Sketchnotes featured by Social Media Examiner

dh-26-tips-social-media-marketing-480 The sketchnotes I created last year for Social Media Marketing World #smmw14 were featured this week in an article on Social Media Examiner: 26 Tips for Improving Social Media Examiner.

My sketchnotes illustrated a creative use of  Slideshare. Of course, I always want to bring people back to my site but by putting the sketchnotes out on Slideshare, the collection has racked up almost 30,000 views, something that would never have happened had I only posted them on my site.

You can see the article here.

 

A chain reaction.

I had the great honor and pleasure of sketchnoting the TEDx San Diego conference. Previously I had attended the 2010 and 2011 TEDx events. (But when the event was moved to the Saturday during the holiday season I couldn't make it!) With 700 attendees, this event was much larger than the first event of 150 attendees but was able to reach a much wider audience.  

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chainreaction

 

 

beprepared

 

 

venue

 

 

Faulconer_talk

 

 

Faulconer_quote

 

 

Opera_talk

 

 

xiao_talk

 

 

xiao_quote

 

 

Crawford_talk

 

 

Crawford_quote

 

 

Horowitt_talk

 

 

Horowitt_quote

 

 

Mehta_talk

 

 

Mehta_quote

 

 

Voytek_talk

 

 

Voytek_quote

 

 

coskey_talk

 

 

coskey_quote

 

 

WUry_talk

 

 

WUry_quote

 

 

Nacif_talk

 

 

Nacif_quote

 

 

Keating_talk

 

 

Keating_quote

 

 

GUry_talk

 

 

 

GUrhy_quote

 

 

Altucher_talk

 

 

Altucher_quote

 

 

make_chain

 

 

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Recap of TEDx San Diego 2010

Recap of TEDx San Diego 2011

 

 

Sketchnotes: Filling the shopping bag.

The National Retail Federation hired me to sketch their Shop.org Merchandising Workshop at the lovely Terranea Resort. It was a fast two days. Big takeaways: share data with your whole team. And video, video, video!

 

merch14_cover

WassermanBuildingBrand

 

SORO

 

Photography

 

DataDriven

 

Backcountry

 

KillerMerchandising

 

MobileMasters

 

Backcountry

 

KillerMerchandising

 

MobileMasters

 

 

Omnichannel

 

PredictingFuture

 

CoolTools

 

Best-WorstPractices

 

CrazyIdea

 

I use the Brushes app on the iPad to create all of my sketchnotes. It took a while to master the app to be able to move fast. I work without a stylus for greater accuracy and control. (Probably because I am always losing them—great holiday gift idea for me.)

You can see more sketchnotes here.

 

 

 

 

Sketchnotes from Social Media Marketing Worlds #smmw14

So I attended the big social media fest once again—Social Media Marketing World 2014 #smmw14. It's held here in San Diego so it is silly not to go. Some interesting takeaways

  • Always maintain your own piece of the web
  • Your email list can be your most profitable channel

I had great success with visuals standing out in Twitter feeds building on success from last year. Next year that strategy will be flooded. And when it came to sketchnoting, using a much fatter brush for font emphasis is a quicker way to go rather than block letters.

Here is the entire collection:

The creative tribes gather at CuriousitY19: The AIGA San Diego Y Design Conference

It was another two days of creativity and community at the Y Design Conference. My two favorite speakers were our local heroes. Architect Rob Quigley spoke ever so eloquently about keeping true to original intent whille designing the new Central Library. And Ron Miriello shared his take on life/design/life with the enthusiasm of a beginner tempered with the wisdom that only comes with experience. There is always the reacurring theme of become your own client and create your own projects.

How a copywriter spends their time.

I presented to copywriting class at The Art Institute-San Diego and shared this slide (a creative way to emphasize the importance of planning and the creative brief.) WhatACopywriterDoes_1

Then I realized I was only focusing on the creative process. There is a lot else I do, I spend so little time actually writing. When you perform a craft for a living, there is a whole lot of business around the craft.

WhatACopywriterDoes_2

How much did it cost Yahoo! to redesign their new logo in-house?

In a highly publicized move, Yahoo! redesigned their logo with design efforts led by CEO Marissa Mayer. She says in an article in Ad Age:

"On a personal level, I love brands, logos, color, design, and, most of all, Adobe Illustrator. I think it's one of the most incredible software packages ever made. I'm not a pro, but I know enough to be dangerous :) So, one weekend this summer, I rolled up my sleeves and dove into the trenches with our logo design team"

Obviously, Yahoo didn't design their new logo in-house because of economic reasons.

YahooLogoAnneMcCollSM

Oops. I forgot to add in the price of pizza.

See a big version here.

Cultivating a Design Culture: Sketchnotes from UXSpeakeasy

The UXSpeakeasy group consistently has great programming (and beer.). This month's event covered how to cultivate a design culture and featured Chuck Longanecker of digital-telepathy. The event was held in their new space that formed housed one of my favorite places, the Hive. Chuck shared how digitial-telepathy has evolved over the years. What's a design culture? It's more than having a foosball table or lunches on Friday. It starts at the top and engages every aspect of the company.

This was a challenging session to sketchnote, so much wonderful information coming out at once. Graphic facilitator extraordiaire/Stick Figure Strategist Jeannel King was also there and sketched. I glanced over her shoulder and it was fun to see how differently we interpreted the material. I asked her for suggestions on how to represent Soul. (She is amazing because she uses marker and pen while I do more with the iPad.)

UXSpeakeasy: Cultivating a Design Culture

See the big version here.

UXSpeakeasy: Potential

UXSpeakeasy: Design

Is creativity still king?

The San Diego Ad Club sponsored an interesting forum on creativity and agencies. Is creativity still king?

In a short word, yes.

There's more people producing sites and video and blog posts. More volume. More crap. It's easier than ever for a great idea to stand out, if only people see it.

However, the days of a copywriter and art director going off to a room to concept for a week are over. This whole working in a silo has to end.

But on the other hand, someone has to steward the idea through production. Creative by committee tends to produce watered-down ideas.

What's your experience?

Sketchnotes and Sketch tweets from #smmw13

Social Media Marketing World hosted by the folks at Social Media Examiner came to town for a few days. I created sketchnotes and sketch tweets during the sessions and tweeted them out. All visuals were created on the fly using the iPad and Brushes and Over apps. One surprising theme – don't discount your email list. It will be the most profitable.

San Diego AIGA Y18 Design Conference Sketchnotes and Live Designs

It's funny how every Y-Conference seems to reflect an underlying theme. This year's was that side projects and pro-bono work can lead to other assignments. Wayne White spoke how he played with puppets and that led to his work on Pee-wee's Playhouse. Brian Singer shared his many side projects including 1000 Journals. Eric Thoelke shared how doing work for the local opera company evolved step by step into more client work. And Josh Higgins shared how his pro bono poster work led to working with the Obama Campaign.

Below is a selection of images that I live tweeted during the conference including sketchnotes of presentations and highlighted quotes. All design done live during presentations. (Yeah, I felt weird, one of the few non-designers in an audience of designers tweeting designs but all very much of the moment.)