#03 Inky doing ...

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#03 Inky doing ...
Sticky notes to capture all the ideas brainstorming app development with another designer

Dates Monday 4th - Sunday 10th August

Playing around with a new googie theme for this week's sketchnote summary

Summary of the Week

Last week was packed with whole mix of things from—graphic design training, networking sessions, hands-on workshops, and stretching some creativity with this weeks sketchnotes.

Dot and Dash

Networking 1:1's

Had some great moments this week! Received lovely feedback from an angel investor on a past pitch, learned more about the complexities of R&D Tax credits.

Got connected with a person who is a whizz at grant and funding applications so I will be setting up a meeting to find out other support I can get for the app work

Had a great conversation and connected with a neurodiversity coach who brings valuable experience from working with disability-focused charities.

Being a solo designer, collaborating with other UX designers to get feedback on designs can make a real difference, so I am glad for this offer of support in the future.

Facilitation and Workshops

I finalised a short 60 min taster session with  LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® for September at the Olympic Legacy Park. All about community and human connection. See details here.

I successfully delivered part 1 of a series of ongoing strategy workshop's for a small business owner. Helping her map out their current state, a historical analysis and trends that will impact on their business.

The next step is working on the vision, barriers and challenges. For this, I built new Miro templates for a with a space theme. In session I used Miro’s AI tools to quickly identify recurring themes and patterns in an instant, which was pretty accurate.

Attending Penny’s graphics made easy training session was another highlight, full blog post is here. Looking forward to bouncing som ideas together about how we could work together in the future.

Check out a new app she suggested CamScanner, which is what I used this week to sharpen my sketchnotes’ visual quality—an excellent tip for graphic facilitators, when you have to photograph a lot of pages.

Look at this amazing wheel of colour, these were all wooden blocks nestled together to make up a colour wheel puzzle! There were so many books and tools for visual communication to discover and play around with.

App Development

Progress on app development accelerated, with key milestones reached this week. I met with an angel investor, who provided valuable feedback on my pitch and shared insights on R&D tax credits and connecting me to an expert to work on funding opportunities.

I have amazing volunteer neurodiversity coaches lined up for the first round of user research interviews in a couple of weeks.

Backend work continues on onboarding flows and user authentication, ensuring accessibility is built in from the foundation.

Design wise I've been playing around with the app name and the landing page to capture a wait list and those interested in taking part in a beta test.

Lovebrain

This week, I focused on improving visual skills by expanding my icon library, drawing inspiration from training materials from Lovebrain to draw different things - had to use the noun project for inspiration for tricky icons.

Memory and recall work continues with word and number sequences—speeding up on the words. Interestingly, I find it easier to recall 50-digit sequences backward than forward, though I often forget the first few digits.

I also experimented with speed reading, reading the same book twice and mindmapping it a day later to improve retention.

Personal Development

As I work toward my graphic recording goal for September, I’m brainstorming ways to do more live sessions and reach out to people in my network looking for a different way to capture insights from meetings or workshops.

My first massive 5 meter wall to live graphic record in front of around 120 people. Being coached by the wonderful Andy Gray! at the ISC2025 conference.

Meanwhile, I’ve been continuing my lettering work and looking for a typography set with a retro 1960s vibe. I wonder if I should make that a pact?

Updates on Pacts

PACT 1: Portrait Practice (7 days) I committed to 15-30 minutes a day using Eva-Lotta Lamm’s Pragmatic Portraits Masterclass. While I didn’t practice daily, Instead I found I got into a flow state and spent chunks of focused time working 2-3 hours every couple of days working on features. Definitely feel like I am making progress. This course is challenging but brilliant. Check it out here. Going to do another 7 days!

PACT 2 (3/52): Mind-Mapping Books This week, I focused on mind mapping for meetings and to-do lists. I’ve been speed reading the same book a couple of times to fully comprehend it before turning it into a map. A little behind on this PACT but will hopefully have two books done.

PACT 3 (4/30 days): I will create a weekly sketchnote summary Exciting news—more subscribers! This week, I themed my sketchnote around the retro aesthetics of Googie architecture. Inspired by the vintage vibe of the new Marvel film, The Fantastic Four, I tried out this style for the first time and am really pleased with the result!

If you enjoyed this visual sketchletter, I’d greatly appreciate your support in sharing it with your network. If you'd like to stay updated over the coming weeks, feel free to subscribe—it’s completely free!