The Sketchnote Handbook: the illustrated guide to visual note taking [Paperback]

Mike Rohde (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 13, 2012 | ISBN-10: 0321857895 | ISBN-13: 978-0321857897 | Edition: 1

This gorgeous, fully illustrated handbook tells the story of sketchnotes--why and how you can use them to capture your thinking visually, remember key information more clearly, and share what you've captured with others. Author Mike Rohde shows you how to incorporate sketchnoting techniques into your note-taking process--regardless of your artistic abilities--to help you better process the information that you are hearing and seeing through drawing, and to actually have fun taking notes.

The Sketchnote Handbook explains and illustrates practical sketchnote techniques for taking visual notes at your own pace as well as in real time during meetings and events. Rohde also addresses most people's fear of drawing by showing, step-by-step, how to quickly draw people, faces, type, and simple objects for effective and fast sketchnoting. The book looks like a peek into the author's private sketchnote journal, but it functions like a beginner's guide to sketchnoting with easy-to-follow instructions for drawing out your notes that will leave you itching to attend a meeting just so you can draw about it.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Entertaining and memorable (just like sketchnotes), this fast-reading, fact-packed book by the godfather of sketchnoting provides everything you and your team need to know about the creative, mnemonic, and business benefits of this brilliant new method of note taking.” –Jeffrey Zeldman, author of Designing with Web Standards

“The perfect introduction to visual note taking and the most useful how-to guide I’ve ever read, no contest.” –Josh Kaufman, author of The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business

“Mike Rohde has taken his original, fun, and smart approach to note taking and broken it down into simple, clear steps. Now anyone can use sketchnotes to capture ideas–even you and me.” –Chris Guillebeau, author of The $100 Startup

“I hear a lot of people talk about sketchnoting, visual thinking, and how best to harness your ideas. Mike Rohde is the real deal. When Mike Rohde puts pencil and ink to paper, you should damn well be paying attention.” –Shawn O'Keefe, SXSW Interactive Festival Producer

“Anyone who utilizes the practical methodology Mike demonstrates in this book will not only improve their retention regarding the collating of notes, they'll fundamentally increase their overall creative potential as well. As Saul Bass so eloquently stated, ‘Design is thinking made visual,’ and sketchnotes are an ideal way to archive intellectual assets and flesh them out via simple drawing methods. This is a profoundly simple book, yet the results will be simply profound because it equips anyone to be able to do this.” -Von Glitschka, Glitschka Studios

“Sketchnotes are a great way to capture the highlights of an idea in a way that'll naturally work for your brain. Nobody will teach you how to do it better than Mike. –David Heinemeier Hansson, 37signals and co-author of REWORK

“I use sketchnoting as a way to calm my brain–and help me focus on the task at hand–while it is trying to run off without me. With The Sketchnote Handbook, Mike gives you the backstory and the method to creating truly beautiful notes. It’s a marvel to behold.” –Myke Hurley, founder of the 70Decibels network

“Mike Rohde practices what he preaches. This beautiful, simple book has everything you need to sketchnote like a pro! The Sketchnote Handbook is destined to be the definitive guide to a new, practical, and innovative discipline.” –Dave Gray, X-PLANE, author of The Connected Company and co-author of Gamestorming
 
“Something magical happens when you take notes with pictures and words together. In this friendly, encouraging book, sketchnote wizard Mike Rohde shares his secrets so that anybody can steal his tricks for capturing ideas with pen and paper.” –Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist

“The Sketchnote Handbook is an informative, hands-on book designed to quickly share the principles of sketchnoting, so you can get right to creating sketchnotes for yourself. Mike’s fun, illustrative style energizes you to pick up a pen and sketchnote!” –Nancy Duarte, CEO Duarte Inc, best-selling author of Resonate and Slide:ology

“This book is not really a book. It’s a tool kit for learning a new and better way of capturing and understanding information, and it’s perfectly aligned with the way our brains actually work. If you’re a student, or a teacher, or a businessperson, this book has the potential to change the way you learn, and the way you think.” –Daniel Coyle, The New York Times best-selling author of The Talent Code and The Little Book of Talent

“Never fear note taking again. Rohde demystifies the practice and makes it accessible to everyone. Your brain will thank him later.” –Sunni Brown, co-author of Gamestorming

“The Sketchnote Handbook is a call to fully engage and enhance the big concepts and key ideas we are exposed to at conferences, in meetings, and daily life. Doodles are no longer a dirty word! Mike Rohde’s easy examples and straightforward explanations make it accessible for anyone. This is a revolution that takes simple note taking to another plateau, turning it into actionable art.” –Patrick Rhone, author of Keeping It Straight and enough

“For The Sketchnoting Handbook, Mike uses his famous talent of distilling and illustrating other people’s ideas, and he shares some ideas of his own–how to create your own awesome sketchnotes. Not only is Mike a clever illustrator, he’s also an approachable and clear communicator. His book is equal parts fun and instruction.” –Shawn Blanc, shawnblanc.net

“There are great storytellers, and there are great artists. And then there is Mike Rohde: a magnificent blend of the two. What Mike has made into a professional art form we once did as children–rely on a blend of visuals and words to communicate. We’ve since been pulled too far in the direction of words, and Mike’s book is here to help us reawaken the full range of our abilities.” –Leslie Bradshaw, co-founder, president, and COO of JESS3

“The Sketchnote Handbook is neither about sketching nor is it about note taking. It’s about receiving and processing the world in a more complete and insightful way. It’s a software upgrade for your brain.

For those who’ve been shamed into thinking that drawing is either beyond them or beneath them, this book offers a whole new way of mastering the daily onslaught of information and turning it into raw material for discovery. (For those of us who’ve done this all our lives, the book provides a beautifully conceived and lovingly illustrated treat, and a great gift for our left-brained friends.)” –Stefan G. Bucher, creator of dailymonster.com, author of 344 Questions: The Creative Person’s Do-It-Yourself Guide to Insight, Survival, and Artistic Fulfillment

About the Author

Mike Rohde is an experience and interface designer who has created usable and compelling applications for mobile, web, and dedicated devices. Rohde turned to experience design after 10 years as a successful print graphic designer where he first developed his sketchnote approach and technique. Because of his sketchnote work, Rohde has been hired to illustrate REWORK, the 37signals business book, collaborate on the illustration of a TEDMED notebook, and he has been hired to create live sketchnotes for a variety of conferences and events, including Chick-fil-A Leadercast, SXSW Interactive, An Event Apart, and SEED. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1 edition (December 13, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321857895
• ISBN-13: 978-0321857897
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 0.6 x 8.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (86 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,148 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #30 in Books > Computers & Technology > Graphic Design > Desktop Publishing

More About the Author

MIKE ROHDE has a passion for simple and usable design solutions. That passion, along with his lifelong habit of recording concepts and observations through sketching and doodling, inspired him to develop sketchnotes--a practical art that translates simple and complex ideas into easily recalled bits of information.

Professionally, Mike focuses on user interface, user experience, visual design, and icon design for mobile and web applications at Gomoll Research + Design in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

As a sketchnoter, Mike provides live, real-time sketchnotes of events, meetings, and experiences in venues across the United States.

In his illustration practice, Mike uses his unique drawing style to amplify and clarify ideas. His work has been featured in REWORK, the best-selling book by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson; The $100 Startup, a best-selling book by Chris Guillebeau; and The Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle.

Community and sharing are important cornerstones of Mike's philosophy, as evidenced by the creation of The Sketchnote Army, a website dedicated to finding and showcasing sketchnotes and sketchnoters from around the world.
Mike has also shared his thinking, design process, and samples of his design and illustration work at his personal website, rohdesign.com, since 2003.

Mike lives with his wife, Gail, and children, Nathan, Linnea, and Landon, just outside of Milwaukee. He's an avid Green Bay Packers fan.

Learn more about Mike at rohdesign.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The medium is the message---and it's a powerful medium December 14, 2012

By Jonathan Goldstein

Format:Paperback

Length: 2:54 Mins

The Sketchnote handbook is a lovely and useful book. Buy it if you want to take poweful notes and have fun doing so. Rohde shows us how to create powerful, personal notes, infused with feeling, and exploding with ideas visualized. I am a professional visual notetaker and design educator, and I am always looking for fresh approaches to this powerful medium. Mike delivers a fun and useful book in that both professionals and novices will appreciate. Mike shows why Sketchnotes work and he shows a variety of approaches to creating them, showcasing sketchnoters from from around the world to underline his points. The book is an easy read, designed to skim or dive deep. Rohde emphasizes that sketchnoting is about capturing ideas, not about showing off virtuoso art chops, and gives useful tips on structure, quick and easy drawing, and penmanship and lettering. Rohde's tone is encouraging as he urges you to start slowly and build on success. Even adding one little drawing to your notes will help you connect to the ideas in a presentation long after its over. If I were to make one suggestion for a modification in a future edition, I'd like Mike to find some clearer examples of one of the structures he describes, the radial structure. The examples he shows, which are nice works in and of themselves, do not show that radial structure it as clearly as I would like (check out Brandy Agerbeck's "Graphic Facilitator's Guide" for some nice examples of radial structure). This in no way takes away from the overall awesomeness of the Sketchnote handbook. A stellar resource worthy of 5 big, glistening stars! Go add it to your library and change the way you take notes.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful...and a lot of fun December 13, 2012

By Michael Rabjohns

Format:Paperback

Quick take: great book -- well organized, clear instructions, and, of course, good illustrations. Highly recommended.

I didn't know much about sketchnoting before buying this book. I'd gleaned a bit about it from author Mike Rohde's tweets, and from those by another contributor, Veronica Erb, and I was curious to learn more. Along came this book, and I thought I'd give it a shot.

It's a fun read -- Mike Rohde's enthusiasm really shines through. It's also surprisingly well organized, at least compared to what I expected from a book about doodling. Mike does a nice job of explaining the value of sketchnoting, i.e., why it's a useful technique, and then walks you through different kinds of sketchnote patterns and the how-tos.

The book also contains a lot of examples from other sketchnoters; these give you an idea of other peoples' styles, and offer their take on tools and techniques. It might be mildly intimidating to see so many great-looking examples, and wondering, "Will I ever get this good at it, and if not, is it worth trying?" Fortunately, Mike mentions early and often that a) if you can draw *really* simple shapes, then you can sketchnote, and b) it's more about structure than art. I found that reassuring.

I bought the book+video version, and I'm glad I did. The book is fine by itself, i.e., if you just bought the book, I think you'd be ok. But the videos let you see Mike sketchnoting in realtime, and I found that complemented the book very well.

Suggestions for the next edition:

- Recommended equipment: Mike mentions which pen and notebook he uses, and many of the other contributors do so too, but these are scattered throughout the book. Might be worth pulling this together onto a single page, to help us newbies. Do I go with a Moleskine, or one of the spiral-bound notebooks?...

- Other applications/contexts: Mike mentions sketchnoting while attending conferences (IA Summit, anyone?); it would be helpful to mention other applications if relevant.

In conclusion: if you've ever attended a conference and have taken notes, you ought to buy this book. As for me, I've ordered my sketchnoting pens, and am eager to put Mike's book into practice.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars For anyone who takes any kind of notes... ever December 9, 2012

By Chris Guillebeau

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Mike Rohde does fantastic work. After talking with many talented artists, I hired Mike to create the interior artwork for The $100 Startup. He did an excellent job and I continue to hear positive comments (almost daily!) on how the illustrations mesh so well with the text.

But this review isn't about my book; it's about Mike's. In The Sketchnote Handbook, Mike takes us behind-the-scenes, documenting the process and workflow he uses in his unique method. Learning about how Mike does it is interesting enough to me, a non-artist, to justify the purchase of the book. However, Mike goes further and makes the case that *everyone*--even you and me--can use visual note-taking to improve the way we capture and retain information.

It's a no-brainer: This book deserves a wide audience! I've purchased multiple copies already and will continue to buy more as I hand them out as gifts.