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I've posted up a couple of blog posts recently about my sketched notes and they've been very popular. A few people have said they wished they could do something similar so to encourage you all I thought I'd share a few things that help me.

1. The length of 'presentation' you are listening to doesn't really matter, I've sketched notes to 20 minute sessions. I find I can fill 3-4 pages in a day so a short session might just fill one page.

2. Sketching to fast talking presenters is hard as there's too much information to get down on paper.

3. You need time to sketch so if you're getting big idea after big idea then I'd suggest you abandon the sketching and just write like the wind.

4. You do need enough material to go at though so very short presentations are hard.

5. It doesn't matter where you start on the page. I always start in the top left hand corner.

6. Don't plan it. It will evolve by itself and it's nice to see the end result.

7. If you like something the speaker says write it BIG, mixing up the styles and faces of your big ideas will help them stand out.

8. I don't use colour but I'm planning to try it.

9. It's a good idea to have a variety of pens with different thicknesses of nib so you can sketch faster. I got a set of different size nibs and coloured pens for my birthday so watch out for some more colourful sketching soon. But don't let that hold you back, I started with a biro.

10. Most of your sketches will be words but if you can fill spaces with pictures the overall effect will be better. I'm quite literal so in my latest post the word 'Secrets' bought to mind a secret garden so I drew branches and leaves.

11. Mind map type diagrams are good with a nice 'style' of arrow.  

I hope the tips help you give it a go yourself sometime. If you already sketch notes and have some tips of your own please share in the comments below. 

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Last Wednesday evening Leeds hosted it's second Ignite event as part of LSx2010 web festival. Ignite events challenge each speaker to deliver something thought provoking in only five minutes and twenty slides that auto-advance every fifteen seconds. Monica attended the first Ignite last year and this time we were invited to talk, so I accepted the challenge and used my 5 minutes to talk about one of my design heros: Rob Janoff, designer of the Apple logo.

The premise of my talk was that Janoff's story, and the design of Apple's multicoloured logo, reveals some design truths. Probably most of us recogonise the logo without giving it too much thought while others read so much more into the design giving rise to questions such as: "What's with the colours?"; "Why don't the colours match the rainbow?" and "What's the significance of the bite?"

I started my career working for Apple and until recently didn't know anything about how and why the brand identity was conceived or the myths and legends that have developed about hidden meaning in the design. In researching my talk I was most struck by what a top bloke Rob Janoff is in the way he enjoys the satisfaction of having created such an enduring graphic symbol without being bothered by his lack of financial reward or recognition.

Speaking of top blokes, @philkirby's review of the event can be read on The Culture Vulture.

Monica's blog post about Ignite Leeds 2009 is here.

The blog post that got me started was Ivan's interview with Rob Janoff on Creativebits.org

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