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Presto Sketching

A book to help you think and communicate better with drawing

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Ben Crothers

How to construct a great story

31/05/2023 by Ben Crothers

As I’ve written about before (and in my Presto Sketching book!), storyboards give you great bang for buck when you want clarity and direction in any project, especially for product and service design. Here’s how to construct the most essential ingredient: the story itself. Storyboards can guide you and your team from problem to solution […]

Filed Under: For designers and researchers, Visual strategy and facilitation Tagged With: collaboration, design, story, storyboarding, storyboards, ux, visual thinking

Why your project needs storyboarding

31/05/2023 by Ben Crothers

There’s that fantastic time in any product or service design project where an idea is just starting to take shape, and spread its wings. Will it be The Next Big Thing? Will it be able to stand up to the barrage of oncoming questions, like: will it resonate with your target audience? How will it […]

Filed Under: For designers and researchers, Visual strategy and facilitation Tagged With: change management, design, design critique, product design, service design, storyboarding, storyboards, ux

Here’s how AI visualises your company’s vision

12/08/2022 by Ben Crothers

UPDATE: I originally wrote this post in August 2022. AI-generated images have obviously come a long way since then. Please read this post with this in mind… I had a play with MidJourney to find out if it would steal my job as a visual practitioner or not, and the results were – well – […]

Filed Under: Fun and creativity Tagged With: AI, AI art, digital, genAI, Midjourney

5 principles of great layout for your visuals

14/01/2021 by Ben Crothers

Your visual communication pieces can land with your audience or miss them entirely, depending on what layout you choose. This post shows you the principles behind why some layouts work better than others. Layout: your secret sauce for communication success One of the questions I get asked a lot in the training sessions I do […]

Filed Under: Getting started, Sketchnoting and graphic recording Tagged With: graphic recording, layout, sketchnoting

A guide to sketchnote layouts

14/01/2021 by Ben Crothers

Here’s a set of sketchnote layouts to try, plus some tips about which layouts to use for which particular purpose. Lead them down the garden path One of the questions I get asked a lot in the training sessions I do about sketchnoting (or visual note-taking) is: how do I organise content on the page? The […]

Filed Under: Getting started, Sketchnoting and graphic recording Tagged With: design, graphic recording, layouts, sketchnoting

Mapping your user’s day with the User Clock Sketch

28/06/2019 by Ben Crothers

See your user’s experience of their day through their eyes with the User Clock Sketch. The power of mapping user experiences Are you involved in making products and services for customers and communities? If so, you’ll know how important it is to make sure your offering matches what they need. A standard way of connecting user research to making products […]

Filed Under: For designers and researchers, Visual strategy and facilitation Tagged With: canvases, cx, design, ex, product design, product management, product strategy, service design, ux

Better visual brainstorming with the Concept Canvas

27/01/2019 by Ben Crothers

Making big decisions about which idea or option to invest in amongst a group is really hard. Using the Concept Canvas to visually compare apples to apples makes it a bit easier (includes free PDF). I was in a brainstorming session from hell once. I was part of a team to help a telecommunications company […]

Filed Under: For designers and researchers, Problem solving, Visual strategy and facilitation Tagged With: brainstorming, canvases, concepts, creativity, downloads, free, product design, product management, products, service design, services, templates, ux

Easy ways to show more diversity in your drawing

27/01/2018 by Ben Crothers

Life is full of all kinds of people, and your drawings can be too, with these ideas and examples. UPDATE: A lot has changed since I first wrote this post (in 2018). It’s tempting to rewrite the whole thing, but I’ll save that for another new post. That said, I’ve redrawn my example drawings here, […]

Filed Under: Fun and creativity, Getting started Tagged With: accessibility, accessories, age, beards, diversity, ethnicities, faces, figures, inclusion

10 ideas to get you inspired to sketch

28/08/2017 by Ben Crothers

You want to sketch more…or just start sketching… but it’s hard to know where to start. I hear you. Here’s 10 things to draw, when you don’t know what to draw. I know what it’s like. You want to sketch (or you want to sketch more often), but you can’t really think of what to sketch, so it’s just really […]

Filed Under: Fun and creativity, Getting started Tagged With: creativity, inspiration, practice, zentangle

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Recent Posts

  • How AI visualises company visions: the latest
  • Draw more creatively with FLARE
  • How adding a graphic recorder to your event makes it a game changer
  • Volume 2 of Journey Mapping Icons out now!
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Also by Ben Crothers

Cover of the book Draw in 4 by Ben Crothers

Cover of the book 50 Remote-Friendly Icebreakers by Ben Crothers

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