to start what I did. I was old enough to come here and not get lost. I started to volunteer as an Illustrator and meanwhile jumped right into the street art scene. During that time, I met Christoph Kellner, a real Graphic Recording old-schooler, that brought me into Graphic Recording business and then I had enough time and money to develop all my styles in a constant ping pong between analogue and digital projects.”
It’s so good having Mag as part of the Inking Abroad family! Pictured here with hosts Axelle and Ben
A peek into Mag’s creative process
Character design is one of the things that Mag has done since they were seven. There are characters you’ll see in some of Mag’s past artworks called Orble.
Orble was ‘born’ from drawing their childhood companion cat one night with their brother, at a party with their eyes closed, on little sheets of paper: “I had this one character in mind but doing it with closed eyes created such wonky dudes that we burst out into laughter. That’s why they look so funny and quite out there. This is a good example on how to shut up your brain and let the style begin to flourish”
As if being an awesome street artist and stonemason wasn’t enough, Magdalena Wiegner is also a brilliant graphic recorder
“Improving my art is a natural process. I am a style – inventor, so I could never just do the same kind of thing over and over. I need a variety of styles to express a variety of things.”
Berlin’s stickers are one of the many sources of inspiration you take in during our creative retreat in Berlin, and you get to make your own stickers while you’re there!
During a recent research trip to Berlin for our latest creative retreat, we couldn’t get over the sheer volume of stickers. Stickers on signposts, stickers on walls, stickers in the bathroom stalls, stickers on stickers… Stickers everywhere!
The street art in the Berlin districts of Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain and Mitte is world-famous, to be sure. The East Side Gallery on the Berlin wall alone is of course worth seeing, but there’s so much more. A stroll around the area to see all the ‘unofficial’ street art – the colourful murals, the stencils and paste-ups, the cheeky metal sculptures, the variety of graffiti from quick tags to advanced paint-roller efforts down the side of buildings – is hugely inspiring.
This is especially cool for anyone who gets a kick out of the kind of creativity that wants to be seen and doesn’t ask for permission.
Inking Abroad host Axelle, with one of the pieces at the East Side Gallery
And there’s something about the sheer volume of stickers that runs like a track of staccato percussion over the top of the regular snappy wild rhythms of graffiti in Berlin.
Stickers are standard in modern graffiti and street art, but Berlin’s sheer volume and variety takes it to a whole other level
You see them everywhere, from pops of random colour, to designs subverting pop culture icons and brands, to protest statements and counter-protest statements, to 80s-inspired nightclub ads, to hand-drawn characters and doodles.
As that famous adage goes: in a gold rush, don’t dig for gold, sell shovels. And in Berlin’s case, any business selling sticker printing services would do well. In fact, Magnus Hedin, CMO of Swedish sticker printing service Stickerapp has said “Berliners have this amazing ability to mix humour and rebellion, and stickers are the perfect medium for that. They’re quick, easy to slap up, and unlike graffiti, they feel more like a personal message rather than public art. I think it’s their way of saying, ‘Here’s what I stand for.’“
More stickers spotted in Berlin, including a new one
Draw your own stickers at our Berlin creativity retreat!
So yes, of course one of the creative activities we do in our Berlin creative retreat is to make our own stickers! We supply Avery sticker sheets (in different sizes), and take our participants through a short set of creativity-inducing steps, to get everyone drawing stickers of whatever tickles their fancy.
And what everyone does with those stickers is… well… let’s just say we go for a walk around outside after the activity.
Truly, when it comes to stickers, Berlin isn’t messing around, and it’s such a rush for our Inking Abroad participants to be inspired by this sticker culture, and then respond by creating their own. If you want to make a statement, and don’t want to wait for permission to show the world, we think you’ll love our Berlin retreat! You can find out more here.
More sticker inspiration
If you can’t get enough of Berlin’s sticker vibe (and we can’t either), here are some great links and places that have inspired us:
Don’t miss the Haus Schwarzenberg courtyard, Rosenthaler Straße 39 (Mitte district), for more graffiti than you’ve ever seen in your life! Our very own walking tour guide Bulky Savage is famous for having the longest-running mural piece here EVER!
Berlin has a dedicated sticker museum: the Hatch Sticker Museum has over 30,000 different stickers!
Is there a website for people to capture their favourite stickers, spotted in Berlin? Of course there is.
Hooked blog has a page chock-full of photos of stickers spotted around Berlin
We’re still buzzing after a wonderful creative retreat in Florence; the second one we’ve run, and certainly not the last one!
If there’s one phrase we’d use to sum up our 2026 Visual Storytelling Creative Retreat in Florence, it’d be “trust yourself“.
Day 1: Getting to know each other and our own creative goals
There’s something eternally magical about the way the birthplace of the Renaissance awakens your imagination.
Day 1 always starts with an individual ‘treasure hunt‘, where everyone takes the time to soak up inspiration from wandering the streets of Florence. There’s so much to take in, from the architecture, open spaces and art, to the urban fabric of signs, lettering and street art, to the schacciata and gelati…
The first task is to create a Goals Poster, that draws on these inputs, and expresses what each person wants to get out of the retreat.
We did a formal ‘kick off’ for the retreat at the rooftop bar of The Social Hub, Lavagnini, where everyone got to share their Goals Poster and get to know each other better.
Sketching, eating, drinking, and making new friends – the latest Inking Abroad Florence retreat kick-off
Day 2: Drawing – and seeing – in 4 different ways
Day 2 is always the BIG day… a mix of walking, dining, and a TON of drawing. It started off with a brief tutorial on simple figure drawing, to help everyone break up a complex object (such as a figure) into composite parts with their mind, eyes and hands. This always helps us to tackle subjects that at first seem too daunting, and is great prep for what was to come: drawing statues and scenes in the Galleria dell’Accademia.
Some participants chose to draw all or parts of the legendary statue of David by Michelangelo Buonarotti, while others took the time to draw a few of the hundreds of smaller statues in the Casts Room, or take in the composition and visual storytelling in the medieval diptych and triptych paintings.
The toughest statue to draw – and a few of us were up to the task! – was the Abduction of a Sabine Woman, by the Flemish sculptor and architect Giambologna. A huge part of drawing statues and paintings is training ourselves to really see what’s in front of us, not what we think is in front of us. Our brains are so used to taking as many shortcuts as possible, and a big part of visual storytelling is often looking for – and finding and revealing – the details that others miss.
It’s time for serious drawing… and observing, and deconstructing, and discussing all things visual storytelling
The third way of seeing and drawing was with urban sketching. A big difference in this method (which can certainly be used in any form of drawing and visualising) is making decisions about what to focus on:
Foreground – most detail, thicker, bolder lines
Midground – less detail, thinner lines
Background – not much detail at all, perhaps just shapes
Well, it’s a tough gig sketching the Florence skyline in this glorious weather, but someone has to do it
We saved the best (and toughest!) to last: life drawing with a live model at Le Murate arts space. For some participants, this was their first time drawing a live model, and we were so impressed at how everyone threw themselves into the task. As you can see from the photo below, everyone had a different style, capturing different parts of the model in different ways.
What we always find really interesting is the subtle meanings that emerge from different people’s drawings of the model. Whether it’s intentional or not, there are often nuances of pose and line that convey different moods, tones, questions and tensions. This helps everyone to reflect that not all stories are black and white, but are open to interpretation when told in different ways.
A wide variety of ways of seeing – and drawing – the live model at our life drawing session, a stand-out favourite for our creative retreat participants
Day 3: opening the windows into each others’ processes
After an incredible dinner the evening before, day 3 was all about spending time exploring creativity and individual style through various creative drawing and graphic recording activities. We also invested in analysing the results of each others’ work, for extra insight.
What are the visual parts of each person’s work that are distinctive of them, and what drives that?
Everyone could see that ‘style’ is not only about product – what the final result looks like – but process. What can we tell about each others’ mental workflows? What did each of us choose to capture, or leave out? How did we arrange the ideas on the paper, and why? What are we actually wanting to achieve with each drawing as a whole?
Marcello looks on while Michael does a visual capture of a short talk, and Ben talks the group through his process
These are some of the most rewarding times of the whole retreat: really getting under the surface of what and how we draw, and into why we draw the way we do, what we want to harness more of, and what we want to let go.
Final reflections
We’ll leave it to participants to have the last word:
“I learned a great deal and found the whole experience very inspiring. What I especially appreciated was the opportunity to experiment freely with so many different forms of expression, and to do so without judgment.“
“I will definitely try to use the snails, Odd Couples and Traffic signs in the courses of graphic facilitation I give.“
And THIS speaks to what. We. Are. All. About:
“During the retreat, I experienced what it means to step into something new, to feel the frustration of not being able to express immediately what is happening inside, and then to discover that something can still emerge if you stay with it. For me, this weekend was not about creating beautiful final results, but about gaining trust. That is something I can take with me into my work with people, where growth also often asks for patience, openness, and trust.“
Join us!
Check out the Florence retreat page to see the latest scheduled dates. We’d love to welcome you on the Florence retreat (or any of our retreats!), and help you unleash more creative courage, style, and storytelling than you have ever unleashed before!
What if the most powerful lessons in visual storytelling were waiting for you on the streets of Florence, hidden in plain sight?
The first time I was in Florence, I didn’t go looking for street art. I was just walking through the narrow streets, taking in all the sights and sounds of this fascinating city.
Then I saw it. A cut-out paper print of a drawing of Dumbledore (of Harry Potter fame), but wearing a snorkelling mask, wheat-pasted over the top of some graffiti, signed Blub.
This was a very ‘un’-Renaissance image pasted on a very Renaissance-looking ancient wall. It was odd, and out of place. It was ‘illegal’ but it was more than just a furtive spraypainted tag: it invited curiosity rather than being a rude intrusion. And the more I walked around, the more and more street art like this I found.
“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light” – A wheat-pasted printed artwork of Dumbledore by anonymous Florentine artist Blub, who always adds goggles to his subjects
In a city that was already teaching me fantastic lessons about visual storytelling through traditional Renaissance art, the city totally took me by surprise by showing me even more lessons to learn through this street art.
Visual storytelling pulls you in
Street art – good street art – doesn’t ask politely for your time. It interrupts you. There’s always something about it that is just too damn interesting to ignore, and this interruption gave me an insight into how good visual storytelling works. Good visual stories don’t shout; they pull.
When we walk the streets of Florence during the Visual Storytelling Creative Retreat, we’re not hunting for ‘content’; we’re practicing something far more valuable: noticing. Not only noticing a piece of street art, but noticing how we notice. We try to deconstruct that ‘pulling power’ of the various elements in any piece of street art.
Is there something really familiar to us, but presented in a novel way (like Dumbledore in a snorkelling mask)?
Is there something that pulls at our emotions (like the wispy whimsical figures hand-in-hand below)?
Are there two or more elements juxtaposed in a curious or uncomfortable way (a modern character on an ancient surface, or one bright garish colour amongst muted colours)?
A great range of examples of the sort of street art you see in Florence
So when it comes to crafting our own visual stories, a great thing to think about is: How are my visuals pulling people in?
Visual storytelling provokes the right questions
Speaking of noticing how we notice, when you really look at (good) street art, a few questions often arise:
What is the artist trying to say?
Why this image, this symbol, this moment?
Why here?
Street art is enigmatic. It can’t look too familiar (otherwise our brain goes “yawn” and moves on), and it can’t look too unfamiliar, otherwise there’s nothing to identify and relate to. Also, it can’t be too safe (otherwise we might parse it as an ad), but it can’t be too offensive either (like random stabs of graffiti).
A cool piece by artist Lediesis, who tends to incorporate the ‘Super’ logo or other shield logos onto female subjects in new and interesting ways.
In the piece above by Lediesis (two women who post under the same moniker), a very traditional Renaissance depiction of Mary is shown with a baby in a sling with a ‘Super’ badge on it, reframing this conventional mother persona in a really contemporary way. The wink also adds humour and charm. It dances the line well; it’s challenging without being too confronting to any religious sensibilities. It makes us ask questions about our traditional perceptions of motherhood and empowerment.
There’s a reason why people tune out in PowerPoint presentations. They’re just too familiar. They tend to follow the same patterns, with the same slides made from the same templates. So much of the street art in Florence seemed to instead provoke curiosity; our brains can’t help but start asking questions.
So, the lesson I take here is that good visual stories have a provocation. It’s often really handy to look at the visual story you’re making and ask yourself: What questions are my visuals getting the audience to ask, to keep them hooked to think more, and find out more?
Visual storytelling shows, not tells
As I said above, street art rarely explains itself; it’s enigmatic on purpose. But it often reveals its meaning through showing us, not telling us. Like the piece by Lediesis above, we’re not being ‘explained to’ about how the motherhood role has changed in modern times, but instead we’re being shown a traditional mother figure wearing something ‘non-traditional’: a baby sling. Also, the baby is wearing a headscarf in a ‘non-traditional’ way.
Florence street artist Clet keeps himself busy by hacking the city’s road signs to bring different messages, often with a minimal amount of change to each sign
The way that Florentine artist Clet Abraham doctors street signs into different meanings is a great example of this, too. By overlaying iconography and other graphics onto various signs, he uses the existing power of a sign in new, creative ways. As the viewer, we get to connect some dots. We can to interpret it how we want, based on our own understanding. And in doing this, a relationship is formed between the piece, the message, and the viewer. So, good visual stories invite participation.
Visual storytellers often talk about audience engagement: how do your visuals engage your audience’s head, heart and hands?
Visual storytelling can take risks
This one’s a bit random, but I couldn’t leave it out. I think it takes guts for street artists to put their work into the world, knowing it might disappear tomorrow. No likes. No guarantees. And – with a lot of street art – no permission. Good visual stories show courage.
For visual storytellers, it’s a powerful reminder that it’s OK to take risks to show our work to see what works and what doesn’t. It doesn’t need to be perfect. It doesn’t need to be polished. It doesn’t always need to ‘fit the narrative’, or fit with everyone else’s expectations. What’s often better is that it’s honest, and authentic to its subject and authentic with its audience. It might be confronting, but I want to encourgae you to think: how do your visuals show up with authenticity?
Join us
We run several different creative retreats, and our next one is our Visual Storytelling Creative Retreat in Florence, on 17-19 April 2026. It’s designed for people who tell stories and give presentations at work (illustrators and graphic recorders, but also facilitators, trainers and consultants). It’s for people who want to open up their own creativity, sharpen their observation skills, and hone their storytelling skills, all with a group of like-minded creative souls.
We’ll walk the streets of Florence and taste the best of its fine food (and coffee!). We’ll take in not only some street art, but the art at Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze. We’ll observe and reflect. We’ll draw and sketch, and share several visual storytelling frameworks and methods. And everyone has the opportunity to translate all this into their own story and their own creative practice.
Right now, there’s an earlybird discount, too! €200 off your registration, for a limited time.
Inking Abroad was born out of a creative recipe of frustration, hope and play… And we’re still tweaking the recipe!
We, the founders of Inking Abroad (Ben Crothers and Axelle Vanquaillie) are both graphic recorders, strategists, facilitators and trainers. We’ve given loads of training sessions, and done a wide range of graphic recording gigs for a wide variety of clients. We’ve also been to more than our fair share of conferences of various topics.
We’ve both always strived to elevate the experiences of people attending our training sessions, always offering something new and interesting.
There was always something missing
But when it came to our own professional enrichment, we’ve found that there was barely anything available. Both of us wanted to go way beyond the fundamentals, as well as some help in pushing ourselves creatively, and pushing our craft in ways that might show some new directions or flavours of visual storytelling.
There wasn’t any training available like this… we could only get so far with books… and as fun as conferences are, they still didn’t cut it either…
If we could wave a magic wand…
So, one day we asked each other: “If we could design our ideal experience, what would it be?” We very quickly landed on this recipe:
Walking around in an inspiring city, or in nature
Taking time to sketch and draw what we see
Some advanced instruction that we could scaffold in ways that everyone could take it in a deeper direction that suited them
A bit of individual coaching per person
Time for all-in activities as well as individual quiet reflection
A spirit of play, fun, and courage with like-minded souls
What emerged was – well – a retreat! After that, the first edition of the Florence Visual Storytelling Creativity Retreat came together very quickly. And full credit to Axelle for having the courage to just go ahead and do it.
The rest is what you see on our Florence retreat page now. We do everything we can to use each city as the canvas for creative exploration, to show the city’s own story, and create the best environment we can to help everyone be as adventurous and creative as possible.
It’s something we find more and more fulfilling. Here’s to continuing to tweak that recipe!
