Sketch Thinking: Learn to communicate your ideas with simple drawing techniques

by Jose Berengueres

Sketch Thinking is a collection of 36 principles and 7 group activities to help you communicate you ideas effectively. - In Ch. 1 you will learn how sketch with Sharpies. - In Ch. 2 you will learn how to make that sketch appealing so your good idea gets noticed. - In Ch. 3 you will learn about a pervasive killer of bad meeting layouts and how to avoid them. Often, one can have a group of individuals who taken one by one are brilliant, but that as a group fail in creative terms. Why does this happen? The answer is group IQ. Using the creative management process called Design Thinking can help to rise a team's IQ. However, what happens when a team cannot sketch fluently? The purpose of this book is to gain sketching fluency so that 100% of your creative energy can be devoted to the thinking process, not the sketching process. Why this Book? You've probably heard about Design Thinking before — the collaboration method that enables teams of people to achieve high group IQ. In 2011, the University we work at let us offer an innovative Design Thinking. I was lucky. The syllabus we made became indexed by Google. In the following months, we were invited to give workshops at Apple, Dubai Electricity & Water Authority, CEDIM MBI program in Mexico DF and at Bielefeld University in Germany. But then we hit a wall. However, soon enough we realized a frustrating yet recurring no matter how awesome the participants were. No matter how good the team was. If they had no sketch fluency the workshop would not exactly succeed. This was particularly true in the case of engineers that possessed deep technical skills but who never had the chance to attend a sketching course. So, what? What has sketching to do with a workshop's creative output? — You might ask. Everything!— I say. Let me explain. A Design Thinking workshop is based on brainstorming ideas and then sharing them so they can be improved by people with different perspectives than yours. This happens when an idea hops from a brain to another brain. While hopping brains, an idea might meet other ideas and improve. This is how genius ideas and Aha! moments happen in a workshop. Design Thinking fosters this activity by using a lot of sticky notes. A biologist would call such process 'sticky notes' based evolution. (We call it Design Thinking because it is fancier). So, what happens when workshop participants (like myself) can't sketch at all? Failure. I am at a workshop. I have this great idea. I sketch it and then, when time comes to share... the sketch is an incomprehensible doodle that no one can grasp. Communication fail, workshop fail. The Solution. The obvious solution to this problem is to teach people to sketch before the workshop! But who has the time to learn to sketch? Another alternative is to enroll on an illustration course. However, even in the case you became a pro at product illustration or drawing manga, those skills help but are not exactly what is needed for a Design Thinking workshop. A different, direct and leaner approach to sketching that did not require hours of training was needed. After months of searching, talking to art professors and ensuing despair, we finally saw the light during the summer of 2015. After a morning hike in Woodside's Wunderlich park, we popped in the d.School hall, there, a woman in white —Alli McKee— was conducting a pilot workshop about 'Glyphs’. This book is largely inspired by her workshop and we are deeply grateful to her. What is Sketch Thinking? The term is short for Sketch (for Design) Thinking.

86 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 15, 2015

Reviews

[Hitesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing Substantial !

I just learned to draw a Star man though. :D

This book is an introductory book for someone who has never drawn in his/her life.

It does have some topics on how to conduct meetings and the use of Visual skills during such meetings.

Nothing to loose , if you skip this one. You may find much of the content out there on blogs and Youtube.

[Sue-Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

This might be an ok starter/overview book for people who know nothing about sketch noting or thinking, but not much useful content if you are looking for more advanced or specific techniques or usages.

[Abhishek Upadhyay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The star man technique

This book stood out of the other book in the case of development of completely new character Star man, Although i have been reading for quite a while now and practicing doodling especially with stick character.
Cons : this book may not be good for a beginner, a beginner must refer another book like sketch noting.
Pros : a completely new character to doodling world and can be used for already doodling people to enhance their doodles.

[Hubert Campos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buena introducción al scketch thnking para las presentaciones. Me resultó útil para agilizar el dibujo en los mapas mentales y mejorar la expresividad en comparación con las figuras de palitos. Básico y al grano. Me hubiera gustado más ejemplos pero ya tengo una buena base para empezar a practicar.

[Amran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book.

Simple, clear guidance. Simple illustrations as examples to make his point and teach the reader at the same time. Great for newbies in this field. I highly recommend it.

[Jose Oriol Lopez Berengueres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Concise

This is a concise guide to sketching star man, shading and making your sketches popping . Great for a workshop for kids too.

[Adam L Feldman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful

Helpful tips on how to maximize group planning sessions and workshops through more effective sketching. Wish the book was longer though.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very practical

A short read with good examples. I like sketching on my IPad and felt this book contributed significantly to my skills.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Resource for Facilitators

READ DEC 2019

Positioned as skills participants need to master, I found this more critical for facilitators. Good tips for facilitators.

[Andrea Troncoso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun, witty, clear

Loved it, great tips, insightful tools, made the journey super enjoyable! I am already jazzing some sketches and they look awesome.

[Meghal Sivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much information

Only useful information that I got is to build a sketching vocabulary. That's why I gave 3 stars. Nothing else.

[Harish P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nifty and practical

I have been through a lot of books on sketch noting that were dense of technicalities. This one is simple and practical.

[Xavier De Carvalho · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was expecting more substance

This book is better suited to anyone who has never seen a sketch before. If you sketch daily, move on.

[Pamela Enz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great start

This little book is a step busy step guide to learn how to sketch ideas for meetings. Unfortunately, it feels like the author stopped just as things were getting interesting. It practically of unanswered questions about the details of the work. Too bad there isn't more.

[Alvaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read, easy to follow book. I would add more examples of the usage of the technique and may be a small presentation that illustrates use.