Rohdesign Weblog: Sketches

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

May 5, 2008

The Joy of Creating Handmade Cards

Today in my Flickr account I came across a photo from my trip to Belize in 2007:

This photo reminded me how much joy I get creating handmade cards and giving them to family and friends. For many years I've preferred to create cards (when I plan ahead) because they're fun to do and are always received well.

And you know it's really much easier than you think. With computer card software being so popular, you can get pre-folded blank cards, complete with matching envelopes at any office supply or Target store. Most stores will have simple colored pencil kits, and as for pens, the Pilot G2 and Uniball Signo 207 work well.

I recommend sketching out your idea in graphite pencil very lightly, then draw over the pencil with the G2 or Signo's black gel ink. Erase the pencil. Color the card with the colored pencils, or if you wish, keep it black and white like my card above.

You can add a message inside, and be sure to write some kind of "created by" message on the back of the card. My line in college when I started creating cards was:

"Rohde Cards: When you're too cheap to send the very best."

Belize Thank You Card Story
As for the story behind the handmade card above, I was in Belize in July 2007, as a part of a church service group. A small team from the larger group paid a visit to a Mennonite family in the village of St. Margaret's, in the mountains of Belize.

The family we visited was incredibly hospitable to our team. They offered fresh pineapple juice and friendly conversation at their home overlooking the river, high on a hillside. I wanted to say thanks, but what can you offer a Mennonite family they don't already have — or will accept?

How about a handmade thank you card?! :-)

With this in mind, I drew up a little thank you card on spare construction paper, had our entire group sign the back and sealed both sides with leftover clear contact paper. Our team presented the card to the family, which they loved.

Go Forth and Create Handmade Cards!
So, visit the store this week and get your supplies for Mother's Day! Your mom will adore your handmade work, regardless of your drawing skills. Remember, it's not about your skills as an illustrator, it's about sharing from your heart!

Photo Credit: Laura Winslow

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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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November 17, 2007

2008 Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar Preview

This week I've completed the final eight sketchtoon illustrations for my 2008 Sketchtoon Calendar, which will be going on sale soon:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I've had lots of interest in my sketchtoons, so I've decided to post samples of each calendar page on Flickr and share the previews here. I'm planning to have the calendar ready for sale by next week Saturday, just in time for Christmas.

Once I complete the cover illustration, I'll be creating the calendar with an on-demand printing service. I've used use Cafe Press for calendar printing in the past, however, I plan to check out other on-demand printing services. If you have a service to recommend, let me know with a comment below.

Be the First to Know!
If you're interested in the 2008 Sketchtoon Calendar, and want to be the first to know when goes on sale, email me.

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November 15, 2007

Great Miquelrius Resource: ShopMiquelrius.com

A few weeks back I received an email from Todd Berryman, a radio host at 92.3 WTTS FM in Bloomington, Indiana.

Todd found me because I use Miquelrius notebooks daily for logo, icon and web design work. He wanted to know where I buy mine, as he was having trouble finding them at his local Barnes & Noble.

Since I'm on my last Miquelrius sketchbook, this issue hit close to home.

I haven't found them at my local B&N either. I figured they were simply out of stock. This email got me thinking — I should really locate a good online source for Miquelrius notebooks. Just in case.

Todd mentioned ShopMiquelrius.com, the online store for Miquelrius USA. Sure enough, they have a good selection of the soft-cover books I love so much, and several other options as well.

From Oops to Oh Yeah!
I ordered 3 green notebooks, but accidentally chose lined books instead of gridded. I immediately emailed the ShopMiquelrius help desk and within hours, I had personal emails back from Jennifer and her staff, letting me know they would take care of the error. Wow, that's what I call service!

I'm ordering all of my Miquelrius notebooks from ShopMiquelrius.com from now on. Yeah, they sell the notebooks I need at a decent price, but what sold me was how well they treated me, and how quickly they solved my problem.

An Affiliate Idea
Because of my personal contact with Jennifer, I asked if they happened to have an affiliate program for their products. Since I use the products and love ShopMiquelrius's service, why not share the resource with others and earn a few dollars leading buyers to them?

Jennifer said they didn't have an affiliate program in place, but she was very intrigued by the idea. After a little research and requests of the director, she got the green light to launch a trial affiliate program for 3 months. Very cool!

Today their new trial affiliate program is live on the site.

Support a Great Source
Seeking a good source for Miquelrius notebooks? I invite you to try ShopMiquelrius by using my affiliate link.

If you like their service, sign up for the affiliate program yourself, so your friends can use this resource, ShopMiquelrius can sell more books, and you can earn a little something to buy more Miquelrius notebooks with! :-)

P.S. I wasn't paid to write this post, didn't receive any free notebooks, and have only signed up for the affiliate link a few moments ago. I'm just a very happy customer who wants to share this great resource with other Miquelrius buyers, and to help ShopMiquelrius.com grow and thrive. It's the least I can do.

P.P.S. Just got word from Jennifer that ShopMiquelrius is having a Thanksgiving sale: 10% off all purchases for registered, logged-in users, from Noon EST November 15th through 11:59 PM on November 18th. To get the discount, use the code THANKS07.

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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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September 8, 2007

Springy Motorcycle Sketchtoon

Last weekend we had a nice visit to see family in Baraboo, Wisconsin. While there, we visited Oschner Park, right across the street from where my dad grew up. We saw the small zoo, and wound up at the play area of the park.

I'd packed my Moleskine sketchbook, and saw this funny little spring-loaded motorcycle ride. My son and several of the other kids were jumping on and riding this thing, bouncing around in random patterns.

I liked the mix of tan and red paint on the cycle, so I captured this young girl riding it in maybe 3 minutes. I really like how the drawing has structure but remains loose and chaotic.

This sketch has been added to the Illustration Friday topic: momentum.

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July 16, 2007

Back from Belize with Sketchtoons

Whew! I'm back from my service trip to Belize — I had an AMAZING time!

The country was wild and beautiful, the people of Belize friendly and hospitable and the food was so very delicious. We all had a wonderful week.

Our Meadowbrook team was just incredible. Every student and leader stepped up when it counted and gave of themselves every single day. It was exciting sharing Jesus' love with the people of St. Margaret's Village.

The staff of Praying Pelican Missions, who managed our trip, did a superb job providing for our team. I have to send special thanks to Matt, Tatiana, Laura, Bree and John for a great week in Belize!

I have many stories to share: wild bus rides on the Hummingbird Highway, tons of village kids waiting for our bus to arrive every day, a visit with a Mennonite family, sharing their home-made pineapple juice, and discovering that the Internet reaches to remote Belizean villages. Those stories will come as I catch up at home and work.

Meanwhile, I'd like to share a set of Belize Sketchtoons. I'd hoped to do more sketching in Belize, but there just wasn't time in such a compressed week.

Thanks to all who prayed for us — we felt your prayers in Belize.

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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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April 2, 2007

Weekend Sketches

This weekend I made a conscious effort to bring my Moleskine sketchbook with me everywhere, having been challenged by Tommy Kane's Push Yourself post last week.

Below are two pieces I sketched this weekend:

Sketch 1: My son Nathan and I went to his preschool on Saturday for an Easter egg hunt. Part of the afternoon included giving the kids helium-filled balloons to bounce and chase around the church fellowship hall. The kids had such a blast — I had to try and capture Nathan's joy at play. This one was pretty quick and loose, with my focus on capturing the feeling I had, rather than being perfectly proportional.

Sketch 2: The right page was done Saturday night, after seeing the the film Peaceful Warrior. The film was a little cheesy and full of platitudes for dialogue. Still, the phrase "There are no ordinary moments" seemed to bubble up in my mind just before bed. I grabbed my sketchbook and let the idea direct my sketch, trying not to think too much about the technical details. My approach was to look at this phrase as a challenge to sketch those "un-ordinary moments" rather than lose them.

As I prepared the scan today, I realized Nathan's balloon-jumping sketch was one of those "un-ordinary moments" I'd captured Saturday morning, before the words themselves were spoken in the film, later the same evening.

Thanks Tommy for the challenge to sketch, especially when it's hard. If you're reading this post and are thinking about sketching again, or for the first time — do it! :-)

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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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March 14, 2007

HoudahGeo Icon Design

Just this week I've completed the application icon for one of my MakaluMedia clients, Pierre Bernard of Houdah Software, on his latest beta application HoudahGeo. In June 2006, I designed the icon for Pierre's first OS X application, HoudahSpot.

HoudahGeo allows you to geocode photos with latitude, longitude and altitude information. Take your photos, "pin" their locations on the earth, then export information to EXIF tags or Google Earth KML files, letting you can see the images in Google Earth.

Sketches
Pierre and I started working with pencil sketches, using a globe with photos stuck to the surface, and a satellite in orbit around it, as you can see below:

1. In my first sketches, I focused on a single satellite, beaming information to/from photos on the surface of the globe. At this stage I hadn't worked out continents or exact placement of the photos, but knew I liked this general idea.

2. Here I played around with the idea of both a satellite and a camera orbiting the earth, and had by this round, started exploring continents and image locations a bit more. In the end, we discussed the camera+satellite option and felt the camera was redundant and not necessary to get the message across.

Production Icons
Next I went to production, using Fireworks to create the vector-based artwork. After a rough first draft, Pierre had an idea to try a pushpin in place of a satellite, though in the end, we felt the satellite just worked better.

With each successive revision, the earth was refined, satellite tweaked, highlights, glows and adjustments made. Here I've placed the first 4 revisions together to give you an idea how the process generally works:

The final adjustments and tweaks happened on icon v5, including a size up of the earth about 5-6%, lightening of the satellite's pulse glow and a few adjustments to photo locations on the earth itself.

Fireworks as Tool of Choice
The construction if icons using vectors in Fireworks, greatly assists in these kind of subtle tweaks. Because all of the elements are created as vector items, they can be easily sized up and down with no degradation of image quality, or moved around without worrying about re-applying masks or filters.

For comparison purposes, here is the final, winning HoudahGeo icon v5:

Thanks Pierre for choosing to work with me and MakaluMedia on your latest Mac application! I had a great time working with you on another fun icon project. :-)

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February 7, 2007

Red 66 Logo Design

In mid-2006, Carlos Granier-Phelps contacted me at MakaluMedia, about designing a new logo for Red 66, his consulting business focusing on Web 2.0, usability, Internet video technologies, digital security, ratings analysis software for TV stations, and web/tech consulting for movies & TV.

I worked with Carlos to gather my standard information package his company structure and outward image goals, his likes, dislikes in color and design and other tidbits that would give me insight in the sketch stage of the project.

Carlos wanted the logo to embody many different aspects of his personality and his business, including: hip, clean, dynamic, safe, fun, global, innovative, and high-tech. Quite a challenge, but I felt confident that by working with Carlos through the normal sketch to final process, we would find the right solution.

Sketches
First, I brought out the trusty Miquelrius sketchbook and pencil, and began capturing ideas as they came to mind, after reading Carlos' notes. Below I've posted thumbnails of complete sketches and artwork: click each image to see a full version:

Here you can see I explored a wide variety of ideas, playing with the interesting shapes created by dual 6s. I felt drawn to circular shapes enclosing or working with "66", as 6s are organic and round.

Carlos quite liked idea 27, since it seemed to capture Route 66, which was a positive thing in his mind, yet had a clean, simple look he was aiming for. He also liked 16 and 18, and oddly enough, liked the 2 Route 66-style ideas below 5 and 6, which I hadn't even highlighted on the page!

So, after some discussion, I prepared a second set of sketches, focusing on the narrowed field of ideas.

Here you can see the Route 66 approach expanded greatly, along with square idea 18 and the circular idea 27 from the first round of sketches.

After review of the second set, and my suggestions to lean toward 9, 10 and 7, Carlos settled on these ideas to prepare black and white concepts to narrow to a finalized design.

Black & White Concepts
This is a very critical phase, where my rough concept sketches are turned into production quality art. It is here, where a mark is proven to work, or not work in the simplest form possible — black and white. Often, this is the moment where an idea tends to shine and separate itself as the right solution, or fade as an also-ran. The Red 66 logo project was no exception, as the circular concept 9a immediately and clearly step out front as the winning black and white mark.

Color: Round 1
Outside of coming up with ideas, color can often be a tough stage. Colors are often emotional, which is why I like to have a solid black and white logo selected before moving to the color application phase. On set 1, I explored a variety of color combinations, taking into account Carlos' location in Miami as one aspect of color influence.

Color: Round 2
Based on this round we wanted to refine the color selections a bit more, to include brighter colors and explore reds and burgundy colors with similar tones and contrasting choices, like blue-green, orange and teal.

At this point, both Carlos and I honed in on idea 8.3 as our color winner. It had the nice light/dark red tones to reinforce the "red" theme, with a secondary Miami-influenced, cool retro blue-green outer ring for contrast. It had a muted, yet strong overall feel that we both liked.

Conclusion
Since creating the new mark, Carlos has applied it to his blog, and other materials. I'm very pleased with the simplicity and cleanliness of the Red 66 logo — it's organic and smooth, yet has a hint of hip retro Miami.

Thanks Carlos for working with MakaluMedia and I on your new Red 66 logo!

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January 17, 2007

Business Opportunities Weblog Network Logo Design

In late 2006, Dane Carlson of the Business Opportunities Weblog Network contracted me BOWN Final Logo at MakaluMedia, to design an identity for his weblog network.

The Business Opportunities Weblog Network (BOWN) is described as a "moderated list of legitimate business opportunities for entrepreneurs", which features lists of business ideas, and tips.

Dane has been blogging since 2001, and wanted a new corporate identity that was fresh and clean, to help realign his blog.

So, Dane and I started through our normal process of getting information from goals, the business, his color and style likes and dislikes, and other useful information to help me develop good design ideas.

Dane liked the general idea of a lightbulb, so I included this idea, along with several other ideas, to make sure we explored all options.

Challenges
While "Business Opportunities Weblog Network" was descriptive, it's a really long name to deal with when creating a logo design. It would be challenging to be find a way to list the full name and not let the words dominate the identity.

Another challenge, related to the long name, was keeping the identity simple and easily recognizable. How do you show a business network in a single symbol?

Sketches
Once Dane's information was read and digested, I brought out the sketchbook and pencil to get ideas on paper. In 2 rounds of sketches I produced several interesting ideas, incorporating the lightbulb and other ideas for representations of a network. Here are a few selected sketches:

1. This idea featured "Business Opportunities" larger, and a briefcase fashioned from triangular shapes, woth "Weblog Network" tucked under the larger type.

2. On this concept, I've replaced the briefcase symbol with an interconnected triangular grid symbol, to emphasize the network nature of the name.

3. Here I'm indicating a stylized lightbulb to the left, Business with most emphasis and "Opportunities" and "Weblog Network" descending in size and importance.

4. The winning idea shows a lightbulb within a circular symbol on the left, and an alternate dark version on the right. The idea was to show the lightbulb as a node on a network, incorporating both a bulb and network in the logo.

Black & White Art
Once the winning concept of a lightbulb on a network, inside of a circle containing the type was selected, I moved to produce the black and white version of the logo for Dane. The black and white phase went pretty quickly, and we both liked how the concept translated from sketch into black and white art. The next challenge was color.

Color Art
In the color phase, I wanted to show Dane some color varieties, but didn't want to do too many at one time, so I selected 3 color themes with both flat and gradated options, and presented them:

Our eyes were pretty immediately drawn to blue, orange and green. I also liked the blue/green option, though the orange center circle of the first idea (B&C) really seemed to convey a warmth to balance the cool crispness of the green and blue.

After a little deliberation, Dane chose the blue/orange/green option as the winner.

Conclusion
Just last week, Dane completed his redesign of the Business Opportunities Weblog Network weblog, and used the new logo design to shape his redesign. I really like how the colors feel warm, yet crisp and clean, and after not seeing the logo between delivery and appearance, I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

My thanks go to Dane Carlson for choosing to work with me and MakaluMedia on his new identity. We both had a great time collaborating and I think we came up with a fun, attractive logo design.

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October 26, 2006

CGI Interactive Logo Design

Last year, after Paul Bradley came across Ian Landsman's Creating a Business Logo article, he asked if we could design a new logo for his company, cgi Interactive. One of my passions as design director at MakaluMedia is logo design and corporate identity, so I was excited to take on the project.

Paul's firm. cgi Interactive, is a software development company based in the North West of England, who develop custom web based applications for businesses. The CGI moniker had its touch-point in the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) programming done for clients in the early days of the Internet.

Paul wanted to maintain a connection to the past by keeping the CGI name, while coming up with a strong, clean logo to represent his company, on both the web and with other print materials (letterhead, envelopes and business cards).

Questions & Research
I started as I always do: asking questions of Paul about his company, goals, taste and thinking and doing my own gathering of information about the company. While it might seem trivial, the information gathering phase is critical — these are the words I ponder, as I prepare to sketch logo concepts that capture the company in a simple, iconic form.

From my initial research, it seemed the logomark should be simple and clean, yet still have a bit of a human touch, as Paul mentioned a history of "bespoke" or custom software development.

Sketching Ideas
As I sketched ideas out, I began focusing on a mark made of the letters C, G and I — using them to form a compact object.

Rounded letter-forms turned into squared letter-forms. I liked the idea of the C wrapping itself around the I to form a "G" at the intersection. To reinforce the "I" character, I used a lower cased variation to take advantage of the dot.

Black & White Explorations
We both liked this direction, so my next step was to jump into Adobe Illustrator and create the letters in black and white vector form, where I could explore the relationships of the C, G and i elements:

Notice how the horizontal stroke of the "i" character extends into the counter of the capital C character, to form a G. Then, the dot of the i character fills out the upper right corner of the mark. I like creating logos in black and white first — to assure they work well in their simplest form.

The mark also created an unintentional, yet nice side effect — notice the appearance of of a person on the right, extending an arm into the C, with the dot of the "i" acting as the head? What a nice coincidence!

Color Explorations
Next up was the color phase, which was quite straightforward, as Paul knew he wanted cool blues and greens used. I explored some complimentary warm colors with the mark, but we kept coming back to a combination of dark sea green and a sky blue to capture a solid, professional feel:

Notice also the font used is a Myriad/Gill Sans blend with a little custom tweaking done on the letters. The "cgi" text was kept in the sky blue, and "Interactive" stayed in the dark sea green, corresponding to the colors chosen for the mark.

Paul was very pleased with the final logo design. He felt it captured the professional look he wanted to portray, yet still maintained a human touch, to represent the custom, collaborative projects cgi Interactive does. I had fun working on the logo design, facing the challenge and seeing a unique mark emerge from the letters themselves.

Since designing Paul's logo in 2005, we've had many interesting and challenging logo projects come from new and existing clients, keeping me happily busy doing what I love — logo design.

If you like this approach to logo design, and need logo or corporate identity design work, just drop me a line and let's talk! :-)

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September 18, 2006

Mike Rohde's Design Sketch Kit

Last week I was talking with Makalu design colleague Alex Bendiken about tools I use for my logo, icon, web and print design sketch work. Lately he's been using sketches to quickly put multiple design ideas on paper — before moving to the computer.

As I described my sketch kit to Alex, I thought it'd be great to share a photo and the details on Flickr and in a post on my weblog. Turns out that my Custom Moleskine Planner photo with added notes has been very popular, so I took several shots of my sketch kit and placed them on Flickr, and in this very post:

The tools include:

1. Miquelrius A5 squared notebook (300 pages)
2. HiG A4 squared notebook (96 pages)
3. Faber-Castell E-Motion 1.4mm mechanical pencil (a gift from Fazal Majid)
4. Y&C Grip 350 0.7mm mechanical pencil
5. Gray kneadable eraser
6. Artec 6" acrylic triangle
7. Pickett Inking circle template

Notebooks
The larger HiG A4 notebook is better for web and print design where the sketches may need more space, the Miquelrius A5 is smaller and more portable, and my preferred choice for logo and icon design. I especially love how flexible the Miquelrius is, allowing me to fold the covers over for sketching or scanning.

Pencils
I mainly use the Faber-Castell E-Motion for most sketches because the thick lead lays down a nice, smooth line, can put rich grays down quickly and resists breaking even when I press quite hard. The Y&C 0.7mm pencil works well for finer lines and details (more often used on web and print design comps that require fine details or handwritten descriptions.)

Support Tools
The Artec 6" acrylic triangle works well for putting down a crisp edge, and lets me see through it to the sketch underneath — handy for laying in text. My kneadable eraser is indispensable for cleaning up loose edges and stray marks (and works well for stress relief when needed). The Pickett circle guide comes in handy for quick, perfect circles, most often used on web and print design projects.

It's a simple toolkit, which works quite well... and it never needs batteries! :-)

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August 8, 2006

Illustration Friday: Capture

Happened to swing by the Illustration Friday site today, and was inspired to get out the pen and Moleskine sketchbook to participate.

Because of the busy spring and summer I've had, It's been a while since I've posted an Illustration Friday sketch. In fact, it's been much too long since sketching in my Moleskine sketchbook.

The sketch for "Capture" on the right was not planned, but it evolved as my pen started touching the paper. I had the vague idea of drawing a ball being captured by some kind of crescent/claw shape, but beyond that, had no idea where I might go with this illustration.

As I looked at the claw and ball, I saw a scorpion/lobster/crab taking shape in the remaining blank part of the page, so I sketched out a body and curling tail.

Next came the feet, complete with Converse Hi-Tops, the lobster-like eyes popping out of the little guy's head and finally, the smile. The "Capture" text and outer shapes were added and filled in.

I've even chose a name for the little guy: Seymour The Space Scorpion

When I reviewed the drawing, I realized the outer shapes were "capturing" Seymour — a completely random, yet fun detail which completed the sketch. :-)

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May 26, 2006

Sketching = Getting Real

This week I came across Getting Real: An interview with Jason Fried, an intriguing article and interview by Khoi Vinh, NYTimes.com Design Director, blogger at Subtraction.com and founder of the design studio, Behavior.

In the interview, Khoi asks Jason Fried of 37signals questions about Getting Real, a process which involves small teams, agile development, and lots of iterations.

Mid-way through the interview I found this wonderful quote from Jason:

We also sketch on paper a lot — much more than we go into a program like Photoshop. Paper is fast, cheap, and low resolution enough to get ideas out without having to worry about the details too early on. Worrying about details too early can kill you, and paper helps you skip the details.
In Photoshop you worry too much about pixels and alignment and colors. On paper you can get rough ideas out quickly without worrying about all the stuff that just doesn't matter yet.

Like Jason, I'm a strong an advocate of using pen or pencil and paper sketches to think visually. I find sketching encourages me to explore more ideas more quickly and helps me resist the rigidity and limitations of the computer and software.

Putting pencil or pen to paper separates me from the distractions and ruts I sometimes get into on the Mac. Because it's physical, I find it relaxing, which I believe results in better design solutions.

Give it a try! Go forth, sketch and get real!

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April 27, 2006

The Sketch Kit Sketchtoon

Almost exactly month ago, I lost the first Moleskine I ever bought at the local shopping mall. I was hoping beyond hope that my little sketchbook might somehow turn up under the seat of my car, or be returned by a mall-walker. I've now had to face the facts: my little sketchbook is long gone.

Not coincidentally, my ink sketching has dropped off considerably ever since. I've found I like ink sketching because it's much riskier than pencil sketching. Once your pen hits the surface, you're committed to a sketch, baby.

Having accepted my Moleskine as lost, I bought a new Moleskine Pocket Sketchbook last week and have been sketching in it ever since. This morning, I decided to create a new sketchtoon featuring my normal Sketch Kit, shown below:

Bag: my kit is housed in my canvas Cafe Bag, which is a US Army surplus map case. It's small size and canvas construction make it light but tough. The Cafe Bag expands nicely to accommodate files, papers, books or other large items.

Books: a 6x8 Miquelrius squared sketchbook, where I do my pencil-based logo and web sketch work. I love the flexible cover and larger size. For ink sketches and sketchtoons like the one above, I carry a Moleskine Pocket Sketchbook, with thick, smooth paper stock.

Writing Instruments: I carry a Silver Pilot Dr. Grip Gel pen with 0.5 or in this case, 0.7 mm G2 Gel cartridge, or G2 plastic pen, and a FaberCastell E-Motion Pearwood mechanical pencil with 1.4 mm lead (thanks Fazal!). I especially like the thicker, softer HB lead for exploring shapes for logo design work I'm doing quite a bit of lately.

Misc: I'll often carry a small clear triangle for straight lines and a set of oval and circle drawing templates for perfect circles/ovals. Sometimes I'll bring a dedicated eraser if I'm planning a long pencil sketching session.

I like this Sketch Kit because it covers my needs, yet is small and light enough to take anywhere. I hope my sketch and description will inspire you to create a sketch kit of your own and go sketching! :-)

Technorati Tags: moleskine, sketches, visual+thinking, sketchtoons, drawings, mike+rohde

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March 11, 2006

Designing the endo icon

I'm very excited reveal my latest new icon design for endo, a syndicated feed reader developed by Adriaan Tijsseling. This new app approaches syndicated feeds as "streams" rather than the common "email app" approach most aggregators use.

The icon was developed in collaboration with Adriaan, the developer of blogging tool ecto and Flickr stream manager 1001, which I'd designed the icon for last year. While we worked out the new icon, I'd been under an NDA with Adriaan (as design director at MakaluMedia) but since endo has been released, I'm free to share. :-)

(Click on graphics below to see full sketches)

Initial Concepts v1
I began the project by writing out thoughts and sketching some initial ideas, and having designed the 1001 icon, felt that the icons might benefit from having a "family" feeling between them. So, when you look at the initial v1 sketches I did, you can see this quite clearly.

While the final icon veered quite a bit from the initial sketches, I like to point out that very often a designer must work through what is in their heads in order to progress to the next step — a bit like flushing out the immediate ideas to get at the deeper ideas.

Sketches v2
In the second round of sketches, I began exploring the idea of different shapes, shapes breaking planes and swirls of data surrounding shapes. As endo was to be different than other aggregator/readers because it treats feeds as "streams" I wanted to convey the idea of a stream of data — as chaotic swirl or plane.

While breaking a plane was an interesting concept, the more chaotic swirl appealed to both Adriaan and me, because it felt much more like the real net, with wild streams of feeds spinning out of control. Endo was to be the calm in the midst of this storm of data; helping its users wade through this swirling cloud.

Sketches v3
In my 3rd revision of sketches, I focused entirely on the idea of a swirling cloud of data, surrounding various shapes. You can see in the larger sketch that circular swirl with a central "hub" containing a magnifying glass at the center of the swirl. This represented the application at the center, filtering good signal from the noise. These concepts were attractive to both Adriaan and I, though we both wanted to see one more round to finalize the concept before I went to Fireworks and Photoshop on the Mac.

Sketches v4
In this round, Adriaan had the idea to include the newly standardized Feed Icon, which is already used in Firefox (and will also be used in IE7), so I tried several icons with the Feed icon integrated. I tried a variety of angles, until in sketch E you can see the idea of having the feed icon appear in the central hub and also appear in the shadow below, since the central hub would be transparent (like a marble).

Once Adriaan and I saw sketch E, we were both in love. Adriaan gave the Ok to move to the Mac, and there, the new endo icon was born, using Fireworks to build the icon (with vectors and layers) and then exported in Photoshop, using the excellent IconBuilder 8 from IconFactory.

Only minor tweaks were needed to finalize the icon on the Mac and deliver the needed icon, and source files Adriaan needed to spruce up his endo application and the new Kula website.

Conclusion
I'm very pleased with the new endo icon; it's simple, different and I think conveys the concept of a feed aggregator sifting signal out of the syndication noise — just the idea Adriaan was trying to convey with his very different application. One commenter on the BWANA Weblog suggested the endo icon "has the best application icon since Shiira." which was flattering indeed. :-)

Thanks Adriaan for trusting in me to help on this project and all of his excellent collaboration. Working on this project was truly a pleasure!

If you're on Mac OS X and want a alternate way of deal with feeds, try out endo. It offers a very different approach, which may just suit your needs.

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mikerohde, rohdesign, sketches, visual+thinking, design, makalumedia, drawings, icon

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February 2, 2006

Music-Driven Moleskine Sketches

Ok, for whatever reason, I'm on some sort of sketching roll this week. Rather than hold today's sketches back, I'd like to share them right away:

(click the image above to see an enlarged version)

Left page: A sketch generated while listening to the song Cups from an electronica band Underworld's live from the Fuji Music Festival in Japan. I learned about Underworld from a post on Dan Stout's Manufactured Environments weblog in 2004 and have been enjoying these driving beats ever since (thanks Dan!). As you can see the textures of the song were rich and layered. I tried to continuously draw and capture how the music made me feel: complex, moody, deep but fast paced with a little feeling of echo.

Right page: This was another music-inspired sketch, based on very different music style than Underworld. Inspiration here was provided by the tune Consolacao, from the Brazilian Groove compilation, by Bossacucanova (as suggested to me by Michael Ashby). You can see a dominant bass line, represented as ripples in water or sound waves. Around that are impressionistic sketches of other instruments: guitar, piano, and vocals drawn continuously. This song was warm and bright, with rich bass line and of course fascinating Portuguese vocals.

This is a fun exercise allows your mind to interpret your impressions of favorite music in a visual way. I highly recommend this technique, especially if you want to sketch but have no idea what to sketch. All you need is music, paper, pen or pencil and a few minutes to sketch.

Technorati Tags: creativity, mikerohde, moleskine, music, sketches

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February 1, 2006

Never Eat Alone & Jury Duty Moleskine Sketches

Not much time or energy to write a long thoughtful post today, so instead I'm including a scan of two sketches I've recently created in my pocket Moleskine sketchbook:

(click the image above to see an enlarged version)

Left page: This is realization of an idea I had for encapsulating ideas from books as free form type-treatment sketches. In this case, I'd been reading Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi, and had been inspired by many of the ideas Keith presents. So, I set out to capture the ideas floating to the surface of my mind on a page in my Moleskine. I had so much fun doing this I may do it again for other books I'm reading.

Right page: The sketches on this page are much less logical and ordered. I spent a day in the Milwaukee County Jury pool last week with some time on my hands, so I began sketching things that caught my eye in the cafeteria and assembly room. Actually, the bottom half of this page sat blank for nearly a week, until last night, when I completed it with a sketch of a character from the TV series Monk, and commentary on my short stint in jury service.

I hope you enjoy this funky blend of sketches. :-)

Technorati Tags: mikerohde, moleskine,sketches, sketchtoon, keith+ferrazzi

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January 21, 2006

Hey Beer Man Sketch

On Thursday I created a little sketch of a guy who briefly walked through the Caribou Coffee shop I was sitting in. For some odd reason I had the desire to recall and sketch his image from memory to my Moleskine pocket sketchbook, a mere 30 seconds after he'd vacated the premises. I wanted to see how well I could capture his essence from memory alone. The result is the funky sketch you see here, entitled "Hey Beer Man."

Now I am actually unsure if said guy was a Beer man, however he did have a blue uniform on, complete with oval name tag (though I admit using the name Fred because I couldn't recall the real name) and matching blue baseball cap. In the moment as he passed, I got the idea he was a beer truck driver... don't ask me why. He's probably a washing machine repairman for all I know.

The point to all of the back-story for this silly little sketch is this: try sketching someone or something you've just seen without the reference of that object in front of you. It's challenging eh? But what's cool is, it requires you to reach back into your memory and recall your impression. It's a good exercise for improving your visual memory.

Why not give it a try?

Technorati Tags: mikerohde, moleskine,sketches, sketchtoon

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January 17, 2006

Outer Level Logo Design

I thoroughly enjoy logo design work, so when MakaluMedia clients talk about their experience in the logo design process I'm always interested. Just yesterday, Jon Trainer of Outer Level, posted a detailed article describing his experiences of collaborating on a logo design with me. Jon develops applications, including the game Bullfrog and the utility License Keeper for Mac OS as well as software development consulting.

I thought it would be interesting to quote some of Jon's post here and provide my own thoughts.

Keywords and Goals:

Thankfully, this is where Mike comes in. Something I didn’t think about prior to hiring Mike, but would recommend to anyone looking for a graphic designer, is that you look for someone who can “consult” with you on your image. Instead of just asking what I wanted my logo to look like, Mike sent a short list of questions to solidify his feel for my tastes, personality, and desired company image.

One thing I've found helpful is to describe goals you're shooting for when designing a logo. What kinds of feelings should it evoke in a viewer? Should it convey strength, warmth, honesty? While these might seem to be nebulous words, I think setting goals in words helps clients and myself get focus before the sketch process even begins.

Dead End Ideas:

A little over a week later, Mike sent me two full pages of pencil sketches incorporating my descriptors and his own feelings from the Outer Level name. Some of his ideas reflected ones I have had in mind for years — probably the more obvious and common images that Outer Level brings to mind. These are precisely the ones I didn’t want. I was looking to avoid the common and the obvious. Also in the sketches were some ideas that immediately captured my imagination.

Lately I've found it good to go down the 'obvious' paths to prove that the idea either has some potential — or that it's a complete dead end.

Leaving 'dead end' ideas right in my sketches, while clearly explaining why they are dead ends to my clients helps cleanse the dead end idea out of the system, allowing me to try other areas of exploration and 'let go" of the dead end idea.

There is of course, a risk a client will like a dead end idea. However, because I always provide comprehensive explanations with my sketches, I've found clients trust my judgement when I call out a dead end.

Client Collaboration

There were many bits in these sketches that I really liked. So I sent back my comments along with my own sketches because I tend to think better in pictures than in words.

When Jon sent me his sketches I was very excited to see him getting into the process so deeply! I'm a proponent of visual thinking, so seeing my sketches encourage a client to sketch was wonderful to see.

Color

To this point, the process had been quite fun, though challenging. I had no idea what was in store now that it was time for color. I envisioned blue, red, and even green as potential main colors and wasn’t surprised that I wasn’t alone in this train of thought.

Color is maybe the toughest part of the logo process in my opinion. Colors carry have emotional impact, which is why I like to leave color to the end of the process — this helps void choosing a logo based on the color rather than a great concept.

Unfortunately, once I saw these colors applied to the logo design they didn’t project the feel I was looking for. But, I really liked the warm red-orange sunrise-like background Mike had incorporated. So I searched out some photos of planets, nebulas, etc. and sent them to Mike as a sample of colors that appeared in space. Maybe, these would help change the feel of the logo.
As it turns out, these “space colors” lead us in the right direction.

It's rare to nail down final color selections on the first round because color is so complex. This is why it's so important to collaborate with clients. In this case, Jon sent some reference to give me an idea of his tastes, from which I was able to draw out some new options.

The entire process really is a back and forth; client feedback and my expertise, combined to arrive at a final logomark that's attractive, practical and pleases both the client and designer.

What intrigues me is how fun this process can be, particularly for clients. All of the clients who have collaborated in their own logo process have commented on how much they enjoyed it. Knowing clients get a logo they love and a process that's fun makes for a very satisfying experience for everyone.

If you need of a logo and are intrigued by this design process, drop me a line.

Technorati Tags: mikerohde, rohdesign, logo, design, makalumedia

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January 11, 2006

Visual Thinking School and the Visual Voice

A few weeks ago, I was inspired by Visual thinking practice: Heads and hands on Dave Gray's weblog Communication Nation — an exercise in observation, where you try to capture heads and hands in a sketchbook.

While at a local Caribou, I pulled out my Moleskine Pocket Sketchbook, and began observing folks coming into the shop, trying to capture their faces as cartoons. The result is the sketch to you see to the right. Of course you'll notice that I stopped at the faces and heads — I ran out of time to work on hands!

However, I found the exercise very relaxing and quite challenging. For instance, how do you capture someone's face accurately without staring at them? I realized that it forced me to capture more information with each glance, and rely on my memory to put own the shapes I was observing.

Visual Voice and Comparison
The exercise Visual thinking practice: Finding your visual voice reminded me of a recent acceptance of the "visual voice" I see in my sketches. While I don't consider myself a great artist (like Russell Stutler is) I've come to accept my own voice as unique and different — my own.

On the one hand I enjoy solving problems visually, which is the basis for the logo, icon and even web work I do for clients. On the other, I sometimes feel my sketches are not as "good" as someone else's work.

While technically that may be true — I've realized it's more about my unique visual voice. My sketches, sketchtoons and doodles are a part of me, completely unique. Like my voice or writing style, they define and represent my personality.

If you want to try sketching but feel you are a terrible artist, let go of that idea. If you feel your stuff isn't up to some other artist's level — let go of that comparison as a reason to avoid sketching! Admiration of great sketching is good, if it is truly that — don't allow sketch paralysis because you can never be as good, because this steals away the joy of sketching.

Once I let go of worrying about how good others were in comparison to me, I was free to enjoy sketching: successes and mistakes together. The whole point of sketching is to express yourself visually and have fun in the process. Don't let sketching be about quality or comparison, let it be about expression, joy and experience.

Check out Dave's Visual Thinking School form suggestions to get inspired in 2006 to sketch and explore your own visual thinking.

Update: Awesome! My blogpal Daniel has taken up sketching this year and is already excited about his progress! Check out Creative journey here I come and be inspired everyone!

Technorati Tags: mikerohde, rohdesign, moleskine, sketches, sketchtoon, visual+thinking

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December 22, 2005

Digital Moleskine Concept

Lately, I've been spending more time carrying around and capturing ideas in my pocket Moleskine gridded idea book.

One idea captured in the idea book in February 2004 was that of a digital Moleskine-like pocket notebook, inspired by an email exchange with artist Witold Riedel. You can see the sketch below (click for the larger version):

The idea was to have a high resolution display and input area, combined with wireless (WiFi and Bluetooth) and wired high speed access. Witold's idea was to have the digital Moleskine generate an RSS feed of sketches, to be shared with other device owners and folks on the net. This way you could check for new sketches and then click to view them on your digital Moleskine.

Not only would it operate as a digital sketchbook, with overlays to simulate paper textures, gridlines and rules and so forth, but it would also be a viewer, showing your RSS subscriptions to other digital Moleskine devices out on the net.

It would also have USB and Firewire ports for input and output, a VGA out port for display of sketches on screens and overhead projectors, and an SD slot (or two) for storage of sketches. I imagine flash memory would be most sensible for a device like this, for both size and durability.

After sketching the idea, I thought it might be nice to make the input/view screen a two-page spread rather than a single page. Hey, I'm dreaming here, why not? :-)

It would need to be sturdy, so I imagine high resolution "digital paper" would be best for the screen/writing surface.

Anyway, it's a wild idea which will likely be realized when my son is my age, but you never know. I figure by putting the idea out there now, it might happen and maybe I'll get some royalties to put my him through college. :-)

Technorati Tags: mikerohde, moleskine, technology, pda, sketches

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December 21, 2005

Blues Guitarist Scratchboard Illustration

Well Mr. Porkpop has done it again — by mentioning that my Station Inn sketch looked a bit like scratchboard art to him, he got me thinking about some actual scratchboard work I'd done in college. Checked around the old files today and I found a piece to share here on the blog:

I can't quite recall if this art was done to explore the technique alone, or if it appeared in a publication. I was working for the college's internal art department at the time and for the MATC Times newspaper, so it very well may have been published somewhere. Whatever the case, it brings back very fond memories of that time in my life and the fun I had doing scratchboard artwork.

FYI: scratchboard art is literal scratching of black emulsion that's been sprayed onto thick, smooth board to reveal a white image, rather than laying down black ink in a normal sketch.

If you're interested in trying the technique, you can find scratchboard at a local art supply store, along with scratching tools, though I was pretty good at using a standard exacto blade for my work — so be creative if you give it a shot.

Technorati Tags: blues, mikerohde, scratchboard, illustration, music, sketches

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