Sketchnote Handbook Video, The: the illustrated guide to visual note taking

Customer Video Review Length:: 2:54 Mins

The Sketchnote handbook is a lovely and useful book. Buy it if you want to take poweful notes and have fun doing so. Rohde shows us how to create powerful, personal notes, infused with feeling, and exploding with ideas visualized. I am a professional visual notetaker and design educator, and I am always looking for fresh approaches to this powerful medium. Mike delivers a fun and useful book in that both professionals and novices will appreciate. Mike shows why Sketchnotes work and he shows a variety of approaches to creating them, showcasing sketchnoters from from around the world to underline his points. The book is an easy read, designed to skim or dive deep. Rohde emphasizes that sketchnoting is about capturing ideas, not about showing off virtuoso art chops, and gives useful tips on structure, quick and easy drawing, and penmanship and lettering. Rohde's tone is encouraging as he urges you to start slowly and build on success. Even adding one little... Read more

Quick take: great book -- well organized, clear instructions, and, of course, good illustrations. Highly recommended.

I didn't know much about sketchnoting before buying this book. I'd gleaned a bit about it from author Mike Rohde's tweets, and from those by another contributor, Veronica Erb, and I was curious to learn more. Along came this book, and I thought I'd give it a shot.

It's a fun read -- Mike Rohde's enthusiasm really shines through. It's also surprisingly well organized, at least compared to what I expected from a book about doodling. Mike does a nice job of explaining the value of sketchnoting, i.e., why it's a useful technique, and then walks you through different kinds of sketchnote patterns and the how-tos.

The book also contains a lot of examples from other sketchnoters; these give you an idea of other peoples' styles, and offer their take on tools and techniques. It might be mildly intimidating to see so many great-looking examples,... Read more

Mike Rohde does fantastic work. After talking with many talented artists, I hired Mike to create the interior artwork for The $100 Startup. He did an excellent job and I continue to hear positive comments (almost daily!) on how the illustrations mesh so well with the text.

But this review isn't about my book; it's about Mike's. In The Sketchnote Handbook, Mike takes us behind-the-scenes, documenting the process and workflow he uses in his unique method. Learning about how Mike does it is interesting enough to me, a non-artist, to justify the purchase of the book. However, Mike goes further and makes the case that *everyone*--even you and me--can use visual note-taking to improve the way we capture and retain information.

It's a no-brainer: This book deserves a wide audience! I've purchased multiple copies already and will continue to buy more as I hand them out as gifts.