The Art of Visual Notetaking by Emily Mills is a clear, instructive, inspiring beginner’s guide to sketchnoting. It’s a lot of fun. Read with a pen and paper handy.

Visual notetaking is the practise of using hand-rendered visual effects to make key information pop on the page and stick in the mind. Mills’s book walks beginners from the definition of sketchnoting to guidance on writing surfaces, pens, how to listen, lettering styles, page composition, basic drawing; the use of icons, indexes, and analogous colours - as well as insights into the world of professional sketchnoting.

It’s a thoroughly engaging book with sketch prompts, exercises, and illustrative anecdotes.

As well as practical tips, Mills makes the case for visualising information: “In modern Western culture, if you’re not communicating visually, you’re not communicating effectively.” I found the difference between head-to-heart listening and head-to-hand listening illuminating.

Additional content is also available. A Guide to Professional Visual Notetaking can be downloaded from the publisher’s website. This is a slender guide with a notable exercise aiming to develop the reader’s personal image bank.

The Art of Visual Notetaking is clear, succinct, and persuasive. I would recommend it for those who have to present or synthesize information of any kind; for students, undergraduates, and teachers; diarists, and bloggers of any genre.

Many thanks to Walter Foster Publishing and NetGalley for the advanced reading copy. The thoughts above are my own.

Details

• The Art of Visual Notetaking by Emily Mills

• Published by Walter Foster Publishing, 2019

• ISBN: 978-1-63322-623-4

• Genres: sketchnoting, visual notetaking, communication, information, art, sketching, how-to guides