Rohdesign

March 21, 2010

SXSW Interactive 2010 Sketchnotes

I'm back from SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas and I took along my Moleskine and gel pen to sketchnote it. This year I decided to capture the experience around SXSW, including my flight, food, music and other experiences (not just panels).

Another difference this year: shooting photos of sketchnotes immediately after completion with my iPhone camera on Twitpic. I saw how popular this approach was during NaNoDrawMo and it was popular during SXSW. I enjoyed immediate responses from friends on Twitter, especially those who couldn't make it to Austin.

Here is the full set — you can see higher resolution versions on Flickr.

Thanks to everyone who encouraged me last week in my sketchnoting!

Beacon Lounge Sketchnote Gallery

My sketchnote gallery in the Beacon Lounge was well received. I heard great feedback from a variety of people, and the 4 large 18" x 24" posters sold at silent auction for $681, all donated to non-profits through the Beacon Lounge. Thanks!

Photo by Samantha Warren

Visual Thinking 101 Panel

Thanks to everyone who came to the Visual Note-Taking 101 panel with Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, Austin Kleon and me. We had a great time sharing with a wonderful room of people. I'll be posting more about that very soon.

Photo by Michelle Milla

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March 6, 2010

Illustrating REWORK (Part 1 of 2)

I'm thrilled to share with you an opportunity I've had to write a guest post for the 37signals company blog, Signal vs Noise.

Jason Fried of 37signals invited me to write the post Illustrating REWORK about the process of illustrating their new business book, REWORK.

I went into detail about how we started the book illustration process, worked with Crown Publishing, generated illustration concepts and prepared pencil sketches for review, approval and final production.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Pencils vs. Inking Initially I’d planned on inking each illustration in a Moleskine sketchbook, making the reviewable artwork as close to final artwork as possible. But after thinking about what would best suit the review and feedback process, I decided it would be smart to review uninked pencil sketches instead.

Pencil concept sketch for “Everyone on the Front Lines”. –Photo by Brian Artka

This proved to be a time-saving decision. Had I inked pieces as near-final art, I would have lost time re-inking multiple illustrations to accommodate changes.

Because I invested up-front time in solving the illustrations as pencils, I only had to ink once before moving to Photoshop for final artwork.

Writing Part 1 was great fun to do, because I've learned over the years here that people are fascinated by the design process. I'm currently working on Part 2 for publication sometime soon.

Many thanks to Brian Artka for shooting my sketchbooks for the articles, and to Gabe Wollenburg for proofreading and editing tips on the pieces.

Listen to the Podcast

You can also listen to the latest 37signals Podcast. At 28:43 into the podcast, Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson and Matt Linderman talk about why they hired me for the illustrations and their perspective on the illustration process. Here's the MP3 file.

Review 5 Chapters

Check out Scribd to read 5 pre-release chapters of the book, including my illustrations.

Buy REWORK!

I'm very excited about the release of REWORK next week Tuesday, when everyone can read the book and see my illustrations in context. If you pick up a copy, please leave a comment here about the illustrations.

Pre-order REWORK at Amazon

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February 20, 2010

7 Years Blogging

Well what do you know — today is my 7th anniversary of writing at the Rohdesign Weblog.

I began this blog as a way to capture my thoughts on design, travel, technology, and more after selling my e-zine, the Palm Tipsheet in 2003.

Along with my articles here, you can also follow me on Twitter as @rohdesign for daily commentary.

Thanks for staying with me as readers for all these years, I appreciate your support!

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