Rohdesign - Designer Mike Rohde

Entries in Travel (56)

Sunday

Aug082010

Chez Panisse Dinner Sketchnotes

Above are the sketchnotes I captured from my dinner at the Chez Panisse Cafe in Berkeley, CA, captured July 2010. I was on a Gomoll Research + Design business trip with Kate Gomoll and Kris Hunt, when I created these.

I brought a Moleskine sketchbook along with a 0.7mm gel pen (which is always in my pocket) so I could try capturing a dinner as a sketchnote. I've already captured events, travel and my iPhone unboxing — why not my first ever dinner at Chez Panisse?

Enjoyment of the food came first, of course. I took photos of each dish with my iPhone for later reference. No sense letting wonderful food like this grow cold while sketching it (I was of course very careful not to spill my food on my Moleskine).

Later I learned that people seated at the next table were interested in my sketches, though they never came over to get a closer look. The waiter was very interested and suggested that I email him my work (which I'm about to do after posting this article).

Having this little sketchnote to refer to after the fact has provided me with a time capsule of rich memories. I can still taste the tartness of the boysenberries of the desert when I look at this sketchnote. Mmmm, good!

Sunday, August 8, 2010 by

Mike Rohde |

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Alaskan Cruise '09 Sketchnotes

I'm back from a wonderful Alaskan cruise of the Inside Passage last week. I spent the week capturing 28 pages of sketchnotes of my experiences to share with you:

Alaska is almost indescribable. I've done my best to capture what I saw, but the best way to experience Alaska is first hand. If you ever have a chance — go.

Enjoy the sketchnotes!

I've now posted a set of Alaska '09 Photos on Flickr as well.

Monday, June 29, 2009 by

Mike Rohde |

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2 Comments

Saturday

May232009

Society of News Design Chicago '09 Sketchnotes

Last weekend I was honored to be invited to attend the Society of News Design to sketchnote their meetup in Chicago. After enjoying a morning wandering Chicago, I arrived at Tribune Tower for the event, ready to capture the presentations.

You can see the presentations captured in my SND Chicago '09 Sketchnotes Set or in the slideshow of the sketchnotes created for quick viewing as a FlickrSlidr:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Thanks Matt Mannsfield and Chris Courtney for your kind invitation. I appreciated the opportunity to meet people from the news design industry and had a great time!

Saturday, May 23, 2009 by

Mike Rohde |

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Sketchnoting SXSW Interactive 2009

Doom and gloom. Meltdown of the global economy. Real estate prices dropping, layoffs, businesses closing and more bad news bombards us daily.

2008 was a rough year and 2009 is off to a rocky start. These are challenging times.

In spite of the bad news around us, I've decided to focus on the positive. To focus on the opportunities in this new year and not let the negativity dominate my outlook or perspective.

For me, this begins with SXSW interactive in Austin, Texas, March 13-18, 2009.

SXSW Interactive Official Sketchnoter

One hugely bright spot in 2009 is the honor of being the Official Sketchnoter to SXSW Interactive. In 2008, my first ever SXSW, I used my Moleskine pocket sketchbook and G2 pen to live capture several of the panels and sessions in sketchnote form.

At the time I was capturing the event for myself and the small band of followers who enjoyed my work from SEED 1 and SEED 3 conferences and other events I'd captured in 2007 and 2008. What surprised me was how popular the SXSW 2008 sketchnotes became. Just a week after posting the sketchnotes, they appeared on 80+ sites, including Daring Fireball, R.BIRD, FrogDesign, Jason Santa Maria and Boing Boing!

I'm very excited about working in an official capacity this year. I think the toughest challenge will be which panels to attend and capture. I have a list of panels I'm looking forward to, but I also know how panels often overlap. It should be fun. :-)

Get In Touch

I'd love to meet new people at SXSW, so if you're attending and would like to talk over coffee at the event, drop me a line with SXSW in the subject line and say hello, and if you like, follow me on Twitter.

I'm attending the 2009 Avalonstar Bowling Extravaganza on Saturday, March 15th, and my co-conspirator Brian Artka and I are organizing some kind of small gathering at an Austin location during SXSW Week, we'll announce soon.

Stay Positive!

Be thankful for what you have in your life. Be ready for opportunities. Circumstances can bring you down — don't let them ruin your outlook. Stay positive!

Saturday, January 31, 2009 by

Mike Rohde |

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7 Comments

Wednesday

Mar122008

SXSW Interactive 2008 Sketchnotes

Welcome BoingBoing readers! Be sure to check out my follow-up post called Lessons Learned from my SXSW Sketchnotes too!

SXSW Interactive 2008 Sketchnotes are up!
I've just completed scanning, tuning and uploading 34 pages of sketchnotes I captured in my pocket Moleskine sketchbook at SXSW Interactive earlier this week.

I think the sketchnotes turned out well, and it was no problem for me to continuously create them for nearly every session I attended. I certainly went through ink in my G2 mini pens — I'm glad I brought several along.

With the SEED Conference sketchnotes being pretty popular, I'm curious to see how these SXSW sketchnotes are received. While sketchnotes capture concentrated concepts for each session well, I think they're even better at awakening ideas stored in the minds of session attendees.

Speakers Featured
Here are the speakers featured in the SXSW Interactive Sketchnotes: Naz Hamid, Veronica Belmont, Casey McKinnon, Ryan King, Glenda Bautista, Ariel Waldman, John Gruber, Michael Lopp, Jim Coudal, Dan Rubin, Didier Hilhorst, Eris Stassi, Lea Alcantara (sorry for the Leah misspell in the notes!), Ben Brown and Frank Warren.