Looking to move a photographer friend’s Squarespace website to Micro.blog potentially and wonder if other photographers here have thoughts on that? Here’s the current site:
Love any feedback.
Ben Crothers and I will be duking it out by creating layouts in Miro with the Drawify plug-in! Join us on Sunday, January 29th for a fun time creating live, in public — with no net! :-)
Registration is free at Drawify.com
Anyone tried the new Kindle Scribe yet? Curious to hear your thoughts if so.
Created an account over at Mastodon, in case the crazy emperor of Twitter gets crazier. If you want to connect with me over there I am at mastodon.online/@rohdesig… or @rohdesign@mastodon.online as the kids say these days.
Appeared on the Pen Addict Podcast 543 - Sketchnotes, Revisited and had a great time chatting with Brad Dowdy for an hour! Have a listen here - overcast.fm/+FrC5bnEP…
Rewatched the 2007 film Helvetica tonight and was reminded how great it is and how influential that film was for me as a designer.
The film took me a journey deep into the origins and influence of a typeface designed in 1957 that still influences us all today.
Helvetica also introduced me to what would become my favorite band — El Ten Eleven — a key part of the film’s fantastic soundtrack.
Thank you, Gary Hustwit!
Missed my Sketchnote Layout Live Workshop in November?
Now you can pre-order the full recording for December 1, 2022 release w/ discount code LAYOUT10 for 10% off!
In this workshop video recording I share my approach and think about sketchnote layouts: what they are, how they work, then I deconstruct 3 sketchnote layouts in detail.
Watch as I take what I’ve learned from one of the deconstructed layouts to show you how I build thumbnails for reference and them demonstrate how I create pencil guides to structure some of my sketchnotes when I want to use a certain layout style.
My goal with this workshop is to reveal my approach and thinking, so you can take ideas from the workshop and apply them in your own sketchnotes.
Materials Needed:
Thanksgiving is now official.
Thoroughly enjoying Mela for managing our recipes and then I discovered it’s the same developer that makes my favorite RSS reader, Reeder! Cool!
Finding myself relieved to have come back to Micro.blog a few months ago when the Elon news broke. Every news release from the Twitter mess is making that decision feel better and better. Thank you @manton for all you are doing to make this a great space.
In a recent private workshop, I had a new idea — what if I gave students of the Sketchnote Workshop a certificate that gave them the permission to “suck at drawing” while they learn drawing at their own pace?
I created a certificate and it was a hit with students, so I’m offering it here as a PDF, for you, your students, or anyone who might enjoy it. Print out, add your name, and hang in a prominent location.
Rohdesign Dispatch: Fall 2022 - rohdesign.com/weblog/di…
Hey, did you know The Sketchnote Handbook turns 10 years old on November 30th?
I’m working with Peachpit to offer you 50% off any 2 items, including Handbook + Workbook or Handbook + Handbook Online video. The deal includes digital PDF books too!
Use discount code HAPPY10 at Peachpit.com to redeem the offer.
Details:
rohdesign.com/happy10
The Sketchnote Handbook turns 10 on November 30th, 2022. It seems crazy to made that 10 years ago I was reaching the finish line with my first book — with no idea if it would sell or not.
It was an intense 9 months from signing the contract to writing, illustrating, managing, designing, shooting video for, and creating production artwork for that book, but it was also a blast.
I remember reminding myself to be happy with the progress of each day, and eventually I pulled it off.
Of course it was the work of a small, smart team around me that helped make it all happen. My wife for her support, editors, fellow sketchnoters, and plenty more people who aren’t even in the credits of the book made The Sketchnote Handbook happen.
Celebrating 10 Years
So, we’re celebrating with a limited-edition Happy Birthday sticker I designed for the book and Peachpit has created a special offer on the Handbook, Workbook, and Video.
This set of books makes a great gift for new sketchnoters… or the perfect way to replace YOUR lent out the copies of the books that haven’t been returned.
If you already own a physical copy of The Sketchnote Handbook and would love a digital copy, you can get the eBook and the video for your iPad.
The offer: 2 together for 50% off
I figured the best way to make the book accessible was to offer 2 for half off and we were able to do it. We’ve generated the code HAPPY10 to give buyers 50% off when they buy any 2 of The Sketchnote Handbook, The Sketchnote Workbook, or The Sketchnote Handbook Video, together. The code covers print and eBook editions.
If you’re interested, more details are here on my site.
In December 2020, at the height of the pandemic, I ran a live, online workshop teaching my approach to lettering for sketchnoters. I had a blast sharing and I was honored to teach 200+ students that day in December!
Now, I’m back to teach a NEW live workshop sharing my approach to layout in sketchnotes, designed for sketchnoters.
Why layout? Because I’ve heard over and over that sketchnoters struggle with layouts every time they sketchnote.
They ask:
To answer these questions, I’m offering a NEW, 2-hour, live, online workshop on November 5th from 12-2pm US Central, called The Sketchnote Layout Live Workshop!
Grab your ticket today for just $40: rohdesign.com/layout
This workshop is designed for beginners through advanced sketchnoters. It includes a full video recording to watch again or as insurance if you miss the live event.
My teaching includes:
The kitchen is completed! Last week the last details were completed on our 10-week long kitchen remodel project. We’ve been moving into the space and organizing the chaos very slowly in the rest of the house. It feels great to use the kictchen!
Here are three before and after photos to give you context of where we started and where we ended:
It’s hard to believe its the same house! Every morning I come into the space and am thankful we decided to go through the chaos so now we can enjoy the kitchen.
My favorite features are the built-in kitchen bar where we eat most of our meals, and the under-cabinet lights that look fantastic at night. All in all it turned out better than we could have expected.
Special thanks to my sister-in-law, Janet and our contractor, Joe for the great execution.
In the summer 2022 edition of The Rohdesign Dispatch, the Sketchnote Handbook turns 10, I share 3 new podcast appearances, Sketchnote Army Podcast season 11 & 12, an upcoming workshop on page layout at the Wild Wonder nature journaling conference, 5 Cool Things, and more - rohdesign.com/weblog/di…
A few steps away from completion of kitchen and flooring!
Dishwasher was installed by the plumber Wednesday. He ran a rinse cycle when I happened to walk into the kitchen to test for leaks — I could not hear the thing running it was so quiet.
We also unloaded and took apart our refrigerator so that our neighbor and his son Miles (thanks guys!) could take the fridge body from the mudroom into the kitchen via our front door with an appliance dolly.
With the fridge in the kitchen, we cleaned, reassembled it, hooked up the water line and hey — we have all working appliances!
Flooring is finished as of today, and we now are awaiting trim installation over all the new flooring and against kitchen cabinets, along with a short punchlist of small tweaks to make (moving an outlet, installing a toilet, vanity, and mirror in the half-bath, etc.).
Looks like we ought to be fully completed before the end of July, which is far ahead of our original guesstimates. It feels great to see a project like this coming together.
We have grouted tile in the kitchen and just that detail of arctic white makes a huge difference. If you look closely you’ll see that our Ukrainian-made tile is designed so that the waves align — meaning if they’re set correctly they flow in waves across the wall. Pretty cool, eh?
The subtle waves are a perfect compliment to both the gray cabinets and quartz counter. We get the brightness to lighten the space and subtle shadows create a light pattern with under-cabinet lights on.
We’ve also found a set of medium gray leatherette bar stools for our kitchen-bar table area. Found these on Amazon for a good price ($200 for 4) and they’re comfy and seem pretty sturdy. They’re a perfect match for the darker gray cabinets the kitchen-bar table is built on.
Finally, vinyl planking is done in the living room and dining room, moving to the kitchen, hallways, and half bath on Monday and Tuesday. Looks so great! Because the floors were pretty level, only subtle feathering was needed so that there will be no seams all the way from the back door to the bedrooms.
It’s uncanny how much this vinyl plank looks like real wood. It has a subtle distressed look and some of those knots in the wood — I’d swear they’re real until I touch them and they’re flat!
As the vinyl plank is installed in two rooms, we can see our choice of flooring is working as a pleasing contrast to the original honey-oak trim and to the new gray cabinetry.
We’re loving that all of these small decisions are creating a whole that is balanced, unified, and complimentary. We were hoping our choices were good when this kitchen was just drawings on paper — it’s really satisfying to see it all coming together.
We’re getting closer every day. We cannot wait to share the finished kitchen along with shots of the original for contrast.
We’ve got tile in place but scheduling dictated that grout will have to come next week. But it’s looking great!
The wave pattern has alignments so that the tile guys could line them up to make the waves flow across long sections of tile, which is extra cool. Been pleased with this Ukrainian-made matte tile and it’s going to look great with white grout in place.
Now we’ve shifted to flooring through much of the first floor, starting with the living room and dining room, where most of the square footage is. Next up are the kitchen and hallways. The vinyl plank is looking great.
I had to pull up old Pergo and that was something else. Once we got it started it came up pretty quickly. Underneath the Pergo was some “gorgeous” Congoleum from 1978!
The new vinyl plank looks great and should be a nice contrast to the old trim.
One step at a time.
We have 3 new flower-nibbling tenants in our front yard. Howdy bunnies!
After a week of waiting and little activity, the countertops were installed this week. What a difference it makes with those in place.
Plumbing should be completed this week and we can start moving our kitchen from the dining room into the kitchen — with water, electricity and somewhere to prepare the food.
Then we pepare for the next wave of chaos that is floor installation. We’ve decided to go with the same vinyl plank flooring starting in the utility room off the garage, through the kitchen, and into the livingroom, dining room, and hallway to the bedrooms — as all of those floors are ugly.
What this means is moving EVERYTHING from the living and dining rooms, washer and dryer in the utility room, into our family room or garage (save maybe a piece or two we can shift for the installer).
Basically, more chaos. But we know that in the end all of the chaos and disruption will result in a better living space for us for long-term enjoyment while it will increase the value of our home.
Here are some images with the new floor AR’ed into place with the LL Flooring app using photos above that gives us some idea of how the vinyl flooring should look:
Just a few more weeks to go!
A new interview with Jorge Arango on his Informed Life Podcast. We talked about my background as a print and web designer, living through transitional times, and of course sketchnoting.
It’s here @kaa and looks great!
I was honored to be a guest on Elizabeth Pearson-Garr’s The Experience Podcast, talking about what it’s like to be a Visual Thinker. We had a great discussion I’m very proud of. Have a listen here: theexperiencepodcast.buzzsprout.com/1862078/1…