Visual Note Taking Guide

"visual note-taking conference call notes" by Austin Kleon is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

What is visual note taking?

• Visual note taking is specific type of note taking that includes a combination of text and drawings. There is no write way to take visual notes and you do not have to be an artist to do it. Visual notes are personal expressions of how you understand something and they only have to be seen by the person who takes them. However, if you feel like sharing your visual notes, please do! There is a whole community of visual note takers out there who share their notes with the world! Some of those resources are listed in this guide.

Visual Note Taking Vs. Sketchnoting 

• Visual note taking is often called sketchnoting. So the terms are very similar and sometimes referred to as the same thing. However, it is helpful to know both terms when doing online searches for books, examples, and articles on this topic because you might have more success using both of these terms as search terms.

Places to Look for General Examples:

• Creative Commons Images: Creative Commons is a great place to look for general sketch noting examples! Try the search terms, "visual notes," and "sketchnoting".
• Pinterest: If you are looking for general examples and different techniques and styles used in visual note taking, Pinterest is a great place to start. 
• Flicker- If you go to Flicker and do a search for sketchnotes, you will find a large variety of examples to look at.