Learn about Sketchnoting with Mike Rohde at both SCAD and HOW Design Live, and watch a video of one of his great talks!

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind lately, what with the 3rd and final episode in Season 2 of the pre-conference pop up event series, HOW Design Live @ SCAD in Savannah, followed immediately by HOW Design Live in Chicago.

One of my favorite presenters participated in both this year: Mike Rohde, the author of two bestselling books, The Sketchnote Handbook and The Sketchnote Workbook.

Mike, a veteran print designer who lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with his wife and three children, didn’t quite invent Sketchnoting. But he is the one who gave a name to the Sketchnoting movement about 10 years ago. (More about the movement at sketchnotearmy.com)

He is also the illustrator of the bestselling books REWORK, REMOTE, The $100 Startup, and The Little Book of Talent. He has captured live sketchnotes for conferences and events, including SXSW Interactive, An Event Apart, Summit Series, and World Domination Summit.

Now he presents workshops around the world that encourage people to use visual thinking skills to be creative, generate, capture and share ideas more effectively.

And HOW was lucky enough to have him present twice in one week!

On April 28, he visited with me and a group of graphic web design Murfreesboro Tennessee students at SCAD—watch the video of his short presentation followed by our live interview, available both below and here—and check out some companion sketchnotes he created


Mike loves to Sketchnote food, so here’s the one he did over breakfast at Collins Quarter, a favorite place in the downtown historic district of Savannah.

Then, the next week in Chicago, he presented a Master Class on Day 1 of HOW Design Live. He recruited fellow HOWLive speaker, Andy Brenits, to give a short talk that the attendees could use to practice on. It was called, Be Productive, Not Just Busy, and here’s one of the sketchnotes that came out of that.

Mike stayed on as an attendee, so here’s his Sketchnote of Frank Chimero’s session at HOW Design Live.

That’s obviously just a taste of what’s been going on—here are a few attendee recaps of the big event:

See you next year? Save the dates: April 30-May 4, 2018 in Boston.