Drawing is a tool not just for creating and communicating, but for critical thinking too. In this week’s workshop we explored one aspect of that: using drawing as a learning skill to help us process, understand and remember new ideas.
At its simplest, the act of drawing something already helps us remember it better than if we’d only written down its name. Researchers think that’s because the process of drawing stimulates more areas of the brain. It exercises our visual senses and motor skills. And it’s a semantic process: when you need to find an image to represent a word, you have to think hard about what it actually means.
Moreover we can develop sketchnoting techniques to help us record, organise and recall detailed and complex flows of information. Sketchnoting is the practice of making notes more visual and spatial than pages of linear text. By laying out content in a non-linear form on a single sheet, you can more easily spot links between disparate ideas that would be less visible as words that are all the same size and pages apart. By summarising the information in one clear graphic note, you can make it easier to see the big picture.
Sketchnoting need be no more than a personal learning skill. Or you may wish to share your notes with others. Either way, one of the big benefits of recording information visually is that it helps you stay engaged during the process and more inspired to return to your notes. That can be especially helpful if the material is dry, abstract and complex.
You’ll notice from a quick web search for ‘sketchnotes’ that there is no one way of making one. For instance, there is no “correct” amount of imagery versus words. We hope this week’s homework inspires you to start to find the styles and techniques that work best for you. And if you find it helpful, you can recruit drawing to help you make some memory keys too.
“Until we can insert a USB into our ear and download our thoughts, drawing remains the best way of getting visual information on to the page. ”
This week in summary
Warm Up
Make it part of your everyday
Give your sketchnoting skills a quick stretch, and start to work drawing more into your everyday habits, by applying a little more visual and spatial thinking to what you would normally note down in written lists. For example, you could map out your exercise routine, add diagrams to a recipe or add pictures to mark events in your calendar. You could also take a more visual approach to recording meeting notes, say, or planning a presentation.
What’s your type?
What’s your type?
What style of lettering is best when you’re sketching notes for others? That’s the question we put to Chris and Dan in this video. Following their advice, we recommend devoting time to developing your own lettering styles.
To find your favourite typefaces, sample book covers, packaging, film posters, comic strips… You can search for the full alphabet based on a few letters using a font-finding app, like WhatTheFont, for a computer or phone. You could also browse an online type catalogue, such as myfonts.com.
Once you’ve selected a few lettering styles, test how well they work for you by applying them to phrases from list A. Notice how easily and quickly you can reproduce each font in different weights and sizes. Whether certain typefaces work better for you in capitals or lowercase. And the contrasting mood and emphasis you can create by combining fonts.
Next, narrow your selection to two contrasting typefaces that you can combine and adapt for every purpose. Then set aside short but regular blocs of time to practise your two fonts with the phrases in list B, which contain all the alphabet shapes.
Keep your fonts handy for easy reference. Take every opportunity to use and get them under your skin. Your lettering choices will soon adapt to your hand and become unique to you.
While you’re about it, why not also keep a note of your favourite designs for boxes, arrows, link lines and dividers?
List B:
List A:
GRIT & ENDURANCE
Laughing all the way
Fine packaging, poor product
BIG HOUSE, LITTLE HOUSE
Shadows fall on castle walls
Angry. Blissful. Charismatic.
Home is where the heart is
Birds flying high
Still waters run deep
The outlook was bleak
The prospect was bright
BIG NUMBERS
(12 x 4) + 9 = 57
!@*%?!
amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes
the five boxing wizards jump quickly
pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs
now the fickle queuing zebras stamp, vex, yell & judge
Make Memory Keys
Here’s Cathy with a reminder about how memory keys work, and an idea for how you could experiment with them this week.
“When your mind and body are working in tandem, there is little room left for distractions.”
Homework challenges
Shape the title to tell the story
Imagine a book without a title. We’d be at a loss to know its topic and whether it’s worth picking up. A title is our first key to meaning and can do a great deal to convey the story at a glance. So when we’re making a sketchnote, above all else, it makes sense to put effort into the title.
Titles with maximum impact exploit the visual as well as lexical qualities of the written word. That can mean simply finding the right typeface to fit the mood. But in the right context, picture-word titles can do a lot of work for you. So this task is about playing with the visual design of lettering to reinforce the message behind a title in a similar way to these picture-words, below.
To find titles to work with, look through a bookshelf or podcast library and select four headings at random. Be playful, think the concept through and remember to keep the words legible.
Sketchnoting
Now on to your meatiest homework task this week. We’d like you to make a more considered sketchnote on one (or more) of these three topics, below. Make your choice depending on the time you have available.
Your task is to clearly and quite swiftly record what’s most relevant, useful and interesting to you, and to present that information in a way that will help you understand and remember it later. This is not about making an artwork, so don’t worry how ‘artful’ it looks. As ever, if it fulfils its purpose, it’s good enough.
One useful technique is to start by deciding on an underlying structure to give the different elements sense and place. Imagine you’re about to sketchnote a talk called “Three tips to win a pitch”. That helpful number in the title means you can design a neat framework in advance, like the example below with the three speech bubbles in the top row. But if you have little idea about the content and order of information before you start, choose a layout like the more freeform structures on the bottom row.
20 minutes on ways to be a better listener
Take up to 20 minutes to sketchnote Julian Treasure’s short talk ‘Five Ways To Be a Better Listener’, TED Global, July 2011.
The number in the title gives a helpful clue to how you might structure your page. So the biggest challenge here is probably recording at speed. Of course it’s impossible to draw at the same rate that someone speaks. Focus instead on capturing only the most important information, rather than reproducing the whole. (Afterwards you may notice your sketchnote also helps trigger your memory of details you didn’t include.) And if you need to, press pause and repeat.
40 minutes on the remarkable life of Hedy Lamarr
Take up to 40 minutes to sketchnote this biographical note on the inventor and star of the silver screen, Hedy Lamarr.
60 minutes on ways to improve your memory
Take up to 60 minutes to combine on just one page the elements that you most want to recall from these two short articles and a video on improving your memory.
This exercise presents you with a bigger challenge to be selective about what matters and clearly organise material from different sources. Instead of trying to cram everything onto the page, see if you can allow some space for the different elements to breathe.
