But first, go check out the 16 pages of sketchnotes captured at the workshop:

Here are a few observations on the VizThink Workshop in Chicago:

Smart Leaders — The workshop was run by great people. Dave, Carl and Tom are great guys and know their stuff. Even for a practicing visual thinker like me, I found their offerings and insights valuable and challenging.

Dave Gray is the Professor of Visual Thinking & Language, having though long and deep about the whole topic as a language and as a tool. It was fascinating to hear how he's processed visual language at an atomic level to better understand how it works and how to use it effectively. He's also a great teacher.

Karl Gude is the Professor of Infinite Drawing, whose passion for drawing and solving problems literally oozed from his pores. Karl spent 27 years in the news business, generating news graphics for AP and Newsweek on tight deadlines. It was a blast to see him getting excited as he talked and taught us his techniques for more effective drawing and communication. Did I mention he's a complete nut? :-)

Tom Crawford made sure everything ran smoothly, while quietly observing the visual thinking workshop. At the gathering afterwards, I had a chance to talk more with Tom, and he's very well versed in visual thinking. Very cool guy.

Great Attendees — Attendees were fun to be with and from such diverse backgrounds and locations. I had a blast working with my teammates on solving information challenges together. It was also great fun to see team members who don't normally use visual language finding out how valuable visual thinking can be.

Fun Socializing — It was as much fun after the workshop as in the workshop. I had a chance to hang out with a core group of leaders and attendees at Rivers, on the Chicago River. We talked in depth and shared some great stories. It was so much fun, in fact, that I barely made the last train back to Milwaukee, running down the platform, climbing aboard with a only minute to spare!

My 2 big takeaways from VizThink Workshop Chicago?

Visual Thinking Will Help Me at my New Gig — I'm convinced that visual thinking will help me take on the next challenge of my career, as art director at Northwoods Software. I'll be working on large sites, organizing information as well as design, so these techniques will most certainly help in this regard. I'm excited about sharing these techniques with my new colleagues.

I Want to Share Visual Thinking Techniques — My passion for encouraging others to use visual thinking skills has been stoked up. Seeing non-artists experieicing the joy of solving problems with visual thinking tools was enlightening, because it reminded me that it's not about drawing skills, but about communication.

If you're considering a VizThink Workshop, I highly recommend the experience. It's quite reasonable, and you'll get great new tools and ideas from the workshop.

Thanks Dave, Karl and Tom for a fun and informative workshop!

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

Photo Credit: David King

Clay's assertion is that like gin sold from pushcarts helping Londoners cope with the sudden shift from rural farming to urban industrialization, the TV sitcom helped post-WWII society cope with a new surplus of leisure and free time:

If I had to pick the critical technology for the 20th century, the bit of social lubricant without which the wheels would've come off the whole enterprise, I'd say it was the sitcom. Starting with the Second World War a whole series of things happened--rising GDP per capita, rising educational attainment, rising life expectancy and, critically, a rising number of people who were working five-day work weeks. For the first time, society forced onto an enormous number of its citizens the requirement to manage something they had never had to manage before — free time.

He argues that society is awakening from a focus on TV sitcoms, and is realizing that they are in a position to create the content they want. They are able to contribute to the discussion, in ways not possible before:

And it's only now, as we're waking up from that collective bender, that we're starting to see the cognitive surplus as an asset rather than as a crisis. We're seeing things being designed to take advantage of that surplus, to deploy it in ways more engaging than just having a TV in everybody's basement.

What Shirky calls a cognitive surplus, I like to call disposable attention. Some may choose to spend attention on one-way activities like TV, but this is changing with the new generation. Shirky shares this story about one young girl's reaction to TV:

I was having dinner with a group of friends about a month ago, and one of them was talking about sitting with his four-year-old daughter watching a DVD. And in the middle of the movie, apropos nothing, she jumps up off the couch and runs around behind the screen. That seems like a cute moment. Maybe she's going back there to see if Dora is really back there or whatever. But that wasn't what she was doing. She started rooting around in the cables. And her dad said, "What you doing?" And she stuck her head out from behind the screen and said, "Looking for the mouse."

I'm fascinated at how deeply this 4 year old has been impacted by interactivity in her life. She so wanted to have an impact on the TV show she was experiencing that she had to "find the mouse" in an effort to make an impact. Consuming was not enough for her — she wanted to interact.

There are many new opportunities available to us that were not available 10 years ago. We have the power to create. We have the power to write our own stories on blogs, tell them in podcasts and show them in videos. We can contribute to larger projects like Wikipedia or attend BarCamps.

The encouragement to me in all this is we're moving beyond the stage of simply sitting on a couch, accepting what's being presented. We're given the opportunity to create and share our own stories, finding there are others like us out there, interested in our stories and willing to share theirs with us.

Here are a few great parting quotes from Shirky's talk:

Here's something four-year-olds know: A screen that ships without a mouse ships broken. Here's something four-year-olds know: Media that's targeted at you but doesn't include you may not be worth sitting still for. Those are things that make me believe that this is a one-way change. Because four year olds, the people who are soaking most deeply in the current environment, who won't have to go through the trauma that I have to go through of trying to unlearn a childhood spent watching Gilligan's Island, they just assume that media includes consuming, producing and sharing.

We're looking for the mouse. We're going to look at every place that a reader or a listener or a viewer or a user has been locked out, has been served up passive or a fixed or a canned experience, and ask ourselves, "If we carve out a little bit of the cognitive surplus and deploy it here, could we make a good thing happen?" And I'm betting the answer is yes.

Related Links
Transcript of Clay's talk
Book: Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations
Mark Bernstein: Shirky and History

For a while I've wanted to create stickers for Web414, the local Milwaukee web design and development group I'm part of, so I sent some EPS art to PSPrint.

A week later, I received a package of 50 white stickers with a 2 color Web414 logo on them, and they look great!

The stickers were designed at business card size: 3.5" x 2" then trimmed above and below the logo. Using my wife's corner rounder from her scrap-booking toolkit, I rounded the corners to complete the look I was aiming for.

I could have gone with a custom die, but since this was a free test run, it wasn't in the budget. If I were running a large quantity, I'd most definitely order a die.

Sticker Quality
PSPrint uses a medium weight vinyl for their stickers, printing the logo in 4/color fade-resistant inks with a 6 months fade-free guarantee, under normal use.

The substrate is tough and resilient, though these are not intended for extreme situations. For heavy duty stickers, check out StickerRobot.com.

Still, for placement on a laptop, notebook or other medium duty applications, I'm very pleased with the results of the PSPrint stickers created for Web414.

Come to the Web414 May meeting and get one free 'til they're gone!

Related Links
Flickr Photos: Squared, Rounded, and shown In Context with a Moleskine.

This Evernote notebook of sketchnotes is a great example of how well Evernote's server-based scanning and character recognition works on hand-drawn text.

Give it a try!

I loved living and working in Milwaukee, helping independent software developers with branding and design challenges at MakaluMedia.

These were the major reasons I decided to decline the Apple opportunity.

Fast forward to spring 2008.

Following several discussions with leadership team and design/development staff at Northwoods Software, I've been offered an art director position, which I have accepted. I start my new job in mid-May.

After 10 great years at MakaluMedia, I'm taking the next step.

A Tough Decision
This change was a very tough decision. I love the design work I do, the clients I help and the many colleagues I've had the pleasure to collaborate with. I've spent several years building a reputation for doing good design work, solving problems for my clients and being a designer who listens and is easy to work with.

There is nothing wrong with MakaluMedia. I've loved my time at MakaluMedia.

This change in direction is about new opportunities and challenges on multiple levels. This is the next step in my growth as a person, a designer and art director.

10 Years at MakaluMedia: Priceless
Working for MakaluMedia since 1998 has been a wonderful experience. Matt Henderson, the owner of MakaluMedia and I have been through quite a bit together.

I was Matt's first employee, leaving a position with Hare Strigenz, a Milwaukee print design firm. I'd developed a passion for the web and wanted to learn the new medium by diving in head first.

I learned HTML from books and building sites in BBEdit. in 2003 I shifted from tabled design to web standards, thanks to Designing with Web Standards.

I was the first MakaluMedia employee to work fully remotely. This was way back in 1998 when it was still a little quirky and unusual. I produced my design work on a Powerbook Wallstreet, with a 19" Sony CRT on a folding table in my apartment.

I experienced a shift from larger design projects with the European Space Agency, to building a network of small, independent clients over several years. The first year was tough, but a long-term, steady approach to doing good work and making clients happy has paid off in many referrals, a backlog of work and profitability.

By working remotely and having to build my own network of clients and partners, I've effectively run a small design business. I've enjoyed the entire process: finding clients, winning projects, solving design challenges, selecting and managing partners, producing the solutions, invoicing the work and promoting the work.

These past 10 years have shaped who I am, formalized my iterative design process, provided a better understanding of business, built my knowledge of helping clients, improved my customer service and more. It's been a priceless experience.

Northwoods Opportunities & Challenges
Becoming an art director at Northwoods Software is a step in my process of growth as a designer and a person. I'll be working on larger projects, exercising research, analysis, problem solving and visual thinking skills in new and different ways. I'm looking forward to bringing what I've learned to new projects and users.

I'm very excited about working within a creative group again. Working alone has developed my focus, but I've missed being in an office with a small group of creative people. Over the years I've built a network of design colleagues online, but IM, Twitter and voice chats are just no substitute for having colleagues close at hand.

Sharing with my team will be satisfying part of the position. I'm looking forward to offering up my 20+ years of experience in design practice with colleagues. I hope that all of the joy and pain gained from many years of working on projects with clients will benefit my colleagues at Northwoods.

The company is focusing on new creative areas of expertise, and I'm extremely excited to be part of this. I'm hoping my skills and experiences in building a small design business from scratch will be helpful in this regard.

Finally, the company attracted me with its unique working environment, including a private office with shower and toilet, ping pong tables, popcorn on Thursdays, workout and nap rooms and space outside for frisbee. Northwoods' family first approach and flexibility made a positive impact on me, as I'm coming from a pretty family-friendly and flexible work at home environment.

All in all, I am very excited about this new Northwoods opportunity.

Thanks!
I'm very thankful to Matt Henderson for the opportunity to be a part of MakaluMedia these past 10 years. It's been a great ride, I've learned quite a bit, and I know the team will continue to produce great stuff.

I'm also grateful to the team at Northwoods, for making me a part of their team at this exciting time in the life of the company. I'm looking forward to being a contributor to Northwoods' success and growth.

Northwoods Movies & Photos
Tracy Apps, a friend of mine and my future Northwoods colleague, has grabbed several movie clips and photos of the Northwoods offices on Flickr. I thought would be fun to post several of them here for a little context. :-)

My New Office at Northwoods

Yep, that's my own private office with a window, bathroom, shower and vanity. Northwoods has retrofitted an old hospital space for their offices, so every employee gets an office just like this. Pretty slick.

The Creative Wing Tour

Tracy takes the camera down the hall from my office, and shows the central area where the ping pong tables and other amenities are located.

Brian Artka Scootering in the Creative Wing

A few weeks ago, Northwoods picked up scooters for the team, and of course my friend Brian Artka had to show off his scootering skillz!

Tracy's Extreme On-Board Scootering

Here we have Tracy capturing her thrill-a-minute extreme scooter ride!

Ping Pong Tables

And here are several Northwoods team members playing ping pong.

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.

I intentionally choose to share my drawings, sketches and sketchnotes on the web as a way of encouraging others in their own drawings, sketches and sketchnotes.

Photoshop World Sketchnotes!
On Monday, I learned that Amanda Kern, professor at Valencia Community College in Orlando Florida was inspired by my SXSW Sketchnotes. But she went a step further and encouraged her students capture sketchnotes while attending Photoshop World last week. Wow, that is so cool!

From Amanda's post on her Photoshop World experience:

If you happened to be at the conference you may have noticed many of us sketching away in our sketchbooks during classes. Several of us had attendees and speakers comment on how we took such great notes during the conference.

With inspiration from Mike Rohde’s awesome sketchnotes, I proposed the idea of creating sketchnotes to students who were awarded Photoshop World Scholarships. They’re a great reflection of just how many great things were thrown our way during the conference. I’m quite impressed with how they turned out. Sketchnotes provided a creative way for us to document the experience.

I love this! It's wonderful to see students exploring the idea of sketchnotes, finding out how to make something unique and interesting for others to see, but also rich and detailed for their own memories of the event.

Amanda, thanks for trying sketchnotes, I'm honored to have inspired you guys!

Related Links
Amanda Kern's Blog
Photoshop World Sketchnotes Pool on Flickr

The case is very high quality, as expected from Piel Frama. It's warm red w/ tan interior and has a snap closure. I'm sure it's perfect for someone out there. :-)

Package includes the case and a matching red belt clip, shipped in the original box.

SOLD!

Photo: Flap Detail
Photo: Open View

I've signed up to attend the VizThink Workshop, on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 in downtown Chicago. With a minimum of 15 and maximum 50 attendees, this event led by Dave Gray and Karl Gude will teach attendees how to exercise their visual thinking skills, and learn new techniques and approaches to visual thinking.

Topics covered include:

• Introduction to visual language and visual literacy
• Strategies of information design
• Primary methods for organizing both qualitative and quantitative information
• Professional tips and tricks

From the description of the VizThink Workshop:

Your presentations don't have to be dull and ridden with bullet points. After this workshop you will understand how to explore, organize and visually display information of all kinds, from complex data sets to visual instruction manuals.

Participants will learn how visual thinking can be used to explore complex information and present it more effectively. This workshop combines high-level design principles with practical applications — rules of thumb and "tricks of the trade" — that professional information designers use to quickly create clear representations from complex or potentially confusing information.

I'm very excited about meeting Dave Gray of XPLANE, who I've bumped into on the net for years, and his co-leader Karl Gude, a professor at Michigan State University's Journalism School and former Graphics Director at Newsweek magazine.

The opportunity to see both of these guys together was too cool and Chicago is too close, so I've decided to jump at the chance to attend this workshop and expand my knowledge of visual thinking.

The cost for the workshop? $400 and worth every cent. You can be sure I'll have a full report after attending and probably a truckload of sketchnotes to share. :-)

Sign Up Now
If you're interested in expanding your own visual thinking skills and being taught by the Jedi Masters of visual thinking, this is your chance: VizThink Chicago Workshop.

Back in early 2007, Pam Trainer, the sister of Jon Trainer at Outer Level (another client) came to me to help her tune up, simplify and redraw the logo for Lola & Foxy, her startup business offering pet collars, leads and tags online.

The logo refresh project went very well, so when Pam needed several pet tags designed in a pinch for a trade show late in the year, she called me again for help.

I happened to be booked when she contacted me, but I'd been working in an art direction role with Milwaukee designer Jason Behlke on some other production and design projects, and thought this would be a perfect job to collaborate on with him.

Research & Analyis
I talked with Pam about technical specs, wording, look and feel ideas and overall goals of the project. Then I took all of the raw information and analyzed it, producing a design brief with Pam's specs and my own thoughts on style, fonts, colors and other directions so that Jason could start working on the design.

Jason produced black & white concepts in Illustrator, which I reviewed and presented to Pam with detailed thoughts, gathered her feedback and we continued until we had final 4 winning designs that were properly prepped for the tag production house.

Pam was able to get samples in time for her trade show, and the designs went over quite well. She's now selling all four of the tag designs on the Lola & Foxy site and reports they're very popular.

Project Observations
While this was a small, quick project, I think it provides valuable insight on how the process works, and how everyone benefits. Pam had a great experience and now has a popular set of tags to sell. Jason had a chance to do some very cool design work on something he'd never done before. I had the pleasure of helping Pam make an idea reality, while acting as a guide and mentor to Jason through the process.

I smile, knowing we've all benefited working on this fun project. Even better, these pet tags are benefitting pet owners who can enjoy the fruits of our collaboration.

Related Links
"Love Me" Charm and Tag holder (Brown)
"Love Me" Charm and Tag holder (Pink)
"I'm a Rescue" Charm and Tag holder (Pink)
"I'm a Rescue" Charm and Tag holder (Blue)

In the 7th episode of the Rohdesign Podcast, my guest is Marcus Nelson of SuperStarch.com, UserVoice.com, CitizenDesk.com and many other sites. We talk about UserVoice, SXSW Interactive, life & work, passion and how to bloom where you're planted. Check out Marcus' J. Crew Modeling Photos! :-)

SXSW 2008 Podcasts RSS Feed

Bands include: New Order, The Fixx, The Cure, UB40, English Beat, Heaven 17, R.E.M., Tears for Fears, INXS, The Smiths, Haircut 100, Missing Persons, Flock of Seagulls and more... :-)

Check out my Mixwit Mix Tape Collection

Related Links:
Marcus Nelson's wife was inspired by my mix tape and pulled out a New Order Substance cassette in this Flickr shot.

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