Presto Sketching: The Magic of Simple Drawing for Brilliant Product Thinking and Design

I'm not at a designer or facilitator, but I found this book engaging, practical, and entertaining. I often run brainstorming sessions with teams, so I was looking for ideas on how to run more productive and creative sessions. This book definitely provided that. But I wasn't really prepared for the deeper aspect of the book: it really provided a framework for thinking, not just sketching. There's a whole chapter on canvases that help provide a framework for thinking about problems. For example, there's a section on a new take on a SWOT canvas: the general approach is the same, but the angle gives a fresh approach that's accessible and more fun.And of course, there are some great sketching tips that are so easy to remember and apply!I highly recommend this book if you run meetings or just want some new ways to get your creative juices flowing.

There are more than a few books on visual thinking/sketching on the market. If you want a reference on visual communication that is focused specifically on product design, I highly recommend Presto Sketching. Why? 1) It's deeply researched. You'll get insights on why and how to sketch for better product design (and some great references to learn more) 2) There's a visual dictionary that will show you how to easily sketch business concepts and metaphors. 3) The book includes a set of valuable visual frameworks that will help you bring clarity to common collaboration and design problems. I can see this book being particularly helpful and relevant to product/project managers and designers.

There are a small number of worthy books on the topic of sketchnoting, each taking a slightly different approach and each reflecting the experience and personality of the author. This is one of those books.In it you will find the humorous side of Ben Crothers as he slips in jokes and comments. You also find Ben’s skill as a sketchnote and teacher. The power of this book is that the author’s approach is to create what could be a legit textbook on the topic.My suggestion would be to get this book after you’ve learned some basics of sketching or, if you choose this as your first book on sketchnoting spend time slowly digesting the early chapters.

Loved this book for its ease of understanding and the little sketches throughout which aided in getting the author's points across. I would recommend this to anyone else who must present complex ideas to others, in an easier to digest format.

I bought a pre-release copy of the book, mainly so I could ask the author to draw a picture dedication in the front of it for me. But I also bought it "review unseen" because I knew that it would improve my sketching and visual communication, without question. Each chapter lays out ideas and approaches for the topic at hand, and then provides exercises for sketching and exploring for yourself. I love that the exercises throughout the book start you off with what you've just been reading about, but point to open areas for you to explore yourself - a great way to actively learn what you've just read about.The book moves from the simple to the complex, building from the basics of linework through to drawing simple and complex objects, figures into composition and up to being able to communicate ideas and emotions visually. The latter half of the book deals with what I'd call "visual facilitation", ways of structuring and laying out stories, discussions and decisions using the skills you've learnt in the first half of the book. You can dip in where you feel you need to improve depending on your current level of skill, but I'm working my way through the whole book to make sure I don't miss any little gems (and to give me an easy sketching-every-day discipline). About a quarter of the way through and I haven't reached anything I didn't think I already knew, but it's already changed the way I think about communicating visually and my sketching style as well.This is not a book for learning to draw "more realistically" and it's not a "how to sketchnote presentations on the fly" (I've got plenty of those books too). This is a book for communicating clearly and engaging people, especially if you're working with groups of people and complex products, services and situations. If that's what you do, then buy this book.

First of all a disclaimer: I've been lucky enough to have Ben as both colleague and friend for many years and observe his amazing talents grow, and grow, and grow - besides sketchnoting, he's also a brilliant design consultant (as companies like Monster.com and Atlassian will attest) and accomplished painter, in between being a great family man!This book is Ben all over: patiently guiding readers of all levels from understanding the basic principles and techniques, adding challenges as your skill and confidence levels grow, showing hundreds of examples and sketches of his own in addition to the words (of course!) and also including interviews with people in the industry to give you an idea of how your new-found skill is being used to improve businesses all over, not to mention the personal enjoyment of re-discovering a fun activity you probably forgot about in childhood, and using it for good.You'll be halfway through it and feel like you're getting to know Ben personally, with a great conversational style and lots of interesting footnotes adding colour and fun facts to the narrative. Plus, bonus marks if you can spot the references to Albert the Cat!

As a professional designer and fellow design thinker, I found the book very well written and full of useful tips that we tend to forget with time! Ben uses great examples that make complex systems easy to understand. I wish he had published it 10 years ago when I was still in school, definitely a great book for anyone that uses their brain and a pen on a daily basis, whatever the context ;-)

I have read many books on visual thinking and this ranks as one of my favourites - it has useful guidelines on how to draw simply but the most value is in the business applications which are pragmatic and easily applicable in many business settings. The books strength is that it is not a drawing book it’s a business toolkit which can be applied with little artistic skills. Good job Ben.

Best for everyone. Loved the step by step process of building your visual language.

Excellent book. Well articulated and very useful. It's changed the way I work in a daily basis