Why Sketchnote Lab?
The why behind Sketchnote Lab, what I'm doing with this new space, and how you can become part of this community.
Hey, I’m Mike Rohde, creator of Sketchnote Lab.
I’m the author of The Sketchnote Handbook, The Sketchnote Workbook, co-creator of The Sketchnote Ideabook, and founder of Sketchnote Army. I’m glad you’re here!
Why I Created Sketchnote Lab
I’ve taught thousands of people how to sketchnote in person and online. I love teaching people to sketchnote!
Teaching in person works well for my training style because I can immediately identify and address questions or issues. Walking around a room and catching problems early helps me keep students moving. However, in-person teaching limits how many people and where I can teach them.
The pandemic changed in-person opportunities, so I shifted my teaching online and found I enjoyed reaching all sorts of people right where they were. This solved the limits of in-person teaching but exposed other limitations of online education.
Adapting teaching to a hundred specific situations is impossible, so the curriculum must focus on the most common situations students might encounter.
This means it becomes your job, dear student, to figure out how to map broad online teaching to your specific, local problem. That’s tough work!
So, I wondered… could I bridge the gap between broad online teaching and specific, in-person teaching environments?
Bridging that gap sounded like a fun and challenging problem to solve.
What is Sketchnote Lab?
Sketchnote Lab is a space where I can solve real-world problems with sketchnotes while explaining my thinking and sharing my years of experience.
It’s where I can share my problem-solving process and explain why and how sketchnotes are integrated into your everyday life.
Here are my core principles for Sketchnote Lab:
Experimental. I want to share my experiments with interested people who learn from watching my explorations. This sets the tone for my students, letting them know every sketchnote they create is an experiment.
Real-World. I wanted to solve real-world, messy problems with students watching as I worked. Issues don’t fit nicely in boxes; they take effort to work through. What better way to show my sketchnoting process?
Process over Pretty. While many sketchnotes I see online are perfected for clients, there’s immense value in creating rough, imperfect sketchnotes solely for personal or internal use. These “ugly” sketchnotes can be powerful tools for advancing projects, regardless of how pretty they are.
Accessible. I wanted to make my work accessible to everyone interested in learning from it. Most posts are free, with some reserved for paid Lab Members who support my work. Paid Lab Members get access to monthly Live Labs, but anyone can access individual sessions, including a recorded replay, for $10 each.
Human. As more AI-generated content enters the world, I want to focus on human-generated solutions. It might be crazy, but I’ve offered paid Lab Members a 15-minute Zoom call to meet them and learn how I can help them.
How Does Sketchnote Lab Work?
Each week, I’ll share a post or a video sharing experiments I’m working on or insights from my work as a sketchnoter, designer, and illustrator.
I’ll conduct monthly live sessions to solve problems, deconstruct sketchnotes, discuss visual thinkers' processes and techniques, and answer your questions.
Sketchnote Live Labs and their recorded replays will be free to paid Lab Members. For those not yet Paid Lab Members, I’ll offer monthly Live Labs for $10 each, including a recorded event replay.
Who is Sketchnote Lab for?
Sketchnote Lab is for anyone curious about making better use of sketchnotes to generate ideas, visualize problems, solve problems, capture and process information, think spatially, and communicate ideas with others more effectively.
That includes (but is not limited to):
Professionals who want to use sketchnotes to solve business problems but are unsure where to begin or how to integrate them into their existing work processes.
Teachers who want to engage their students in the information they’re teaching for better engagement, better information retention, and fun with their students.
Anyone who has started sketchnoting but feels they want to explore new ways to apply sketchnotes in their everyday life.
If you’re seeking a way to integrate sketchnotes into your everyday life, this is the community for you.
Become a Paid Lab Member
Does this resonate with you? As a Paid Lab Member, you’ll have access to the monthly Live Labs, all recorded replays, and a 15-minute 1:1 Zoom call with me.
The Paid Lab Membership costs $80 annually or $10 monthly. The Founding Lab Membership costs $200 annually and includes a one-hour coaching session.
Thanks again for the chance to share something fun in your inbox!
— Mike
Sketchnote Lab is Mike Rohde’s space designed to bridge the gap between sketchnote theory and practice. The goal is to guide you in integrating sketchnoting into your everyday life. Learn more about Sketchnote Lab.
Mike is the author of The Sketchnote Handbook and The Sketchnote Workbook, bestselling books that teach regular people how to start and keep sketchnoting.
He is the founder of the Sketchnote Army and host of the Sketchnote Army Podcast, where he interviews visual thinkers to understand what makes them tick.
Mike offers recorded, live, and in-person workshops to help accelerate your sketchnoting practice and coaching for personalized, 1:1 sketchnoting guidance.
Become a paid Lab Member to support Mike’s work.
Thanks for your relentless focus on sharing the value of Sketchnoting, very inspiring!
I was wondering, do you have a favorite way to use Sketchnotes?