#141: Jono Hey – Build a Creative Practice That Sticks: Mastering Visual Thinking, 900+ Sketches, Deep Simplicity and Collaborating with Bill Gates

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Apr 19, 2025

Jono Hey, author of Big Ideas Little Pictures and creator of Sketchplanations, shares his journey of simplifying complex ideas through visual sketches. He explores the power of visual thinking and how to build a creative identity during career transitions. Jono discusses the importance of knowing when a piece is ready for publication and offers tips for aspiring sketchers. He also reflects on his experiences illustrating for Bill Gates, outlining the intricate balance between structured creativity and deep work while navigating the publishing landscape.

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ANECDOTE

Starting Sketchplanations

Jono Hey started Sketchplanations in 2013 after receiving a drawing-a-day journal from his sister.
He shifted from casual sketches to explaining complex ideas with visuals weekly while still working full-time.

ADVICE

Share Work to Improve

Share your creative work publicly to improve quality and receive valuable feedback.
Other people's engagement motivates you and sharpens the work beyond private effort.

INSIGHT

Drip Feeding Your New Identity

Evolving a new identity publicly through gradual sharing builds confidence and feedback.
Identities are multi-faceted; side projects reveal different aspects without full commitment.

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Jono Hey, author of Big Ideas Little Pictures and creator of Sketchplanations, shares insights from over a decade of explaining the world through sketches.

We discuss:

The power of visual thinking
Building a new identity when changing careers
Knowing when a piece is done and ready for publishing
Tips to get started with sketching
& lessons from long-term creative projects, including illustrating for Bill Gates.

ABOUT JONO HEY
Jono Hey is the author and illustrator of Big Ideas Little Pictures, a collection of the best of Sketchplanations—his decade-long project dedicated to explaining complex ideas through simple sketches. With a background spanning academia, business, design, product development, and engineering, Jono has helped build two successful companies and holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. His work has been featured in Bill Gates’s book How to Prevent the Next Pandemic, and he co-hosts Sketchplanations – the Podcast, where he and two friends dive deeper into the ideas behind his sketches. Find his latest work at sketchplanations.com.

RESOURCES

This episode is brought to you by our friends at Lulu. If you're interested in self-publishing, Lulu has free resources such as helpful tutorials, templates to help you layout a book, design for print, and they have a very watchable YouTube University channel. Our community anthology is in fact published using Lulu. Check them out at lulu.com.

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