Editing The Pen Addict 17/transcript (section)

== Sketchnote Army ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, and you have the whole sketchnote army now.

'''Mike Rohde:''' Yeah, the website sketchnotearmy.com was an idea that came to me in 2009 as I was starting to observe all these people all over the place. A lot of people, I didn't even know who they were. I do now doing sketchnoting like, wow, this thing is sort of taking off. There needs to be a way to showcase these things. So I just did a search, sketchnotearmy.com was available, and I grabbed it and threw up a site and just started showcasing other people's work as a way to, number one, show, hey, sketchnoting is this cool thing and there's lots of ways you can do it. There's not just one way. And the second thing was, hey, there's people, all different people expressing their own way to do it. It's their own personality and they're all over the world. So there's no geographic limitation to them at all. So that was the intention, and I think it's done a good job of really sharing and breaking ground for new people that would otherwise maybe get lost in the noise.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, what really caught my eye when I first ran across your sketchnotes was, I guess, really the typographic style. And it's that dark black pen on the ivory moleskin page and the way that it was so clearly presented. I think it boggles my mind, at least knowing how I take notes in the chicken scratch that I go through, how you capture it so cleanly and accurately. You know, I've watched a lot of your videos and we'll link to all this stuff in the show notes. Myke's got some great videos of some talks he's done and some sketchnoting he's done. And the approach that you use, I mean, you've got to realize when Myke's doing this, he's not going to be – he's not going to these conferences to be the official transcriber for the conference. You're not trying to capture every word that's coming out of the mouth of whoever's speaking at whichever conference you're going to. And then also you're not trying to capture what you think other people want to hear. You're locked in to, like you said before, the big ideas and what speaks to you, and then that's what gets transferred on the page, right? I mean, that's kind of how your process goes when you're sitting down at a conference.

'''Mike Rohde:''' That's exactly right. And, you know, so sketchnotes are, in a way, very personal. So, you know, you might have five different people sitting at the same event. And the sketchnotes might on the surface look similar, but each person is going to have a different takeaway, a different perspective. And maybe something will be maybe a little more important to them that they would emphasize. So there is a bit of a personal flair to it as well as, you know, capturing information, which I think that's what's so fascinating and so interesting for people is to see how many different ways the same principles can be applied using all different, you know, tools. I tend to choose a small book and a pen, but I have friends who use pencil and then they color over it afterwards. Or maybe they use a pen and they use markers. So there's – it's pretty wide open, which I really like that. I like the fact that it's varied and each person can bring their own take to it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, and I think that's one of the keys you talk about. It has to be just that personal style or it's just not going to work when you're – you know, if you're someone that's trying to get into sketchnoting and do this, you know, don't do it for someone else. Make sure you're doing it for yourself. And that's how those ideas are really going to get on the page the best way.

'''Mike Rohde:''' Right, and I think, you know, you mentioned too that you're feeling challenged by, you know, your chicken scratch. You know, one of the things that I've found too is by just slowing down and listening for the big idea, you can be more deliberate about what you're capturing so you don't have to feel so rushed. And even myself, I find myself often getting caught up and trying to capture everything and I have to stop myself and slow myself down and really sort of analyze what's being said and then put something on paper. And it's kind of a nice feeling to be able to slow yourself down and not worry so much about capturing every detail. And I think that's a big key to, you know, doing this and having fun doing it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Now from those humble beginnings, you know, putting all the – going to the conferences and, you know, starting out just doing the sketchnotes for you. Just, you know, I mean, I'm sure you had never had any plans of it going to where it's gone today and posting those images on Flickr and it just kind of taking off. You know, what are some of the cool things that you've done recently? Like, for example, you know, I've known you for a while. But regardless of whether, you know, you've done the sketchnotes or not, there's a book called Rework by Jason Fried and the gang at 37 Signals that I'm a big fan of. And it just so happens that, hey, Myke Rohde did all the illustrations for the Rework book. And how did that all come about? Because I thought that was pretty cool and that's a pretty big deal, at least to me.

'''Mike Rohde:''' Yeah, that all came as a result of doing sketchnotes. So you're right. I never really planned for it to go where it has, although I'm very happy in the way that things have unfolded. And it's been challenging along the way to, you know, to release some of the control to other people and just let it develop itself. But in the beginning, it started just like you said. I just did it for myself because I was so frustrated with the old notes I was taking and it was just a good, positive way to express myself and then share. And after doing it for myself and just sort of exploring around, eventually I ended up at one of 37 Signals conferences called the Seat Conference. And they didn't even know I was there. I was hiding in the audience. I made some friends and I did my sketchnotes and put them up just like I always did. Well, they got wind of them and found out and they posted them on the 37 Signals blog, which has a pretty good readership, even more now than at the time. And from that point, they just sort of have taken off. And I started having a relationship with Jason and David over at 37 Signals and just ended up syncing with them. I seemed to capture what they were trying to say. And so when the Seat Conference came up again, the third version, which had different speakers and a different focus, they actually invited me to come down as a guest. So I didn't even pay to get in. And now it's to the point where I'm being hired to come in and do this work for events and organizers. And then they use that as a giveaway for their attendees, either as PDFs or even as little booklets, which I've done with some clients. So that's where it started from. And I just kept in touch with 37 Signals. I kept showing up at their events. You know, Jason Freed came to Milwaukee and I showed up with a friend and I captured that and had a chance to talk with him. And he just kept seeing me pop up all the time. And they really liked the work that I did. And the next thing you know, they were writing a book, which he sort of hinted to in Milwaukee. And they needed someone to illustrate the book. And they thought that I was a perfect fit, having seen all the work that I'd done, you know, for them and with their stuff, that they thought I'd be a good bet. So they brought me in and we worked together to do illustrations, which had, you know, a bit of a sketchnote-y feel, but were a little bit more, you know, thought out and a little more finished in some senses. They weren't done real time. So that's sort of the process. It was just a matter of, you know, showing up and popping up again and again and, you know, being visible. And that led to the project, which turned out really well in the end.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I thought it was fantastic. And if anyone's looking for an interesting book to read, I highly recommend Rework, not only for the content, but also for Myke's illustrations. It really worked well in that context.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It works really well on, like, the Kindle and stuff because the drawings are in black and white. So I read Rework on the Kindle. Oh, okay. So I didn't miss anything because I was reading it on an e-ink device. You know, I didn't, the images weren't either omitted and they weren't, they're not color. So, you know, it wasn't an issue.

'''Mike Rohde:''' Nothing lost. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's one of the good things about going with such a simple medium, black ink, you know, and even, you know, maybe a little shading. It renders in pretty much the worst case scenario. You could fax, you know, my illustrations to someone and still be able to see what they were. So that's, I think that's a positive.