Visual note-taking / graphic recording: redux

I have remained interested in the topic of visual note-taking lately, and have been following the work of Sunni Brown, co-author of Gamestorming, who makes a living as a 'graphic recorder,' or someone who helps businesses visualize information with infographics. How cool would that job be?

She was part of a panel on visual note-taking alongside writer/poet/artist Austin Kleon (whom I posted about the other day) at South by Southwest Interactive this year, and in the panel they gave out these cool looking booklets on the concept of taking visual notes. Several pages from the booklet are shown in the slide deck (see the panel on visual note-taking link for the deck).

I was particularly inspired by Sunni's "6 fundamentals of visual note taking," so I took the time to transcribe her slide for me to refer to:



Taking these concepts, which she explains in the SXSW presentation, I did a quick sketch of something typewriter-related:



I realize I am unlikely to find myself employed as a graphic recorder anytime soon, but I think this concept overall is highly relevant to analog culture: it's visual, it's human, it's handmade, it's something digital culture and machines can't quite accomplish. It has a place in the analog blogosphere, even if that place is just right here in the backwaters of Strikethru.net. More to come.

Here is an interview with Sunni Brown that talks about the impact of visual learning.

Re-thinking Strikethru, and a footnote on the mists of time

I just dug up Strikethru's inagural post, and realized actually that this blog is almost four years old. Zomg.

I think I failed to mention that I plan to keep rambling on in my Strikethru way per usual until or unless I come up with a brilliant idea, which, on four hours of sleep a day, could be awhile. If ever.

The original: Sotto Voce. Surely Collapsing World was typecasting back in the mists of time as well? At the very least, Olivander beats us all by many years in the collecting department (and in fact, probably none of us could truly call ourselves a collector compared to him, unless we were of course, the esteemed Richard Polt).

Ed Emberley: Make a World

Recently I bought the Ed Emberley book Make a World (does anyone remember these from childhood? That is, if you're old? I do), and these are a few drawings I have done since getting the book. Going to re-write this post to enhance its awesomeness later today, but just wanted to get these posted for now. Note: if you have kids, you have to get one or more of his books.

Microsoft Museum's retrotech collection

Was passing through the Microsoft Museum yesterday and took a few photos of their collection of retrotech with my crummy cell phone camera. To give you an idea of how the display actually looks, this person's Flickr photo captures it more effectively. The whole of the museum is devoted to big ol' Xbox Kinect game stations and Microsoft Surface stuff, and all manner of modern Microtech, but there is a corner when you first walk in devoted to the origins of tech, where you can even pose for a scary 1970's picture with the founders.

Note: A small favor. Should you be kind enough to leave a comment on the post, please don't trash the 'soft. I work there, and trust me, I've heard it all before ;-)

Jamie? Apica notebook going once, going twice...

Here it is the end of the night again, so much to say and no time to post. Argh!

Haven't yet heard from Jamie, winner of the Apica notebook drawing. I will re-draw sometime this weekend if I don't hear back by tomorrow. If you're out there, let me know and I'll get that notebook in the mail!

How to steal like an artist

The following pencast is about How To Steal Like An Artist (And 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me, written by Austin Kleon. Read it first. It's great. You'll thank me. My lousy post that follows is entirely optional reading.



Austin Kleon has a lovely blog with an entire category about visual note-taking. There's also a visual note-taking 101 presentation he and some other people gave at SXSW this year.

I've been talking about the Don Moyer book on this same topic recently and really recommend that as well. Much of his book is available online as a handout from a talk he gave last year at STC (click his name on that page for the handout), but I bought the entire Napkin Sketch Workbook in print and love it.

And the winner is...

The winner of the Apica notebook, as selected by the random number generator, is...

Jamie! Congratulations!

E-mail me the address to send it to and it will be on its way. I've decided to award a second entrant another Apica notebook, and will re-draw in a week, so if you haven't added your name to the Apica post a few posts ago, go for it (or to this post, with your favorite notebook story). Enjoyed everyone's notebook stories, as for me, I am using and liking Myndology stuff lately (See the index at lower left for Myndology-related posts). Seems there remains a lot o love for the classic Moleskine out there.

In a way this drawing became April foolish in that I didn't announce the winner Friday as promised. Sorry about that, Friday sort of went off the rails for several reasons.

Note that this post was written in the least analog way possible, on the virtual keypad of a Windows 7 phone. Oh, the shame. I hereby hand over my typosphere membership card to the front desk.