Sunni Brown » Visual Notetaking

TEDx UT: The Doodle Revolution

Sunni — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:43:13 +0000

On my way to Wimberley a couple of months ago, I got a call from Derek Woodgate. He was on the planning team for TEDx UT and I assumed he was going to ask me for speaker recommendations, since our team had just produced TEDx Austin and we had a long list of incredible possible presenters. You can imagine my surprise then, when he said that the committee wanted me to be one of the speakers. I mean – I’m good – but I wasn’t sure if I was TEDx good. However, never one to miss an opportunity, I said yes and then hung up and had to roll down my window to get some fresh air. Speaking in front of academicians and graduate students about visuals and the brain opens yourself up to all sorts of criticism about your empirical data. But I’m Ms. Brown. Risk never stopped me before. So, like all good girl scouts, I did a lot of homework, prepared for weeks, and custom-doodled my slides so the audience would have fun and learn at the same time. I think they did and I think I did justice to the TED brand. Once I get the digital video, you can see for yourself.

SXSW Interactive 2010: Done and done.

Sunni — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:43:43 +0000

2010 was my most immersive year for SXSW and oddly enough, my most tranquil. I had more responsibilities than ever during the event but I also got more rest. I think that means I’m growing up. I was able to (1) host a VizThink SXSW party with Dave Gray, (2) curate a team of 6 live artists to capture the keynotes for each day, (3) graphically record two of the keynotes myself, and (4) present on a visual notetaking panel that was actually well-planned. All this and I still managed to be a good bridesmaid at my best friend’s wedding. Yep, Sunni, not too shabby. (What? You talk to yourself, too.)

Below are pictures from the event so you get the general idea of what I was up to. The first is a picture of other people taking pictures of the graphic I created live. The second is a snapshot from our Visual Notetaking 101 panel and the third is the crowd – which was awesome. I’ll soon post the actual graphic records from Twitter CEO Evan William’s keynote and from the keynote with Valerie Casey, Founder of the Designers Accord. In the meantime, may all your SX dreams come true. Assuming you’re getting some sleep.

Dan Roam’s Back of the Napkin Workshop, San Francisco, CA

Sunni — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:36:52 +0000

One page of my visual notes from Dan Roam’s excellent workshop in SF – the pilot for The Back of the Napkin. I appreciate that Dan’s putting visual thinking front and center in the business world. It helps me keep MY day job, too. See the rest of the visual notes here.

Fundamentals of Visual Notetaking for SXSW Interactive 2010

Sunni — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:51:47 +0000

The first bits of coolness around SXSW Interactive 2010: a baby graphic giving some insight into the contents of our Visual Notetaking Panel. The panel, Visual Notetaking 101, is on Monday, March 15 at 3:30 pm, so join us for a conversation on how to stop taking notes that look like punishment. I’m joined on the panel by my co-author Dave Gray, and by sketchnote masters Mike Rohde and Austin Kleon. Visual thinkers, come out of the closet. And be rewarded with excellent content when you do.

HMSA Leadership Summit – Honolulu, HI

Sunni — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:08:53 +0000

HMSA (Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Hawai’i) has risen to the top of my client list due to the nature of the projects we’re involved with and my deep respect for the efforts of the leadership and the Innovation Team. They are transforming the organization in service to their customers and I’ve been lucky enough to become a part of their team, partnering with them on visual thinking training, graphic recording for leadership meetings, design consultations on presentations and workshops and a large history mapping project in the making. My projects with them are always rewarding and I appreciate the partnership. I also appreciate that I get to go to Hawaii to work with them. Nothing wrong with doing the hula while you work.

CLIC Conference – Hyderabad, India

Sunni — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:34:23 +0000

BrightSpot had its first international invitation this year, to attend the CLIC Conference at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India. The conference was hosted by the Centre for Leadership, Innovation and Change and it gave a forum to CEOs and other high-level execs to discuss business and spirituality – yes Americans, I did use them in the same sentence. Each presenter in his or her own way described the possibilities for overlaps in those two fields. It was very inspirational content and I did my best to graphically capture it given that I’m not a cultural native and the acoustics were, ahem, insane. But I was so happy to be invited to work for the Indian School of Business that I could have gotten a parasite and still felt it was worthwhile. Click here to see the murals I created as well the conference itself. And Namaste to you and yours.

Tweetnotes for HP’s People

Sunni — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:56:29 +0000

A most interesting project came through Somnio, an Austin-based sales and marketing company that was hired by HP to support a sales training. Somnio specializes in unique sales and marketing solutions, so their idea was that BrightSpot create twitpics – pictures that could be periodically tweeted to the participants of a sales training to (1) keep them interested, (2) reinforce the content, and (3) use an empathetic Twitter persona to relate to the experience that many of the participants were probably having. Somnio wanted a visual narrative that reflected the (probable) emotional ride of the employees and they wanted it to look like handwritten notes coming out of someone’s notebook. So Erik Kuntz, BrightSpot’s principal illustrator, took on that project and did, as always, a superb job. (And consequently, created a new Brightspot offering – TWEETNOTES.) Did I just invent a new word? Doubtful. But I love the output.