37signals logo

This is Signal vs. Noise, a weblog by 37signals about design, business, experience, simplicity, the web, culture, and more. Established 1999 in Chicago. Visit the Product Blog for more information on our products.

Jobs:

See more on the Job Board.

Mike Rohde's SEED Conference 2007 sketchbook notes Matt Oct 30

14 comments Latest by Mike Rohde

Mike Rohde’s SEED Conference 2007 sketchbook notes = coolest conference notes ever!


Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Looking for a job? Got a position to fill? Check out the Job Board.
Got a web design project in mind? Find a web designer on Haystack. Browse by visual style, portfolio, budget, and geographic location.
Over 1 million people use 37signals' simple web-based software to collaborate on projects, track contacts, and organize their business with an intranet.

14 comments so far

Micheal 30 Oct 07

I absolutely love that slide show.

Micheal

Scott 30 Oct 07

Great conference too!

Mike Anderson 30 Oct 07

I do something similar when I listen to sermons at church.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike-anderson/sets/552457/

Richard 30 Oct 07

This is great work showing the full mind at work. It was always interesting (and disheartening) form me in high school when I would get reprimanded for ‘doodling’ during lectures. The truth is that when I exercise my brain in this fashion the information becomes embedded for me since it becomes related to imagery and page positioning.

When I doodled I score high 90s when I didn’t it was more in the 70s.

I wonder if there has been any research done in this realm.

Mike Rohde 30 Oct 07

Wow, thanks for the kind words! I’m glad everyone is enjoying the sketchnotes.

I had a great time doing them, though I feel like I didn’t do Jason, Carlos or Jim justice on my sketches of them — sorry guys! :-)

I’ve written a little more on the rationale behind my sketchnotes, and takeaways from the SEED Conference on my blog.

Thanks Jason & crew for putting the SEED Conference out there for people like me to attend. It’s much appreciated!

john 31 Oct 07

that is really cool. beautifully exicuted…I think I am going to start recording my meetings this way.

Michael Vu 31 Oct 07

That is very inspiring, thanks for sharing.

Brian 31 Oct 07

Thanks Mike, thats really an awesome way to take notes. Doodles and varying fonts/sizes really bring out much more context and meaning past the individual words. You won me as a convert also.

If anyone’s interested, I also wrote up some lessons I took home from the talks in this blog post.

Mike Rohde 31 Oct 07

Thanks Michael, John & Brian: I’m happy you liked these!

John & Brian, I reccomend giving this method a try. It’s unusual at first, because you’re trying to capture the ideas, analyze them and then convert them into a visual language on the fly. It gets easier the more you do it.

I’d suggest you try it out on a smaller scale meeting or talk at first and then use it at longer events as you get comfortable with your own style.

These aren’t like meeting minutes, so you may not catch every detail, but that’s not the point of sketchnotes. I think it’s more about capturing those ideas which resonate with you most, then finding a more visual way to capture them for later viewing and contemplation.

Tom G. 31 Oct 07

Uhm…

Would you mind going to all my meetings and take notes for me?

Reinier Meenhorst 31 Oct 07

Great stuff, I especially love the lettering Mike

Mike Rohde 01 Nov 07

Tom, if you want to pay me to attend meetings, pay for the flights and lodging, meals — I’m all ears! ;-)

Reiner, thanks! I enjoy lettering and typography in my logo and other design work, so it naturally seeps into my note taking. It’s good exercise for my work sketches too!

SH 01 Nov 07

Hey Mike – I sat behind you at SEED , and you were the most fascinating distraction in the room. Our whole row was really intrigued, so thanks so much for posting these to flickr!

Mike Rohde 01 Nov 07

SH, thanks for the comment! I hadn’t thought about people behind me seeing my sketchnote-taking — hope I wasn’t too distracting! :-)

Comments are closed