Designer Mike Rohde created the "sketchnotes" technique to improve his note-taking techniques at talks and lectures he attended. He told us:

The idea behind the sketchnote technique is to capture talks in real-time using a Moleskine pocket sketchbook, because ink won't bleed through to the back of the pages. I love typography, so my sketchnotes include lots of type along with drawings and handwritten text notes. Because I'm doing these live and real-time, I was forced to make on the fly decisions about what to capture and what to leave out. This active filtering makes me part of the process, determining what is most interesting or valuable in the talk. What I've learned is, sketchnotes are very attractive for those who also attend events I capture, but even more surprisingly, are fascinating and helpful for those who weren't even at the events! I think it's the condensed nature of the notes, and hand-drawn illustrations that combine to create a fun artifact of information and ideas.

The sketchnotes have become quite popular, netting Rohde design and illustration gigs all over. We loved his sketchnote of Clay Shirky's appearance on GRIT so much that we asked him if we could post it on the site. You can see more of his sketchnotes on his Flickr page.