Core77's Sketchnotes 101: Visual Thinking - Craighton Berman

My friend Craighton Berman has just started a new sketchnotes channel on the design blog Core77, with his first article on sketchnotes 101:

The recent rise of the "visual thinking" movement in business borrows from the natural ways designers work—using sketches to explore and express ideas, manipulating complex systems of thoughts on sticky notes, and using rough visuals to make sense of the world. Humans are, of course, wired to be visual thinkers from birth, so it's only natural that people are attracted to these tools, and the power they have to help solve problems and explore opportunities.

In the long list of tools one could use for visual thinking, sketchnotes are one of the most exciting. Simply put, sketchnotes are visual notes that are drawn in real time. Through the use of images, text, and diagrams, these notes take advantage of the "visual thinker" mind's penchant for make sense of—and understanding—information with pictures. Often these notes come out of lectures or conferences, and have gained a lot of attention and interest in the past few years when people post scans of their sketchbooks from events like SXSW or various design conferences for the whole internet to see.

Craighton's sketchnotes article features sketchnotes of his own, Eva Lotta-Lamm, Austin Kleon and myself (Mike Rohde) with a great overview of what sketchnotes are all about.

Read the full article and follow the new Core77 sketchnotes channel.