Rohdesign | Designer Mike Rohde

Rediscovering My 1980s Mixtapes

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:37:50 GMT

This morning with a tweet from Luke Dorny I was reminded of the many mixtapes I created in the mid-1980s and early 1990s.

Many of my friends from Milwaukee moved away to college, so I created mixtapes of new wave music for them to listen to on cassette tapes. That's right, cassette tapes.

Making the Mix

I would spend hours listening to Milwaukee's 91.7 FM WMSE, our local college radio station, capturing great music on my cassette deck.

There were no downloads, Pandora, LastFM, iTunes or Amazon MP3 available for creating music mixes. It was a matter of hours of listening, the luck of catching a great tune and plenty of re-taping.

Typically, I would create a master tape on a high quality cassette, making copies for friends from the master.

Of course, being a designer, I would always create a tape cover to complete the package, which was as much fun as capturing and building the music on the tape.

I've been slowly converting my old tapes to MP3s and thought it would be fun to share them. I hope you enjoy these two flashback mixtapes from the mid-eighties!

CUT Mixtape TWO - 1986

Download: 183MB MP3

CUT Mixtape SIX - 1987

Download: 185MB MP3

(Note: CUT SIX starts about 50 seconds into playing)

NaNoDrawMo '09 Sketchnotes

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:48:09 GMT

Decided to take up the challenge of NaNoDrawMo (National November Drawing Month?) as dreamed up by Steven Frank.

According to Steven:

Loosely defined goals are: 50 individual works/drawings produced between Nov 1 and Nov 30. Extra points if they work together to tell a story or otherwise share an overall theme (people you know, people you saw on the bus, etc).

Want to join the fun? Start drawing, post your images on Flickr and join the NaNoDrawMo Flickr group where you can add your images to the group pool. You can also keep track with a NaNoDrawMo Twitter search.

I'm probably crazy for doing a project where I have to create 1.67 sketchnotes in my Moleskine sketchbook each day, but hey, life is short. I'll continue adding sketchnotes here as they are created, until all 50 are posted:

Photographing Linnea

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:13:49 GMT

On Friday, my friend Derek Dysart stopped by the house to take photos of our 2-week old daughter, Linnea. We had a great time working the Derek, enjoying a house call after experiencing the agony of waiting for photoshoots at Sears.

I've known Derek was a photographer for a while, but never had a chance to hire him for a project until now. Boy am I glad we brought him in! Just few hours after our session, Derek posted this amazing photo of Linnea:

Derek was able to capture Linnea in a special moment with this shot. Every time I look at it I'm just blown away with the expressiveness of her eyes in this image.

This experience with Derek also reminds why it's so important to hire people who know what they're doing. In this case, Derek has spent time building his craft of shooting portraits, and it really shows.

Derek remarked to me that this shot is one of his top 5, and reminds him why he loves photography so much.

Hire Derek Dysart

If you're looking for a photographer for portraits in your home, or other photo assignments, drop Derek an email or give him a call at +1 (262) 758-2456.

Visual Note-Taking 101 Panel Selected for SXSW 2010!

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:10:36 GMT

Great news! The Visual Note-Taking 101 panel I'm involved with, has been chosen in the first wave of approved SXSW 2010 programming!

My friends Austin Kleon, Sunni Brown, Dave Gray and I plan to present the panel together. We had a blast doing the Visual Note-Taking 101 Webinar back in May, so doing it live ought to be even more fun!

We don't have any details just yet, other than we'll be presenting at SXSW Interactive 2010 March 12-16, 2009.

Panel Description:

Ever since Leonardo put pen to paper, visual note-taking has been a route to improve the quality of your thinking, make information more memorable, and make your ideas easier to share with others.

Learn practical techniques and “tricks of the trade” from modern visual note-taking masters: how to write, sketch, and diagram ideas live, in real time, as you hear them.

Thanks to all who voted for the panel and to Austin Kleon, who submitted it!

Linnea Grace Rohde

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:34:00 GMT

Say hello to Linnea Grace Rohde!

She was born happy and healthy on October 15, 2009, 4:23PM at 5lbs 8.5oz, 19"

Launched: Sketchnotes of SXSW® Interactive '09 iPhone app!

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:08:02 GMT

Hooray and hallelujah!

The iPhone app I demoed in June and have been working with the folks at SXSW and SixVoices on, has launched! Get it for FREE in the iTunes app store or directly via your iPhone or iPod Touch:

Download Sketchnotes of SXSW® Interactive '09

The SXSW and SixVoices teams worked with me the last few months to get the details right and to work through the entire process of submitting this app to the iTunes app store for approval.

I'm pleased with how the Sketchnotes Tapstack app turned out. It feels snappy on my iPhone 3GS.

Tapstack Demo Video

Here is a brief demo video of the pre-release app (I'll update this shortly):

Sketchnotes of SXSW® Interactive '09 Tapstack App Demo from Mike Rohde on Vimeo.

The final release adds a new 'double-tap' feature that jumps back one card at a time, so you don't need to turn the iPhone or iTouch sideways to access the nav menu.

Thanks SXSW and SixVoices!

Thanks to the staff at SXSW (Shawn, Scott, David, Pete & Melissa) and the SixVoices crew (Mark, Samuel & Jonah) for your help and guidance. You were all so great to work with. Thanks for helping make this app happen.

I'm already excited about an opportunity to sketchnote SXSW Interactive 2010 next March and creating a follow-up Tapstack app of those sketchnotes.

Get your free copy of the app today for your iPhone or iPod Touch, add reviews to the app in the iTunes store and leave comments here. I'd love to hear your feedback.

Download Sketchnotes of SXSW® Interactive '09

John Topley's Weblog Redesign

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 10:10:33 GMT

Way back in June 2007, while working at MakaluMedia, a client I'd worked on a logo design for, John Topley contacted me about redesigning his personal weblog.

John has been blogging since 2003 (as long as I have) and was ready for a custom design for the blog software he was in the process of creating with Ruby on Rails.

From John's Putting My Blog On Rails post about the redesign:

"Once I'd taken the decision that I was going to create a new blog from scratch, I emailed Mike Rohde at the end of May 2007 and asked if he would be interested in coming up with a new graphic design for the site.
"I chose Mike because way back in 2005 I read Ian Landsman’s post about working with Mike to create a business logo and I'd been impressed with the end result. I'd also worked with Mike before on a as-yet unrealised design project, so I knew that we were a good fit."

After talking with John about his goals and requirements, I began sketching to get direction, then with John's approval, moved on to mockups in Fireworks. Once the mockups were approved, I worked with Corrie Haffly to prepare the Fireworks files for her to cut-up the design in XHTML and CSS.

You can read about the fully detailed process from John's perspective on his latest blog post Putting My Blog On Rails.

Thanks John for choosing to work with me. The blog looks great and I hope you get many, many years of good use from the design!

Transform

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:27:37 GMT

Watch this short film from Zack Arias. Watch it all the way to the end:

Zack talks about photography here, but the principles apply to any creative endeavor. Let his words sink in and ponder them.

Drops Like Stars '09 Sketchnotes

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:59:03 GMT

On a hot, humid, Wednesday night in Chicago, I had the honor of live sketchnoting Rob Bell as he kicked off his Drops Like Stars tour at Congress Theater. Tonight I've scanned and posted all 12 pages of my sketchnotes on Flickr:

In May, I was invited by Rob to come sketchnote the Chicago Drops Like Stars kickoff event and gladly accepted the opportunity (and challenge) of capturing Rob live.

My wife, two friends from my church and I took a road trip to Chicago on Wednesday night and had a great time experiencing Rob in the old Congress Theater. Sketchnoting the event was challenging: lighting was dim and it was hot, but as I got into the flow, the light, the heat and humidity faded into the background.

One happy side-effect of the dim lighting and humid conditions in the Congress is a looseness to the sketchnote quality. Normally I work in well-lighted, comfortable conditions, which produce much tighter sketchnotes.

Here are all 12 pages of sketchnotes (captured in real time at the event):

Who is Rob Bell?

Rob Bell, for those who may not know of him, is the pastor of Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He's also been the featured presenter in the Nooma series of short videos and is currently on a world tour presenting Drops Like Stars, talking about the connections between suffering and creativity.

Rob is one of my favorite speakers and a great storyteller. I find His unique way of sharing messages from the Bible with relevance to my life today and in context with the ancient cultures and tradition when the scriptures were written, fascinating.

Rob, thanks so much for inviting me to sketchnote your talk in Chicago, I had a great time. I hope you and others thoroughly enjoy the sketchnotes!

Vote for Our SXSW Panel: Visual Note-Taking 101

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:52:21 GMT

I have a favor to ask of you, dear reader.

If you're thinking of attending SXSW Interactive 2010, please vote for the panel that Austin Kleon, Sunni Brown, Dave Gray and myself are proposing to present called Visual Note-Taking 101

Panel Description:

Ever since Leonardo put pen to paper, visual note-taking has been a route to improve the quality of your thinking, make information more memorable, and make your ideas easier to share with others.

Learn practical techniques and “tricks of the trade” from modern visual note-taking masters: how to write, sketch, and diagram ideas live, in real time, as you hear them.

Questions we will be discussing on the panel:

What is visual thinking and note-taking?
Why are visual notes important?
I can't draw -- how can I take visual notes?
What are some good drawing tips for beginners?
What's the proper way to draw a stick figure?
How can I become a better listener?
How do I synthesize ideas in real-time?
How can I use visual notes in the work place?
How can I practice my visual note-taking?
How can I share my notes with the world?

What is a 'Panel Picker' Anyway?

For context, SXSW Interactive has a unique way of choosing the panels that are featured at each year's event called the Panel Picker. Attendees and others can submit ideas for panels and the ones SXSW find most interesting are posted for voting on my attendees of SXSW Interactive.

Vote today: Visual Note-Taking 101

Thank you!

Associations Now: Visual Thinking Feature Article PDF

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:51:49 GMT

The August issue of Associations Now Magazine is out and I've had many requests for copies of the magazine after writing up my illustration process a week ago.

Lisa Junker, the Editor-in-Chief of Associations Now Magazine has been taking requests for printed copies of the magazine.

In fact, the requests were so popular they've run out of spare copies to give away!

As a solution, Lisa and her team have created a PDF of the entire Visual Thinking feature article, with my cover and feature spread illustration work included.

If you enjoy the article, please leave a comment here to let the Associations Now team how much you appreciate their hard work.

Download The Associations Now Visual Thinking Feature (2.5MB PDF)

Molecover Review

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 22:05:37 GMT

About a month ago, I came across the Molecover, a leather Moleskine cover. Being a huge Moleskine fan, I was curious about this accessory.

Tyler from Molecover was happy to provide a black pocket sized Molecover to review. Below is the video review I've recorded with my iPhone 3GS camera, showing details of the Molecover and how it wraps around a Moleskine notebook.

I'm impressed with the build quality of the Molecover. The leather is very precisely cut, with fine stitching. I'm amazed at how thin the leather is, which keeps the cover from getting overly bulky once it's wrapped around a Moleskine.

Molecover is a great way to cover a beat up Moleskine, or protect a Moleskine and add a bit of added elegance.

Associations Now Magazine: Sketchnote Illustrations

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:38:31 GMT

I was honored and excited to be interviewed by Mark Athitakis for his Associations Now Magazine article, Are You A Visual Thinker?

Imagine my surprise and excitement at being hired to illustrate the Associations Now Magazine cover and feature spread for the very same article in my signature sketchnote style.

What a great opportunity to share visual thinking in a fun way, to about 20,000 leaders of associations.

The Hand-Drawn Idea

As Mark was writing the article, Associations Now Magazine's art director, Beth Lower, saw and liked my sketchnote of the iPhone 3GS Unboxing. Each issue of the magazine has a different design in context to the feature story, which led Beth to a completely hand-drawn, sketchnote style cover to communicate the visual thinking feature story.

Beth and I chatted about the concept on the phone, and both of us resonated with the concept of a visual thinking collage, comprised of the tools and notes about them in a hand-drawn sketchnote style.

Pencil Sketches

For the next step, I sketched out a rough cover design idea using pencil in my Moleskine squared notebook, and scanned it for Beth to review for direction.

Beth liked the the look and feel of my pencil sketch and approved the illustration phase of the project. I prepared for the final sketchnote illustration, though I knew some elements would likely need to be sorted out on the fly.

Inked Illustration

Because I wanted to create the art at 100% actual size, I found a sheet of heavy paper to layout the structure of the cover on. I drew out the full size of the cover and began laying out elements I knew had to be in place — Associations Now logo, headlines and table of contents elements in pencil, etc.

Once the main elements were organized, I began inking in the elements, starting with the logo in the top left of the page and working my way down to the main headline on the left side of the page.

I encountered issues with gel ink reacting less than smoothly with my paper and pencil graphite lines, but thankfully, I was able to work through those issues and ink out the cover for production.

Photoshop Production

Once I was pleased with the final illustration, I scanned it into my MacBook and began preparing the final art for production in Photoshop.

I knew Beth wanted to capture the sketchnote style, which meant producing a creamy background color behind the rich black illustration work.

Cream can be a very tough color to capture in the printing process, using standard colors of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK). It's so easy to lean too much toward yellow or red and ruin the creamy feeling you're hoping for.

I found what I felt would reproduce in CMYK as a good cream combo, then imported the final scans in, tweaking the contrast, moving elements around in subtle ways and perfecting the final artwork.

Once the art was finalized, I shipped source artwork off for production.

Inside Feature Illustration

Next up was the two-page feature spread illustration which had to continue a consistent image and feel from the cover, to connect them visually.

Beth provided a PDF of the page spread with a headline in place. I used this to trace and ink in the headline and figure out where drawn elements needed to be placed.

I used some elements from the cover for consistency, then began sketching out other elements to fill the remaining space in a balanced way. This is where I built art elements on the fly, allowing the concept of the article and elements already created for the cover to spark new ideas.

When the inner spread was completed to my satisfaction, I created a Photoshop file similar to the cover, with cream background and the elements in their exact locations on the page.

Beth had one more element for me to sketchnote — a quote by Ryan Coleman of VizThink. I sketched out a pencil grid, drew the lettering, scanned and sent the art out to wrap up my illustrations.

Printed Magazines: Wow!

A few weeks later, a package arrived at my door with a package of final, printed copies of the Associations Now August magazine, featuring my illustrations on the cover and feature spread. I'm very pleased with the cream color and how well the illustrations look on the page.

The Associations Now team have been very pleased with the final results, and I'm excited to hear how their subscribers react to this unusual issue of the magazine.

Thank you Mark Athitakis, Beth Lower and Lisa Junker from Associations Now for your faith in me to produce the cover and feature spread illustrations. I'm very honored to have been chosen.

If you are interested in getting a copy of the August issue, let me know. Lisa, the magazine's editor has told me she has limited copies of the magazine available for those who ask nicely. :-)

Related Links:
Associations Now Magazine Illustrations Set
Are You A Visual Thinker?
Download The Associations Now Visual Thinking Feature (2.5MB PDF)

About Mike Rohde's Sketchnotes

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:25:08 GMT

Welcome podcast listeners, visiting via the Von Glitschka recommendation of my sketchnotes on Freelance Radio 35.

Thanks for stopping by!

What are Sketchnotes?

Sketchnotes are a visual note-taking technique, featuring a combo of hand-drawn sketches, typography and text notes. I capture talks & presentations in real time with this technique, using a black gel pen and a pocket Moleskine sketchbook.

Learn how to sketchnote

Check out the VizThinkU: Visual Note-Taking 101 Webinar I did with Sunni Brown, Austin Kleon and Dave Gray. In the webinar, we share our techniques and tips for taking visual notes and thoughts on their benefits over regular notes.

Logo, Icon & Web Design

I'm professional designer and art director, specializing in logo, icon & web design. Feel free to have a look around the site or send me a note.

Why Visual Notes Work

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:21:14 GMT

Here's an interesting video from TED of Tom Wujec, an information designer and Fellow at Autodesk. I thought it would be an insightful video to share here, as I've been focused on sketchnotes and visual note-taking the last few months.

In his talk, Tom explains the 3 ways our brains make meaning, help us understand words, images, feelings and connections. He also talks about why visual notes resonate so well with humans (sketchnotes for instance) and he shares the techniques Autodesk uses to plan strategically with visual thinking.

Rohdesign | Designer Mike Rohde

Rediscovering My 1980s Mixtapes

Making the Mix

CUT Mixtape TWO - 1986

CUT Mixtape SIX - 1987

NaNoDrawMo '09 Sketchnotes

Photographing Linnea

Hire Derek Dysart

Visual Note-Taking 101 Panel Selected for SXSW 2010!

Panel Description:

Linnea Grace Rohde

Launched: Sketchnotes of SXSW® Interactive '09 iPhone app!

Tapstack Demo Video

Thanks SXSW and SixVoices!

Related Links

John Topley's Weblog Redesign

Transform

Drops Like Stars '09 Sketchnotes

Who is Rob Bell?

Vote for Our SXSW Panel: Visual Note-Taking 101

Panel Description:

Questions we will be discussing on the panel:

What is a 'Panel Picker' Anyway?

Associations Now: Visual Thinking Feature Article PDF

Molecover Review

Associations Now Magazine: Sketchnote Illustrations

The Hand-Drawn Idea

Pencil Sketches

Inked Illustration

Photoshop Production

Inside Feature Illustration

Printed Magazines: Wow!

About Mike Rohde's Sketchnotes

What are Sketchnotes?

Sketchnote References

Interviews

Sketchnote Video References

Learn how to sketchnote

Logo, Icon & Web Design

Why Visual Notes Work