Digital Roam

Yes: I really do draw on napkins

I've received a bunch of notes asking if I actually draw on napkins, and if so, what kind.

Yes, I do draw on napkins. They're not the best drawing surface, but when I want to show someone how quickly a sketch can be created, I like napkins. And since everyone knows that napkins are intended to be thrown away (and recycled!!), many people are less intimidated drawing on them than expensive paper.

I use "Vanity Fair Everyday" napkins.

They are available in all major grocery stores. I like them because they are tough enough to make a good writing surface, have a flat smooth finish, and have compressed enough paper that they limit ink bleed. (Avoid paper towels: they will suck all the ink out of a pen in a couple minutes.)

As for pens, any ballpoint works, since they minimize ink bleed. That said, the best napkin-drawing pens that money can buy are Pilot "Permanent Ink Markers".

Unfortunately, the very best are only available in Japan or stationery stores that stock directly imported Japanese drawing materials. Here in San Francisco we are lucky enough to have a major Japanese shopping center where the Kinokuniya Bookstore chain has an amazing stationery store.

Photo from bettybl.

All this aside, the point is to find a surface that is not intimidating. That may sound odd (how can a paper surface be intimidating, right?) but it really does make a difference. If you want people who might not be comfortable drawing, you have to given them tools that feel spontaneous.

A pencil and a notebook work too.

Jazzed about napkin sketches

Sometimes when you sit down at a rubber chicken conference lunch, you get rubber chicken. Sometimes you get a real meal and nice chat with interesting people. And SOMETIMES you get a great lunch and a conversation with people so interesting that before you know it the waiters are setting up for dinner.

And so it was at VizThink last week. Late to lunch from closing out my own workshop, I sat down at the first available seat, and started talking with Scott and Rebecca from Maga Design in DC. Within minutes we were sharing stories about crazy clients, how to market a book, back-of-the-napkin sketches, the role of "design" in "business", and a whole slew of other topics that were fascinating, but that I -- being in conference mode -- promptly forgot.

But not Rebecca. When I logged on to email an hour later, she sent through her lunch napkin. Wow: it works.

The only question we didn't all agree on was whether it's ok to play Led Zeppelin on your iPhone loud in an airport -- without the earbuds.

Death by Database

I'm not much of a database person myself. I bought a copy of FileMaker in the dark ages and managed to run a small business with it, but as I say, even that was pre-bubble one.

But when I ran across Kem Meyer's diagram explaining why a single DB-guy is bad for ones' health (especially the DB-guy), I got it immediately. Talk about a nice "napkin sketch".

See: this is why I'm not a database person.

First impressions don't matter

At the end of my VizThink workshop on Monday, a bunch of people came up afterwards to talk about solving problems with pictures. The funniest was Richard Mulholland, the certifiable lunatic who runs the South African presentation consultancy Missing Link.

(Richard is the less photogenic one on the right. Managing Director Sam is on the left.)

Starting out with the obligatory, "I can't draw, but..." (actually, it was more, "I draw like a $#@&-ing idiot, but...), Richard then proceeded to draw for me the best napkin sketch I've seen in months.

Richard, who as a presentation pro makes a living making first impressions, has come to the realization that first impressions don't mean a %$@! thing. (And he takes himself -- tattoos, silly hats, loud manner -- as his test case.) What *does* matter is LAST impressions.

And here's why (I'm channeling Richard now):

'Imagine that two people are competing for a consulting gig at a bank. One is a certifiable lunatic with tattoos, the other a nice looking chap with a tie and a briefcase. When they first meet the client, the former makes a terrible first impression (the client actually laughed when I walked in), and the latter makes a great first impression.' Like this:

'By the end of the meeting, Mr. Tie has said all the right things and proven his competence in completing the job, leaving an even higher last impression. But Mr. Tattoos has also said all the right things and impressed the client with his energy and competence. He leaves behind a lower overall impression, but one so far above where he began that the client is truly impressed.'

'So looking at the total impression -- comparing the difference between first and last impressions, who do you think gets remembered and gets the gig?'

Richard calls this the "sailboat' chart, for obvious reasons. He drew it on stage at TED Global, hoping to take Malcolm Gladwell out at the knees.

Malcolm apparently had made a pretty remarkable first impression.

Napkins all a-twitter: Part II

Nate was nice enough to point me towards his original Twitter napkin.

View this photo

I dunno, could be just me, but I prefer it to the gussied up version posted previously.

Napkins all a-twitter

I've noticed a marked increase in the use of the "back of the napkin" phrase of late. (Of course I *should*, given that I've been saying it myself ten times a day for two years. It's probably just my huge distaste for 'the law of attraction' hogwash coming around to bite me in the rear.)

Anyway, now even A-list blogger Nate Ritter is using a napkin sketch to illustrate how Twitter is helping to save the world.

View this photo

So take that, doubting Andy -- I told you "back of the napkin" means something. At least in the US, anyway...

Last call

My weekly scour for all things "back of the napkin" coughed up this thoughtful form letter printed on equally appropriate material. Talk about handy for a ride home after one too many brainstorms at the pub.

I can't find any info on the brilliant creator, but the lifesaving device can be purchased from a UK gift and gag shop.

Cabbies probably love it too. Especially when it says "look for my cash in my thong." Really.