Archive

Yesterday evening I went along to ‘We need to talk about America’, a panel discussion event as part of the Sydney Writers’ Festival 2010. It’s not every day you get to hear prominent authors voice ideas and experiences so openly and frankly about the state of that nation, and it was also a chance for me to try some sketchnoting.

May of the topics about America that came up were the sort that a lot dinner party conversations eventually get around to: the disparity between its ideological view of freedom and democracy against the reality of corporatised government and the mishandling of Hurricane Katrina victims; comparing the Bush and Obama administration; is Obama doing enough; and so on.

Diverse backgrounds, common issues

What saved it from being any other dinner party conversation, though, was some brilliant and insightful one-liners and the mix of backgrounds and latest literary efforts of the speakers. Lionel Shriver (author of So Much for That, about America’s health care system) is born-and-bred American yet no longer lives in America, nor identifies herself as American. Raj Patel (author of The Value of Nothing) is Pakistani/Iranian and a citizen of America. Together with Josh Neufeld (A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge), Michael Otterman (American Torture), Reza Aslan (No god but God) and Anne Summers, the same searing consensus on the same issues was articulated from such disparate backgrounds.

Sketchnotes

Fresh from watching Visual Note-taking 101 from SXSW 2010 over on Slideshare, and inspired by Matt Balara, I thought I’d try some sketchnoting about what I was hearing. I knew if I just wrote notes, I’d never read them again. But capturing what was discussed as simple pictures and typographical vignettes was not only fun, but made the key quotes and themes more memorable to me.

I’ve included a few below (click for a larger size), and they’re all at Flickr. I could get used to this sketchnoting thing.

Meeting Josh Neufeld

It has to be said that Josh Neufeld is kind of a big deal. He’s not only a brilliant artist and publishing award-winning graphic novels, but he has stepped up to publish a non-fiction work A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge following the experiences of several Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans. Gutsy stuff.

I asked him about his process of drawing and illustration. I’m happy to say he’s definitely old skool, drawing manually (that’s, like, without a Wacom), scanning, then tidying up and adding colour in PhotoShop. Anyhoo, it was just inspiring talking to someone who draws so skillfully and compellingly as a full-time profession. Something I’d like to do one day.

This is a mobile/handset interface design concept I created for Tourism Australia. The brief was to reach potential tourists, mainly in the UK, and lead them on a three-step journey: inspiration, exploration, then conviction to book a holiday… all through the vehicle of shared photos. The concept trades off the power of shared experiences, and the more luscious the photos — and the more they’re shared — the better.

Single photo, with links for photo information, and forward/next icons	The same single photo, but ‘turned around’ to display details, and calls to action	A location screen, with links relating the location to planning a visit

(Click the images above for larger versions)

Photos can be uploaded, downloaded, tagged, and shared. Each photo, as well having social tagging, is tagged with one or more evocative ‘experience’ categories, such as plunge, savour, indulge, and so on. The interface design rationalises away many of the elements that can occupy the space in a regular browser window, yet retains all the elements needed for people to save photos, destinations and itineraries online, moving them towards the point of booking a holiday.

I also packaged these designs into a presentation board, with a storyboard-style sketch to show context, and the progression from a typical rainy London working day to what a sun-soaked holiday in Australia could be like (click for larger version):