And I thought of actually putting here what I did those past 6 months on a few subjects to show my practice. Remember that there are a variety of styles and approach. For example Lai Chee's style is quite minimalist (ie there are not much words) but her visuals are sooo emotionally expressive. There is also Ingrid Lill who is very structured (yet very gentle) in how information are conveyed. Her purpose is to clarify the process and the message of our business. There is also Doug Neill 's way of passing on information in a pedagogic way - which is displayed on each of his sketchnotes. And there is also Maria Palmer 's visual who can express humor, care and strength through her composition and her story telling. Her depth and sense of awe as well as her love for people are translated through her marks.
There are other sketchnoters that I had the chance to meet (online) and I'm feeling sooo lucky that I got to know them and feel their support on my exploratory journey of visual learning. And manyyyy others I never met (... yet?) like Dave Gray, Eva Lotta-Lamm, or Emily Mills and the list goes on and on! If you get or create the opportunity of following and/or learning with them, you will learn so much about learning, conveying and sharing your ideas and ultimately yourself that I would 100 recommend it!
To come back to the definition of "sketchnoting", the word was first coined by Mike Rohde some 20 years ago and the "movement" grew to become a worldwide practice. It's a visual and creative way of combining words and visuals to take notes using illustrations, icons, layout and texts. A friend asked me if there were a difference between sketchnoting and mind mapping. That is an excellent question.
I think a mind map can be used as one of the many layouts to visually synthetize and represent information (which can be in word and/or visual forms). In its presentation, the core idea is in the center of a page (landscape figuration) and "branches" are stemming from that core central subject in a radiant layout. As we create our mind map, we also create the structure of our thoughts. Tony Buzan has created this concept for the purpose of improving mental literacy.
It definitely has a lot of uses and benefits.
It is an amazing way of improving learning but also structuring and presenting information. Before practicing sketchnoting I did many mind maps (I took a class 13 years ago and met my ex there... but that's another story ?).
Here is one that I created to begin thinking about creating my videos (disclaimer: I wanted to illustrate what a mind map was. There are again different styles and the one I did is rather barebone).
The only thing though, is that after a while I felt stifled by the layout's constraints... and I looked for a more opened and creative way to think, take notes and present information.
I looked elsewhere and I discovered a whole new world ?. Of course I got my hand on Mike Rohde's The sketchnote's handbook, I explored and practiced a little bit with Adam Sicinski while following from afar Doug Neil. It took me a few years to really go for it!
And even more time to practice. But when I moved to Spain and got myself a tablet, my practice improved greatly! The pictures down below are examples of sketchnotes I did, thanks to Doug Neil's weekly events, my sketchnote's buddy partners... and from being around such amazing people in Doug Neil's Verbal to Visual community and other people I exchange with. ?
It's quite diverse and I keep on improving them. The goal for me is twofold. With those types of sketchnotes, I want to raise my practice of extracting and rendering information in the most simplest ways (I tend to want to write everything because I fear being "disloyal" to the person who expresses herself).
To make your ideas pop and have compelling sketchnotes: "condense each idea in one sentence AND one word".
Here are a few more I did:
When I do visually represent people's vibe, I'm actually going through a more "embodied" process. I want to get as much information as possible (so I write a lot during the first coaching session) in order for me to then get the subtleties and the essence of the person. It's a longer process. I use a lot my intuition and even write more outside of the session as more cues are coming forth... I wrote about how my process went with Maria Palmer here.
These are different from what I propose which is more a visual representation of the vibe of a person, (you can see examples of that with Mia & Rebecca's testimonials).
I still have a long way to go ? but it definitely helped me be more creative!
I hope this answers some of the questions you may have.
Have a wonderful day, evening, week or week-end.
In the meantime, shine your vibe. ✨
