Sketchy Ideas #27 - Sketchnote Camp Edition
Welcome to sketchy ideas by Chris Wilson.
I'm changing the style of this newsletter a bit and this one is a special one off post the 5th international sketchnote camp in Szczecin, Poland.
I can still remember my nerves as I approached the first international Sketchnote Camp in Hamburg back in 2017.
Going to an event with people whose drawing I had admired from a far while feeling so inexperienced left me on the edge of my seat as I approached.
But over the course of those couple of days, something amazing occurred. I became a sketchnoter. Or perhaps I accepted the title of what I already was.
It was thanks to the amazing people there.
Everyone was extremely encouraging and no one looked down on any one else's drawing abilities (or lack of). We were all there to learn from each other, and we did.
That was the day I met Ania Staszkiewic
She was the only other person coming from Poland and we struck up a friendship.
And then last year she asked me to help her run the camp in Szczecin, Poland. I said yes, and then set to work creating a website, sorting out some emails and helping come up with ideas for the camp.
But Ania and the team in Szczecin did all the heavy lifting.
When I turned up to help on Thursday, I was amazed at all the details I hadn't even known about. But they were all planned.
I won't ramble on about the camp too much but I do have some lessons from it (apart from the twitter threads you can read from the official sketchnote camp account).
One person's "mistake" is another person's style.
The thing about this lesson was it only really hit home on the final day. I noticed that all the big name speakers had things which I beat myself up over, but they are all things I admired in their work.
I suspect that running this newsletter for the last year and deliberately trying to break down parts of a people's styles is a reason I could notice that.
A header style to steal.
I love this simple header style. It's just three parts.
A single colour for the main letter.
A grey drop shadow
and a black outline to accentuate the shadow.
Katharine Bluhm did this one but she said she stole it from Ben Crothers. And now you can steal it from them both.
What to expect next...
My new newsletter layout idea is very simple.
A quote visual as a spark
a sketchnote to go a bit deeper
An a tutorial or creative prompt to get you creating.
I went with sketchy ideas because that what they are; just ideas that can be refined and worked on.