Rohdesign Weblog: Moleskine

Here you'll find all posts file under the Moleskine category.

April 17, 2008

Moleskine Planner Hack: 2 Years Later

Amazing to think that almost 2 years ago, I created my first Hacked Planner from a pocket sized, 192-page, ruled Moleskine notebook. Better yet, I'm still using a hacked Moleskine planner (my 4th) to manage my personal life.

Below is an image of the 4 hacked planners I have used these past 2 years:

I've been wanting to gather my thoughts about the Moleskine Planner Hack for some time. This seems the perfect opportunity to capture my observations:

Still Surprisingly Popular— The hacked Moleskine book photo, with it's myriad hover notes is the most popular image of my Flickr collection, currently at 53,484 views, with and 344 people calling it a favorite. The post on my blog is regularly the highest hit page of my site, which after nearly 2 years amazes me. It would seem logical that creating a custom planner to suit your own needs is striking a chord with people on the net.

Customized to My Needs — I've loved having a planner I can tailor to my needs, even if they change. Pre-printed planners and calendars are OK, but If I need more note pages, I can't add them. If I prefer a different schedule view that fits how I work — out of luck. With a custom, hand-drawn planner, I'm the boss. It takes a little work to create, but the complete control and flexibility it offers is worth the initial effort.

I Write & Sketch More — Having free pages in the back of the book encourages me to write my thoughts, capture ideas and important info, and sketch things I see or are on my mind. Always having paper and pen makes this possible and pleasurable.

Makes a Great Carrying Case — Carrying a Moleskine allows me to keep business cards, coffee cards and other tidbits in the back pocket, so they're handy when I need them. The pocket works great for carrying a backup $20 bill along.

Works Well with Index Cards & Sticky Notes — The pocket sized book works very well with both index cards and sticky notes. I now put my task lists on sticky notes and place them in a tasks area, so they can be easily updated. I can also place sticky notes on the cover of the planner. I can also carry index cards along as needed.

Overall, the experience of moving to a paper-based, custom planner has been very positive. Of course there are some things missing, like a full list of contacts and alarms. However, my iPod touch handles the alarms, and provides access to my contacts (not to mention email and web access with WiFi).

Give the Planner Hack a Try!
If you're on the fence about creating your own Moleskine Planner Hack, why not pick up a Moleskine and give it a try? Visit my dedicated site PlannerHack.com for more details on the hack, and links to other hacks available.

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March 22, 2008

SXSW Sketchnotes: Additional Observations

It's a bit over a week since posting my SXSW Sketchnotes and I've been fascinated watching the meme and images make the rounds. It started small, with mentions on Twitter and then blogs with links, images or both in postings (currently at 66).

On Thursday, I notice a huge increase in Flickr emails with favorites and comments on the sketchnotes, so I checked my RSS feed searches for 'sketchnotes' and found that both Boing Boing and Digital Web Magazine featured them.

The Digital Web Magazine article was an intentional collaboration between Matthew Pennell, Tiff Fehr and me, but the Boing Boing mention was organic, via a post by Laughing Squid earlier in the week.

My observations about this whole experience?

People like to share things that make them look good — If you do something unique and interesting, people love mentioning your work to their friends, especially if it makes them look good. Being the first one to find something cool can earn credibility with a network of friends.

Word of mouth is powerful — I couldn't have planned the path or the speed with which the sketchnotes would have taken any better their own path via word of mouth. This reminds me how powerful word of mouth is. I know in theory how quickly good or bad messages can spread — this experience reinforced it for me.

Share your work with your network to "seed" it — I had several friends who I first shared the sketchnotes with: Twitter friends who attended SXSW and the speakers at the events I covered with my note-taking. I also mentioned them to longer-term friends like Jim at Coudal, Armand at Moleskinerie, as well as newer friends like Matthew & Tiff at Digital Web Magazine, who contacted me prior to SXSW. The old adage that you should build your network before you need it is really true. Having the trust and friendship beforehand makes all the difference.

Creative Commons Licenses Encourages Image Posting — I firmly believe that hosting the sketchtoons on Flickr with a Creative Commons license allowing re-postng with attribution made it super easy for bloggers to include images on their sites. This further encouraged visitors to check out the set, my site and even dig into my archives or email me directly.

Things you do outside your main work can improve your reputation — I'm a professional designer and art director, specializing in logo, web and icon design, yet am gaining notice via sketchnotes. This is a good thing, since my sketchnotes show how I listen, process information, think, analyze information and capture it visually. While completely separate from my professional work, it is at the same time at the very heart of that work, showing how I solve problems for clients.

I'm now considering a few products created from the SXSW Sketchnotes, including an e-book with high res images and added notes, and an on-demand or limited edition printed version of the sketchnotes, for sale to those who would like a copy. If you have interest in either of these items, please leave a message in the comments.

Finally, thanks to everyone who has mentioned and linked to the images, or left comments here or on Flickr. Your kind words have been greatly appreciated! :-)

Stats on Flickr — Wow!

Photo: John December

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March 16, 2008

Lessons Learned from my SXSW Sketchnotes

I've been pleasantly surprised by the positive reaction my SXSW Sketchnotes have received this week.

They've been featured on all sorts of sites, from Coudal Partners and Daring Fireball to Laughing Squid and The Guardian's Jemima Kiss' PDA Blog — and on Twitter!

I've decided to capture my observations here and share what I've learned:

A Fast Spreading Meme
I'm fascinated at how quickly the sketchnotes spread across the net. On the Tweet scan and RSS searches for my name, "SXSW Sketchnotes" were popping up all over and being re-tweeted like crazy. I seeded the first few links to SXSW speakers and a few friends, but at a certain point the mentions took on a life of their own.

Readers Like Personal Accounts
People seem fascinated with personal accounts of events. Sharing a unique, personal perspective is a powerful way to communicate. Sketchnotes are one way that attendees to the panels can re-live an experience. Even those who never attended the event can glean ideas from this kind of text+visual note style.

The Human Touch Attracts Readers
I'm finding that readers enjoy the human touch of my sketchnotes, which were hand-drawn in real time at the event. They're a little imperfect, yet very readable and understandable. Their impressionistic nature seems to be engaging readers in a different way than photos or computer-generated text from SXSW Interactive.

Sketchnotes Awaken Memories
For many SXSW attendees the sketchnotes seem to awaken positive memories, even several days later. This is one of the reasons I keep a travelogues when I go on trips. Notes and sketches of my activities help me recall clear memories — even years after the trip. Hopefully this will be true of my SXSW Sketchnotes in the future.

New Opportunities
I've been approached several times this week about doing "sketchnote" style illustrations for a couple of projects. It appears that something unique, like my sketchnotes, can lead to new opportunities to do more of them.

Creative Commons Frees Up Images
All of the sketchnote scans and photos have been uploaded to Flickr with a Creative Commons non-commercial, attribution license, which frees people to place my images on their sites with attribution, and no need to ask permission. I love this!

In a nutshell, the SXSW Sketchnotes have been a phenomenal success. Both SXSW attendees and outside observers seem to resonate with them, and they tell one angle of the human experience I had while in Austin. I most certainly plan to do more sketchnotes as I attend conferences, based on the reception of these and other sketchnotes I've published.

As I discover new effects from the sketchnotes, I'l be sure to add them here.

Stats on Flickr — Wow!

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March 12, 2008

SXSW Interactive 2008 Sketchnotes

Welcome BoingBoing readers! Be sure to check out my follow-up post called Lessons Learned from my SXSW Sketchnotes too!

SXSW Interactive 2008 Sketchnotes are up!
I've just completed scanning, tuning and uploading 34 pages of sketchnotes I captured in my pocket Moleskine sketchbook at SXSW Interactive earlier this week.

I think the sketchnotes turned out well, and it was no problem for me to continuously create them for nearly every session I attended. I certainly went through ink in my G2 mini pens — I'm glad I brought several along.

With the SEED Conference sketchnotes being pretty popular, I'm curious to see how these SXSW sketchnotes are received. While sketchnotes capture concentrated concepts for each session well, I think they're even better at awakening ideas stored in the minds of session attendees.

Speakers Featured
Here are the speakers featured in the SXSW Interactive Sketchnotes: Naz Hamid, Veronica Belmont, Casey McKinnon, Ryan King, Glenda Bautista, Ariel Waldman, John Gruber, Michael Lopp, Jim Coudal, Dan Rubin, Didier Hilhorst, Eris Stassi, Lea Alcantara (sorry for the Leah misspell in the notes!), Ben Brown and Frank Warren.

Finally, here's the FlickrSlidr Slideshow set:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I did creating them! :-)

Stats on Flickr — Wow!

Check out Shaun Swick's very cool SXSW Sketchnotes 08 Flickr Set for another perspective.

Dave Gray does his style of sketchnotes on 3x5 notecards, check out his set from VizThink08.

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February 13, 2008

Moleskine Sticky Note Map Hack

Here's a handy hack I've been using lately to carry a map and notes along with my hacked Moleskine Weekly Planner notebook.

I use a standard 3" x 5" yellow sticky note to draw a map, with directions, address, phone numbers and whatever else I might need to get to my meeting.

Then I attach the long, sticky edge to the spine side of the Moleskine (left edge) and then slide the loose edge of the sticky note under the elastic band (right side), so it won't catch the corners in my pocket.

Once I'm done with the map, I can save it in the back of my Moleskine planner for later use, or toss it out.

This approach also works well for task lists and any other at-a-glance information you need to see without opening up the Moleskine.

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January 31, 2008

INeedCoffee: Creating the 2008 Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar

Michael Allen Smith, the publisher of INeedCoffee.com provided a great opportunity to share how I created my 2008 Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar, in the February 2008 issue of INeedCoffee.

In the article, I share details of my inspiration, how I researched coffee drinks and the process of sketching, scanning and production to create the 2008 Sketchoon Coffee Calendar.

Here's a teaser:

A few years ago, my wife and I went looking for coffee-themed calendars to be used as gifts for coffee-loving friends. We were very surprised to find none in the calendar kiosks at the local malls or at coffee shops and very few to choose from online.
Being creative people, we decided to create our own calendar, using Cafe Press to print them. Our first calendar used black and white photos and was received very well by our 2 friends.

About the same time, I'd been working on a drawing style I had created called Sketchtoons where I mixed loose sketches with hand-written notes in my Moleskine sketchbook. I decided to do a new calendar, creating sketchtoons for 12 coffee drinks.

In this article, I'll document how I came up with the ideas, drew, scanned and colorized them for use in calendars and other items, and then marketed and sold the calendar with no budget.

I invite you to read the entire article: Creating the 2008 Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar and check out the excellent coffee resources on INeedCoffee.com.

Even better: get in touch with Michael and submit your articles, reviews, and artwork for potential publication in a future monthly issue of the INeedCoffee Newsletter.

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November 30, 2007

Square Sketchtoon Coffee Wallpapers for Palm & iPod

It seems the vertical 320 x 480px coffee sketchtoon wallpapers for the iPhone, iPod touch and Palm OS devices with vertical screens are quite popular!

Since square-formatted screens on Palms and iPods can also make use of wallpapers, I've created a new set of twelve 320 x 320px wallpapers.

Each coffee wallpaper is a 320 x 320px color JPG file, available as a free download from Flickr, for personal use.

Coffee Calendar
If you like the wallpapers, please consider picking up a Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar for yourself or a coffee-loving friend as a unique gift as a way to say thanks.

Donations
Not a calendar person? consider a PayPal donation, and I will be happy to send you a complete set of 12 JPGs as a ZIP file:

Thanks, and have a great weekend! :-)

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November 26, 2007

Sketchtoon Coffee iPhone/iPod touch Wallpapers

Now that the Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar is complete and available for sale, I've been considering ways to make other interesting items with these illustrations.

Today I was inspired by Les & Ian's comments on my last post to create a custom 12-pack of sketchtoon coffee wallpapers, designed especially for iPhone and iPod touch screens.

Each sketchtoon coffee wallpaper is a 320x480px color JPG file, available at Flickr as a free download for personal use on your iPhone or iPod touch.

If you like the wallpaper art, consider picking up a Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar for yourself or a coffee-loving friend as a unique gift.

Update 2007-11-28: I've uploaded Flickr, having adjusted the images to fit properly within the clear window on the iPhone/iPod touch login screen. If you have an older version, check out the updated images and get a new version.

Palm and Windows Mobile Users: Please drop me a line and let me know if you're interested in wallpapers for your devices. I'm currently gauging whether I want to produce these in a few more sizes, like 320x320 and 240x320. Let me know what sizes you might prefer.

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November 24, 2007

2008 Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar is Available!

2008 Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar now complete and up for sale! You can buy it for $19.99 plus shipping at CafePress, with US and international shipping available.

Last year, I started drawing sketchtoon style coffee illustrations in my Moleskine sketchbook in ink, scanning each illustration into the Mac for colorization in Photoshop.

Each month's illustration features a different coffee drink, with several unique drinks from various areas of the world, like the Flat White from down under and the Greek Frappe. Check out the cover and 12 illustrations at Flickr. I'm very pleased with how the calendar turned out.

Sketchtoon Photos
I've posted several photos of the original ink sketchtoons to Flickr:

It's a great gift idea for coffee lovers who would enjoy a unique coffee calendar.

Buy It Today: 2008 Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar: $19.99 + shipping.

Related Links
Check out Ricardo Levins Morales' very cool 2008 Coffee Calendar too!

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October 24, 2007

iPod touch Two Week Report

It's been two weeks since I've switched to an iPod touch. I love this device. Since I'm regularly asked about it, I've decided to write a report in on my thoughts so far:

The touch's size is perfect. Thin and small. Slides into my pocket nicely, though I'm still not completely over the idea of carrying such a valuable device in my pocket just yet.

I love the density and weight of the touch. It feels substantial and sturdy, though I am very careful not to torque the thing. I still need to find a sturdy case that doesn't add too much heft.

The screen is incredibly bright. I've turned it down to 1/3 brightness to save battery life and it's still very readable. Did the same thing on my Zire 72.

Mobile Safari is very useful. I can surf the sites I regularly use, with tap and pinch to zoom as needed. Mobile specific sites, like NewsGator Mobile and Facebook, do a nice job providing essential information on the smaller screen. For a complete listing of mobile sites, visit Apple's Web Apps Directory.

I'm noticing that Safari seems to quit when it gets overloaded with a particularly detailed page, or if too many pages are open at the same time. I'm not sure what wipes Safari out, but it seems to wipe out more than it ought to.

Safari can be an e-book reader of sorts! It can read Word documents quite nicely. I just performed a tests on several MS Word documents, and it worked perfectly (go figure). The text loads in Safari, flows to the window and retains formatting, including em dashes and curly quotes properly. I am already planning on loading several Safari windows of e-books in .doc format on my touch, then going offline to read 'em whenever I like. Note that you will need server space where you can host these Word docs.

Safari also supports PDF files quite well, though if formatted for a Letter or A4 page, requires scrolling around and zooming to see fine details. I imagine one could create a PDF document optimized for Safari on the iPhone, though doing that as plain HTML seems easier to me.

Plain text .txt files are semi-supported in Safari. It complains about not being able to read the file, but seems to open them anyway. However, the text doesn't flow with the screen properly and is set in a fixed Courier font that makes reading tedious. RTF files seem to not be supported by Safari.

I'm enjoying the easier to read contact list, and editing/adding capabilities. One thing I missed from my Palm was a full and editable contact list. The nano offered the list in tiny, nearly unreadable type with no editing capabilities.

I'm pleased that Apple is releasing a Software Development Kit (SDK) to developers in February 2008, and figured they had this in their plans all along. Looking forward to cool apps like Natara Bonsai — right Bryan? :-)

I like the Video capabilities and the wide screen, though I've not taken full advantage of this yet. I've put Firefly from our DVD set, but not much more. The YouTube app is handy, though I avoid the black hole time suck that is YouTube, unless I'm looking for something specific.

Brando Workshop sent a BW UltraClear Screen Cover to test, which works well. Brando's screen covers are tough and easy to install. Thanks Brando! :-)

Having a synced copy of iCal on hand is useful, though I wish for calendar editing. I know there's a hack (thanks KeVroN), but I'm avoiding hacks, since Apple just announced the SDK for '08.

Using the iPod touch in the car is a problem. I feel uncomfortable having to visually interact with the touch, so I make changes at stoplights, or queue playlists or podcasts to run uninterrupted. One solution I'm considering is an Apple Universal Dock with remote, for manual control on the road.

Battery life is a little less than I would like, though I think reasonable considering WiFi feature and screen size of the touch. I'd be very open to an iPod touch with the same dimensions as the iPhone if it had a bigger battery. I'm exploring shutting off WiFi when not in use, to see if it extends battery life.

I love that the touch pauses tracks when you remove the headphone jack.

I'm getting used to the keyboard, which works decently for most needs, though I wouldn't want to write any kind of long post using it, just yet. I'm hoping ThinkOutside will develop a version of their foldable keyboard for the iPod touch and iPhone. I'd buy one.

The iTunes Mobile Store is well done, though I won't use it terribly much. Still, I have to admit it's very cool to have access to any track I might want directly from the touch. Might come in handy some day.

I'm getting used to the multi-touch interface after years using the nano's scroll-wheel. I like the iPod touch interface, though there's a pretty big trade off versus a scroll-wheel interface for pure music management. The touch's software-based interface and lack of control buttons, require visual and tactile interaction to manage what I listen to. If you need a pure music player, then a scroll-wheel iPod would be a better fit.

Summing it Up
I feel there's a huge potential for this device to expand and adapt to my needs, especially in 2008 when applications start appearing. As it is now, the touch is quite useful and fits my lifestyle well — with a few more key native applications I can envision it becoming more and more useful as time goes on.

The iPod touch integrates well with my most useful tools. I can carry a lighter load in my Cafe Bag for logo sketch sessions: my Moleskine planner, Miquelrius sketchbook, Faber Castell pencil and iPod touch. It's great!

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September 26, 2007

John Coltrane: Impressions Music Sketch

Last week, I had to get my mind in a logo sketch groove after working on the computer most of the day.

To do this, I sometimes choose a music-driven exercise to get into the rhythm of sketching.

Music Sketching
Pick a fresh page in your sketchbook, then queue up and listen to a piece of music, while expressing what you're hearing and feeling on the page.

Don't worry about making it "right" because it's based on how you feel at the moment. Because it's open and free, this can relax you to enjoy the feel of pen or pencil on paper.

This process really helps me focus in on the music, loosens my hand up and gets me in the right frame of mind for sketching.

Above is the sketch created while listening to Impressions by John Coltrane, a wonderful piece which itself helps me loosen up for sketching.

Give it a try sometime!

Related Links
Music-driven Moleskine Sketches

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June 22, 2007

My Podcast Interview on The Micro ISV Show

A few weeks ago, I was invited by author, micro-business owner and new MakaluMedia logo design client Bob Walsh, to be interviewed on Microsoft's The MicroISV Show (a podcast for software developers) with co-host Michael Lehman:

It's a brave new world for MicroISVs in which it's no longer enough to drag some controls onto a form and simply make sure they're lined up and the tab order is right. The mantra "form follows function" is becoming more and more important for developers as advent of Windows Vista, WPF and Silverlight once again change the expectations of how customers perceive software. You've got to "put your best face forward" and think about design of the user experience right from the beginning.
In this episode, Michael Lehman and Bob Walsh talk to Mike Rohde, designer and art director for MakaluMedia, about the changing role of design in software development and how and why MicroISVs must incorporate design thinking into their development process.

Listen to The Micro ISV Show #22 podcast:

• Putting your best face forward - The growing importance of design for MicroISVs
• Direct Podcast MP3 Link (Size: 36MB, Runtime: 40:13)

We had a great time! I had an opportunity to talk a bit about my views on design being more than window-dressing on applications, the importance of starting early with a designer, how to choose a designer, vector-based development tools and how they may effect developers and designers, and more.

Bob worked in questions about my creative process, asked how I generate so many sketch ideas, and even slipped in a mention of my Moleskine Planner Hack project.

Have a listen and let me know what you think.

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June 21, 2007

Sketchtoon: Two Bald Guys at Chipotle

I received a free burrito coupon from Chipotle in my neighborhood and today, decided to redeem that sucker and enjoy a lunch away from the office, and the first day of summer.

While enjoying my steak burrito, guacamole and chips, I pulled out my Moleskine planner and made this quick doodle of two bald guys eating lunch on the patio across from me.

I thought it was interesting that they were both bald, apprently by choice. Been seeing more of the "bald by choice" lately, either to hide a receeding hairline or just for the look of it.

The sketch was done with a Niji Stylist felt tip pen and colored moments ago with Prismacolor pencils, before I scanned and posted the image on Flickr.

Got the date wrong. It should be 6/21, and it's Chipotle not Chipolte, whoops! :-)

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May 4, 2007

What Would My Great Grandfather Think of Me?

Have you ever wondered what your ancestors would think of you, your life and the time you live in?

About a month ago, I received a book of family history, which traces our family history from Bobitz, Germany in the Mecklenburg region (near the Baltic Sea).

My great grandfather, John Martin, came to the US in 1873, and settled near Juneau, WI where he lived, established a farm, and had children, one of which was my grandfather Edwin.

What Would He Think?
Reading through our family's story, I've begun to ask: what would John Martin think of me, my life and the time, place and culture I live in?

I ask this probably for validation, but I think more for curiosity sake. I'd be very interested in his reactions, and to hear his wisdom, learned from years of hard experience as an immigrant, husband and father.

I wonder if he would he be amazed at the Internet, which allows me to work from Milwaukee with colleagues, clients and friends around the world? Being a farmer, what would he think of the virtual world I live in?

Would the "magic" of computers and tiny gadgets surprise him or would they seem like cheap flashing toys to him?

I wonder what he would have been like, quiet or talkative? A reader? An artist?

Obviously, I may never know, but it's interesting to ponder.

If I Were to Guess...
I think he would be proud to see the family continuing on, adapting to the world in which it found itself. John Martin lived through some amazing shifts in culture: the German Revolution, the turn of the century and the rise of industrialism, World War I, the Great Depression and more. How cool it would be to hear his stories now.

The sketch above was done early this morning, as these questions bounced around in my head. I wanted to capture an image of John Martin as a way of personalizing and honoring him as my great grandfather.

John Martin, I hope I'm making you proud.

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April 30, 2007

Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar Preview

While riding the train to Chicago with my friend Sean last week, he reminded me of a sketchtoon calendar project that's been on the backburner due to my very busy schedule.

Sean saw the black and white sketches in my Moleskine sketchbook, and heard my idea of selling the calendar online, to people and small coffee houses. He seemed very excited about the coffee calendar idea.

Now I'm reinvigorated to finish the project! :-)

While I'm wrapping up the final art, I've decided to share previews of 4 calendar pages, to gauge interest in a Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar for 2008.

Would a calendar like this interest you? Feel free to leave comments here or on Flickr. I'm very interested in hearing your thoughts.

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April 27, 2007

UX Intensive Chicago 2007: Thoughts & Sketchnotes

This week I attended Adaptive Path's UX Intensive: Interaction Design Workshop in Chicago. I've decided to share my thoughts on the event and my set of sketchnotes on the blog.

UX Intensive event was a 4-day series of workshops and lectures, and of those 4 days, I attended 1: Interaction Design. Here are my thoughts about that particular event:

The Speakers & Venue
Overall it was a good experience. Dan Saffer and Kim Lenox are both very smart, talented designers who know their stuff. I gleaned good ideas for tweaking my own design process, and was affirmed in the approach and process I already follow.

The Black Orchid was an OK venue. The room was relatively spacious, and the food was quite good. The tables, however, were designed for drinks while listening to jazz — not ideal for taking notes or working, and not positioned ideally for a conference. I got a bit of a cramp from sitting at an angle at my table, trying watch the speaker and take notes.

Workshop or Lecture?
UX Intensive was billed as a "workshop" even though Wednesday's Interactive Design session was actually a day-long series of lectures. Even though the topic very much interested me, by about 2pm I was having a hard time focusing, even after a second Starbucks cappuccino.

I heard from Matt and Que, 2 guys I met at my table, that Monday's Design Strategy and Tuesday's Design Research sessions were true workshops, with activities and interaction between the attendees — much different than Wednesday's lectures.

Concepts I Liked
There were many good ideas shared by Dan and Kim, some of which I'll note below:

• Research is useless in a raw, unstructured form. It's critical to filter the information and draw insights and conclusions from your research that can be applied to the project. I liked Dan's suggestion to use physical and visual representations of research, using post-it walls and drawings on various surfaces.

• Brainstorming for quantity and brainstorming in categories. Dan suggested brainstorming sprints with limited times and an emphasis on many ideas in that time. I also liked his idea of brainstorming within narrower categories, then displaying findings in a matrix or a grid.

• Failure is OK. A 50% failure rate was suggested as a good thing. I've noticed that in my sketches, the more ideas I can get through the sooner I usually find a solution. Trying out ideas that may fail, lead to a good ideas, so I find this to be very true.

• Good designers make better guesses. Intuition is important in design, and it's based on making good guesses. Dan shared principles and techniques for making better guesses and decisions.

• Living Documents. Kim Lenox talked about designing for suites and platforms, suggesting the use of living documents, sharing information and innovations, consistency and that interaction designers need to think about the integration of 3 key areas: the PC, the Internet and mobile devices.

• All products are broken. By starting with this premise, we're free to try and improve products rather than making them perfect and completely free of brokeness. Dan talked about good areas to focus on for fixes, breaking fixes down into smaller chunks, and the use of quick n' dirty wireframes with screenshots (I use this approach, and it works great!)

• Constant Communication. Use various tools such as blogs and wikis within your team, to keep communication lines open with each other, and to capture information as living documents.

View my detailed notes in my UX Intensive sketchnotes on Flickr.

Suggestions
I'll end this post with my thoughts on how the Design Interaction portion of the UX Intensive event could be improved:

• Call it a workshop only if it has workshop activities. I came expecting interaction and activities with my design colleagues and instead got a day of lectures. Workshop activities would have broken up the time, made it easier for me to focus on the ideas and apply them practically.

• Add more breaks. We had breaks for lunch and for the morning and afternoon sessions, which were great. However, because of the day-long lecture format, by the afternoon I needed mini breaks in-between the individual sessions. By about 2pm I was losing focus on the topics that a few mini-breaks may have helped with.

• Show more real-world examples. We had some nice examples in the lectures by Dan and Kim, but I wanted to see more of them to illustrate the concepts presented. Having more examples might also have helped my focus in the afternoon.

• Go narrower and deeper. I think reducing quantity of material covered and focusing on deeper real-world examples, discussions on those ideas and workshop activities might improve the relevance of the information to attendees. So much info was presented, that I couldn't adequately digest, discuss or apply with those ideas to my own design practices.

I hope these thoughts are helpful to fellow designers, and might be useful to Adaptive Path in tuning and perfecting their UX Intensive series in Amsterdam in June.

Many thanks to MakaluMedia (my employer), for sending me to the event.

Technorati Tags: uxichi07, chicago, design, rohdesign

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April 26, 2007

Korean Soup Sketchtoon

On Wednesday I had a great visit to Chicago, for Adaptive Path's UX Intensive Interactive Design Workshop in Chicago's Old Town. I'm currently scanning in my sketch-notes from the event (which I will post tomorrow), but in the meantime I wanted to post a sketchtoon from my dinner in the evening.

I had the pleasure of traveling to Chicago with my friend Hyeon "Sean" Kim on the Amtrak Hiawatha to UX Intensive. After the event, I met Sean on the Brown line EL train at Sedgwick to Rockwell station to visit a Korean restaurant on the North side of town.

Sean had a Korean restaurant in mind, but after walking to Lawrence Avenue and searching, we realized it had closed or moved, because a new condo was sitting right at the corner where it should have been. It was actually good fortune for us to walk the neighborhood, since we came across Han Bat, a small, family-run Korean Soup restaurant, right on Lawrence Avenue.

Our Korean dinner was delicious. Sean was worried that old-school, hard-core Korean Seolleongtang soup might be too unusual for me. Now he knows I love unusual new things, including Korean soup, kim chee, pickled radishes and corn tea! :-)

The sketchtoon was created in my Moleskine sketchbook, while riding home on the EL. Sean and I contentedly recalled the details of our delicious Korean dinner. I colored this piece later on, to add just a little more detail.

Now I can't wait to try more Korean foods!

Technorati Tags: chicago, korean, uxichi07, rohdesign

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April 24, 2007

Doubt Sketchtoon Notes

A few weeks ago, Tom Slye, the youth director at my church gave an excellent message on doubt. He talked about what doubt is, and offered ways to think about and deal with doubt in a realistic ways.

I often take notes during messages, as it helps my mind process the words. Lately I've been toying with the idea of capturing notes in a graphical way — using typography for emphasis — to force myself to focus on the core of the talk within a limited space.

On the right is my one-page sketchtoon from Tom's talk on doubt, which I think turned out pretty well.

There are a few things I want to try on future talks, like mental imagery and drawings embedded in the text, even color if I can pick up a small set of markers or pencils that are easy to carry along with my Moleskine sketchbook.

In general, I find sketching out notes offers a different, more focused way of engaging of my whole brain, rather than just left brain.

Just yesterday I was inspired to explore this idea of sketching notes, when I came across Dave Gray's wonderful LIFT Conference sketches. His stylized sketch notes are another cool way to capture notes from a talk in a more visual way.

Here's a great talk by Dave Gray and Dana smith on Visual Thinking, with some exercises you can follow along with. Be sure to check out Dave's Visual Thinking School on Squidoo. All good stuff, check it out!

I'll post more sketch notes here as I do them, now that I'm inspired to explore this area a bit more. If you have ideas for me, leave them in the comments! :-)

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March 26, 2007

Leihu Sketch Challenge: Hot Tea Feet

Just at the end of my lunch break today, James Mathias, a fellow 9rules member designer and blogger, IM'ed a request: “What should I draw today?”

After a few moments pondering James' request, here's what suddenly popped out of my head:

"Hmmm... someone drinking a blazing hot cup of tea with their feet."

I have no idea where this came from — the tea part relates to having tea at my desk — but the part about someone in the sketch, drinking it with their feet (and their inevitably uncomfortable position for tea-drinking) came from who-knows-where.

I was inspired by my own weird thought, so I asked James if I could sketch the same concept and see how similar or different mine would be from his. James thought this was a good idea, so off we went. My sketch is shown here.

I decided to fully embrace the complete discomfort of someone balancing a cup, saucer and teapot of blazing hot tea on their bare feet. Why not imagine a poor guy with legs aloft, scalding tea spilling everywhere as he attempts to drink it? :-)

The drawing was done in about 5 minutes using a Faber-Castell thick-leaded pencil in a Moleskine sketchbook. I enjoyed the sense of serendipity and my self-imposed 5 minute limit, to help keep it loose.

Check out James' sketch, "The Great Tea Fiasco" on his Leihu blog, to see how very differently we interpreted the same concept.

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February 13, 2007

My long-lost PDA was Found: do I really want it back?

Well, will wonders never cease.

Today I found my lost Zire 72 in an obscure place — under the cushion of our living room chair! I was looking for my dad's lost mobile phone, which I found behind the back cushion. So, naturally, I lifted the seat cushion, and lo and behold, there was my Zire 72 in its pretty Vaja case.

I lost my Zire almost one year ago, which eventually led me to ditch electronic PDAs altogether in favor of a custom Moleskine planner I created myself.

I laughed hard when I saw the Zire sitting there dead after 11 months under a seat cushion. I don't know why we never checked there, since it's a popular place to rest things when leaving through the front door.

I charged and restored from the SD card backup within minutes and there were all of my apps, files and documents captured in early 2006. Question is: what to do with my Zire, now that my life centers around the Moleskine planner?

Care & Feeding Kicking In Quick
I was amazed how quickly I was sucked into fiddling with and and tweaking the Zire. I started considering how I might use my new-found PDA for reading blogs, e-books, the Bible, managing passwords and maybe handling my contacts.

This evening, I spent 30 minutes trying to get the Zire Syncing, then trying to sort out a Bluetooth sync connection with the PowerMac with no luck on either attempt.

Then it hit me — the discovery of my long-lost gadget carried with it a subtle demand on my time and energy to care for and feed it. I remembered the reasons why my PDA had become a burden last March — the demands of my time to charge, tune, sync, backup and generally care for it every day.

I began to recall the complexities of the applications I'd setup, and how some required manual tweaking, how if I wanted to integrate the Zire into my life again, I'd need to work out just what I'd want to use it for.

Would I need the WiFi drivers again? Syncing iSilo or AvantGo, or would I sync my contacts too? What state was the Mac sync package Missing Sync in? Where was my sync cable? On and on it goes — the list of requirements and things to think about seemed to compound and expand the more I thought about them!

ARRRGGGG! I don't need this right now.

I'm Enjoying Simplicity, Why Complicate Things?
Now I'm fully reminded of why I so appreciate the simplicity of a customized Moleskine planner and a small gel pen in my pocket. It has minimal requirements: spend a little time setting up the dates and task pages to cover 6 months, which oddly enough is relaxing and enjoyable to do, even though it is tedious work.

Each day I add a little more with my pen, throw in notes or tasks as I think of them. No worries about charging or syncing, what apps I need or how to solve the lack of sync, since it's not required. In fact, syncing is not even an option.

What to do with the Zire?
I'm not sure exactly what I will do. I should probably sell the Zire to someone who would love and enjoy this nice little PDA. I may use it for e-books and some blogs away from the Mac after all, to keep it as a focused reading device that frees me from the computer for a while in the evenings.

I think I need to leave it sit on my desk and brew on what to do with it for a while. I want to make sure I'm not so easily sucked back into the care and feeding trap without contemplation on the ultimate purposes of a PDA in my life.

It's funny how much my mind and heart has changed about a PDA. Just one year ago I was distressed by the loss of my device. Now I'm almost feeling this PDA, which was so important to me in 2006, has invaded my tranquility.

Funny how things change.

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October 16, 2006

Moleskine Fans: Support Moleskinerie!

My friend, Armand Frasco, who is the founder and editor of the wonderful fan site Moleskinerie, is in need of support from those who love Moleskines and the features appearing on the site.

Moleskinerie is not run by a team of bloggers. Moleskinerie is kept alive by one man: Armand Frasco. It's Armand who scours the net for high quality articles on the Moleskine and all things related. It's Armand who foots the bills for hosting and bandwidth, who pays the monthly TypePad bills. It's Armand who manages the comments and incoming feedback.

Today, Armand posted a request to readers to support him in maintaining Moleskinerie:

I thought I could do it without asking for help this year but it has come to a point where I really need your assistance. As you may already know, Moleskinerie.com is a personal project and essentially a one-man operation (with help from Joy and our other friends). With traffic averaging 17,000/ week from notebook aficionados all over the world what used to be a hobby now takes a practically all of my personal time. Beside website maintenance, responding to email, press queries and community housekeeping (on FLICKR and GoogleGroups) has become part of my daily routine.
With a modest budget I need your support to keep Moleskinerie online.

Moleskinerie is one of those places I visit daily because I always find an interesting post there. The posts Armand cooks up always intrigue me, make me think or inspire me. Let me tell you, that's no small feat.

So, today I made a small donation to Armand and to Moleskinerie. I felt it was the least I could do. If you're a Moleskine fan and enjoy Moleskinerie, I encourage you to drop by the request page today and donate:

Moleskinerie needs your support

Let's show Armand how much we appreciate all he does for us Moleskine fans!

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October 6, 2006

PDA 24/7's Shaun McGill Goes Back to Paper

It was nearly 5 months ago I gave up my Palm PDA for a custom Moleskine planner, and shared the experience and my approach on this blog.

So, it was a nice surprise to hear from my friend Davy McDonald, that PDA 24/7 founder Shaun McGill just traded his PDA for a paper planner. Shaun embarked on a week-long experiment using only a paper calendar and a mobile phone, while intentionally avoiding his PDA.

It all began with he post The pen is mightier than the stylus, where Shaun shared his move from a Nokia E61 to a Moleskine planner for his calendar:

Over the past two years I have at times suffered from stress which is not due to work or family and it is still something I have not worked out but I am 100% convinced that my obsessive reliance on PDAs is a part of the problem. It is not the devices issue, it is mine but a longing to carry so much data and have every appointment and task noted and alarmed has not been healthy for me.

Shaun extended his experiment and began to see how things changed when using paper in The experiment (part one):

All bills continue to be paid on time, all tasks completed as needed and strangely no stresses with regard to remembering things. What has really surprised me is how much more time I have without using a PDA.
It has become apparent that I spend ages tweaking it and checking records when I don't need to, I play games on it if I am sat at home rather than just relaxing in front of the TV to watch a good film and I keep referring to it for no real reason.

The amount of time I have spent in the past freeing up memory and recovering from resets is just silly and took away any efficiencies the PDA gives. For a man who lives and dies by his PDA this is a truly strange experience but a good one.

In The experiment (part two), Shaun writes:

The experiment is going well and avoiding my PDA has become surprisingly easy. As the days have passed I am starting to realise just how much my life seems to revolve around my PDA rather than how it should be- my PDA should be helping me manage my life.

So well said! I always like to say you should choose the right tool for your needs, and this falls into place in Shaun's situation. He's found that the PDA had become his "hammer" and that every situation began to look like a nail.

In his third post, The experiment (part three) Shaun writes:

I was going to make this a series of five articles looking at life without a PDA but this will be the final part. I will revisit this subject at a later date but safe to say that at this time I am going to try living without the majority of PDA functions for a while to come.

Wow. I think it's safe to say Shaun has gone analog.

Shaun's conclusions after a week without his PDA:

• I do not miss it at all
• I have a lot more free time (due to not recovering from errors and tweaking it constantly)

• I appear to have more control- writing things down makes the information stay in my head and I remember what needs to be done. After so long just typing away and forgetting the entry until the alarm pops up I had lost that ability

• I am surprisingly a lot more relaxed about things. I do not try to do too much and just refer to my notebook on occasion to check some details

• Paper does as good a job for personal information management as a PDA

Excellent observations — I agree! After almost 5 months of using a paper planner for my personal schedule, I'm much more relaxed. I capture more of my ideas. Now my schedule lays on the desk before me, always on and ready for viewing or additions.

I don't feel compelled to "keep up" with the latest mobile technology. Emails for the "latest and greatest" software for the Palm doesn't entice me. In moving to paper I no longer need to maintain my PDA knowledge edge.

When my wife's Zire 72 battery konked out and I had to try and restore from backups, I was reminded just how much I DO NOT MISS fixing, restoring, tweaking, caring for and feeding a PDA.

I want to end on this final insightful comment by Shaun, which has had me thinking ever since:

The PDA made sure I forgot nothing and subsequently turned me into an organic version of itself. That may sound ridiculous but it is how I feel and for the moment at least I will do my best to avoid mine.

Oh how often we allow our tools, toys and gadgets to rule us. it's often subtle, but quite real. I felt the same way about the "care and feeding" needed to maintain a my PDA. When I was in the PDA "care and feeding" mode I didn't realize how much mental energy I expended just keeping up. But when I stepped away from maintaining a PDA, I immediately saw how much energy I was saving.

I hope that if anything is passed on from our switches from PDAs to analog tools, it would be to now and then, step away from your treasured tools and see what life is like without them.

You may switch away — or you may find that your treasured tool is treasured for good reason — because it really suits your needs better than anything else.

Related Links:
Another Analog Convert (satorimedia)
PDA 24/7's Shaun McGill Goes Back to Paper (Moleskinerie)

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June 25, 2006

Boston Globe: PDA buffs go back to basics

This Sunday, the Rohdesign Weblog was featured in the business section of the Boston Globe, in the story PDA buffs go back to basics. The Globe piece discusses back to paper movement Douglas Johnston wrote about in 2005.

Last week I was able to talk at length with Kim-Mai Cutler about my Custom Moleskine Hack, using a Palm, the Palm Tipsheet, the analog movement, and more. It seems I've made the first several paragraphs of the piece:

Web designer Mike Rohde was a certifiable Palm fanatic. He had the original PalmPilot 1000, then a Sony Clié, then a Tungsten E, and several more all the way up to the Zire 72. His monthly newsletter vetting the newest models went out to 10,000 subscribers. But when his PDA turned up missing two months ago, Rohde's quick fix wasn't the latest Treo.
He picked up a notebook and drew a calendar.

"The Palm started to become a creature. It demanded things from me. It demanded me to recharge it every couple days or I'd have to make back ups," he said. "I wanted to see what it would be like if I went to paper."

That sums up my thoughts pretty well. It's compressed from what Kim and I discussed over the phone, as reporters are very limited in the space they have. However, it's quite nice to be featured in the opening with that much copy.

The story also features analog fans Chad Adams of PocketMod, Armand Frasco of Moleskinerie, Merlin Mann of 43 Folders, Douglas Johnston of DIYPlanner. I'm honored to be in such great company.

The only unfortunate detail was the lack of link to my weblog , which I'm working on having added. We'll see how many readers Google and find me from the article.

I'd like to mention for the record that I'm not anti-technology. I use technology every day as a designer with MakaluMedia, who works remotely with international colleagues and clients and I see its value and power.

Neither am I anti-Palm or anti-PDA. I've used a Palm handheld for almost 10 years, and believe these devices are excellent tools. However, In my own life I've found paper made more sense for my personal schedule (work stuff is handled on the Mac).

I hope article challenges readers to consider their tools, whether digital or analog. For me it's less about which tool you choose and much more about making sure that tool suits your needs.

Update 2006-06-26: Thanks to reader Ryan Wolf of Variance Art, who nabbed a copy of the Globe for me!

I've also learned from reader Maureen, that the article appeared on the front page of the Boston Globe (bottom center) of at least some editions... how cool is that?! Here's a black and white scan:

Update 2006-07-01: Looks like the article remained in 5th position on the Globe's Most Emailed Articles with 479 emailings one week after it was featured on Boston.com:

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May 31, 2006

The Uniball Signo RT Gel mini Hack

In my creating a custom Moleskine planner post, I mentioned a Uniball Signo RT Gel 0.38mm pen, for both creating the planner and writing agenda and task items.

Initially I'd purchased a 4-pack of Pilot G2 mini 0.5mm pens for pocket-ability, but found the ink bled a bit too much through the thin Moleskine pages, so I picked up a 4 pack of Uniball Signo RT Gel 0.38mm pens. The thinner 0.38mm gel pens work well with Moleskine paper because the line is thin and quick drying.

This weekend I was looking at the Uniball Signo and G2 Mini, when I wondered if I could hack the Uniball 0.38mm refill to work in a G2 mini pen body. When I took the two pens apart, I realized it could be done, with a flick of a utility knife to trim the Signo's cartridge down to size.

In the spirit of DIY, I gave it a try. The G2 mini to Uniball Signo mini conversion worked so well, I've decided to to share the easy conversion process with other Uniball Signo fans out there, complete with photos:

Uniball vs G2 mini

1. Here you can see how the G2 mini and Uniballl Signo compare side by side. The G2 mini is about 4.5 inches long, compared to 5.5 inches for the Uniball Signo. For pocket-ability, that reduction of an inch means quite a bit — making the G2 mini well-suited for pockets.

Uniball vs G2 mini - Exploded

2. Next, I opened up the two pens to compare the length of the cartridges, and as you can see, the Uniball Signo is about 1 inch longer, but has room for trimming. I've noticed that new Uniball Signo cartridges have ink at or above the location you need to cut them down without creating a mess. The easiest way to remedy this is by drawing with the cartridge until the ink level drops enough that a slice is reasonable.

Trimming

3. Using a utility knife , x-acto knife or other sharp instrument, trim the Uniball cartridge down to the same length as the G2 mini cartridge as shown in the photo above (see the dotted line). I've that the Uniball Signo cartridge uses a much thicker outer wall compared to the G2 mini, so the G2 may actually have close to the same volume of ink even though it looks like less.

Chopped Uniball Cartridge

4. Here you see the nicely sliced Uniball cartridge, ready for insertion into the G2 mini pen body. If you want to be non-wasteful, you can keep the G2 mini cartridges for backups, or use clear tape to adhere the chunk of Uniball cartridge you've sliced off to the top of the G2 mini cartridge, and use this in a standard G2 pen. The G2 plus clipped cartridge combo doesn't work in empty Uniball Signo pen bodies, because of the G2's nib.

The Uniball Signo RT Gel 0.38mm mini

5. Use your new Uniball Signo RT Gel 0.38mm mini pen, and enjoy! :-)

Related Links:
PlannerHack.com
Moleskinerie by Armand Frasco
Recording Thoughts by Steve Duncan

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May 25, 2006

Creating a Custom Moleskine Planner

Last week I wrote in some depth about my interest in the analog task management system created by Bill Westerman, for use in his Miquelrius notebook. In that post, I pondered the idea of ditching my Clié N610C in favor of a Moleskine for my personal agenda and task management.

Late last week I picked up a new, ruled Pocket Moleskine notebook, a set of 4 ultra-fine 0.38mm Uniball Signo RT Gel pens and a package of 3M sturdy tabs (686-RYB) to create a custom weekly planner. Over the weekend, I planned out the page format, determined how many pages I'd need through December 2006 and began drawing up my custom planner, pictured below:

You may want to visit the Flickr page (click the image) and check out the notations I've placed on the image there, complete with detailed descriptions of each area of the planner.

Planner Formatting
On the ruled Pocket Moleskine, I found I could divide the page vertically into 3 sections of 7 lines each, with room at the top of the page for the month on the top left of the page and week number on the top right of the page. I've even kicked around the idea of using this space up top for inspiring quotes.

Next I added the days and dates to each section of the two-page spread, dividing the 6th block on the lower right page in half with a vertical rule for Saturday and Sunday. The Uniball Signo 0.38mm pen worked very well, as the thin line dried quickly and didn't bleed through the Moleskine paper stock.

I continued with this format for 31 two-page spreads, through December 31, 2006. Pocket Moleskines have 192 pages, so it's possible to do an entire year and have several pages left over for notes (one distinct advantage over a stock Moleskine Weekly planner).

In the remaining back section after December 31st, I separated sections with the sturdy 3M tabs for 5 next-action lists where I can capture tasks to be completed. The toughest decision was the allotment of pages for each action list before starting the next (I chose 6),though I can always move the tabs around if need be.

I've decided on a 6 month test to see how my system works, before I decide to either create a new book for 2007 myself, or buy one of the flexible covered Moleskine Pocket Weekly planners from Modo & Modo.

Symbols and Use
Once the planner was created I started populating it with activities and tasks for each day of the week. I made use of the space to the right of each day for recurring or regular events, and the bulk of the 7-line sections for activities or tasks.

Inspired by Bill Westerman's symbols, I created a similar set, with a circle as an open action, checked circle for completed action, slashed circle for deferred (with an added arrow symbol to indicate where it was deferred to) and a dash for items which are informational rather than actionable. As I use this system I suspect a working set of symbols will emerge and become more refined.

Initial Impressions
After using the new custom planner concept for about a week, I'm appreciating the full week across two pages. I can now see how my entire week is shaping up with a single glance. I can have much more detail for each day or even each entry. With the Palm, I could see a full week, but it was either filled with very tiny type, or the type was large but clipped off, requiring additional taps to see an entry.

I like having my planner open at my desk while I work — I can glance down between tasks and be reminded of what's to come, or recall an item I need to add to the agenda. I never need to worry about the pages blinking off to save battery life. The quick "wake from sleep" mode (cover closed) is wonderful! :-)

I'm also finding a small book handy for storing small bits of information, such as a business card, a post-it note or whatever. Because the Moleskine has an elastic strap, stuff stays inside. If I'm concerned about something staying put, I can store it in the Moleskine's inside back cover pocket.

My capture of thoughts has increased since switching to a Moleskine planner. This is a good thing, because I'm now capturing ideas that were formerly floating away when faced with entering text using Graffiti on the Palm — even though I'm pretty quick and accurate with Graffiti 1.

I'm not as worried about the Moleskine as I was with a Palm. I can drop it, slide it in my back pocket and sit on it, or toss it across the room without the screen cracking, or resetting the device. As an added bonus, the Moleskine is thin, and the width and height are less of an issue than I'd suspected.

Conclusion
Overall, I am very pleased with the new system. It seems to fit my needs well, feels good to use, lets me experience the tactile sensations of pen on paper, and frees me to enjoy the process again.

I'll of course revisit my system in several months, to share how things are going, and what I've learned through this process. I do hope my notes and images are helpful to others considering a PDA to paper switch, and those keen on customizing a Moleskine as a planning tool.

Update 2006-12-15 Wow. As of today, my Flickr photo, Mike Rohde's Custom Moleskine Planner with notations has been viewed 17,339 times, and is marked as a favorite by 154 people! I had no idea that my little Moleskine hack would be so interesting to so many people. Now I'm extra glad I posted it. :-)

Related Links:
PlannerHack.com
Mike Rohde's Custom Moleskine Planner @ Flickr
Back to paper by Arioch
From digital back to analog by Bill Westerman
Going Retro - Back to paper note taking by Christian Lindholm
Mike Rohde's Custom Moleskine Planner (Moleskinerie)
Creating a Custom Moleskine Planner (PDA 24/7)
Moleskinery Geekness by Felyne
Being More Efficient (Part I) by Kevin Friese

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February 28, 2006

The Lost Moleskine

My son and I were at home, after the mall had closed before I realized the Moleskine was gone.

Checked all of my pockets twice, and the car, nowhere to be found. Emptiness in the pit of my stomach.

Ok, so it's only a sketchbook — not the end of the world, right? But it held many personal pieces of artwork, some of which were scanned but several that weren't. It's now that I realize how one of a kind that little sketchbook really was.

Yes, I can buy another to replace it, and I can even create new sketches in a new book... but those sketches I've now lost are irreplaceable.

Tomorrow I'll call the mall and the stores we visited tonight, hoping someone would have found it and turned it in. I'm glad I took the time to fill out the owner's page, compete with a reward for recovery. I'm just hoping this bit of information will guide the sketchbook back to me.

I'm giving up coffee for lent — never thought I'd be giving up my sketchbook.

Update: Today I called the mall and stores we visited, then went to the mall to retrace my steps, but no such luck — yet. Planning to call again later today. Good thing I left some business cards in the back pocket.

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January 12, 2006

Happy 2nd Birthday Moleskinerie!

One of my favorite sites, run by one of my favorite people had its 2nd birthday today!

Happy Birthday to Armand Frasco's wonderful Moleskinerie!

To celebrate the event, I've created a little cartoon, in my Moleskine:

Armand, I wish you many more years as Head Juggler at Moleskinerie. :-)

Technorati Tags: armand+frasco, moleskinerie, moleskine, sketches, sketchtoon

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January 27, 2005

Cafe Bag Sketchtoon

As you may know, my proj: exhibition Moleskine sketchbook is presently on its way to Hong Kong via airmail — so that series of sketchtoons are currently on hold until the book gets back from the whirlwind tour.

I had so much fun sketching those 28 pages in the sketchtoon style, I've decided to continue in my personal Moleskine sketchbook. This morning at the cafe, I hauled out my Moleskine and sketched my Cafe Bag as it sat on the table next to me.

By the way — I fall more in love with my Cafe Bag each time I use it. It's proven to be a perfect library bag, as I can pack in many more books and CDs than I ever thought possible. As a man-purse, it works well for hauling my Dana Wireless, Miquelrius sketchbook, personal journal, 2 pocket Moleskines, Kyocera Rave phone and Tungsten E. The more I use my bag, the more useful it becomes. Not bad for 12 bucks!

As for sketching this morning — It felt good getting back into the flow again. I see these drawings are coming more and more naturally, each time I sketch one out. I feel the control of my G2 pen improving each time I use it.

While familiarity with the G2 pen and Moleskine size and paper surface are part of this, I think the more significant impact on quality is due to the mindset I've had to adapt to. Because there are no pencil guides, drawing a sketchtoon feels somewhat risky. Once my pen hits the paper, there is no undo, no erasing, no retreat. It is what it is — if I screw up, there's not much I can do about it — unless I find a creative way to use an error.

Funny thing is, I haven't made many errors since adapting to this style. My mind must draw the image in my mental RAM cache, before letting my hand lay the image down on the paper surface. It is truly fascinating to see and feel this happening while I'm drawing.

Mike Shea's recent article on writers using pens, paper and longhand to write novels seems related to this phenomenon. Stephen King describes the 'caching mode' in this way:

"It slows you down. It makes you think about each word as you write it, and it also gives you more of a chance so that you're able — the sentences compose themselves in your head. It's like hearing music, only it's words. But you see more ahead because you can't go as fast."

I agree! There is something almost enjoyable watching a sketchtoon form on paper. I sense myself planning out where text might go and even the words I'll write before they go down on the page. It seems almost like exercise — for my entire self: mind and body.

I strongly recommend adapting some analog way to express yourself, especially if you rely on digital tools. Not to replace digital tools or methods, but to improve your thinking and coordination. Even if you can't draw, just doodle, or write. Something.

Besides, it's fun. :-)

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