Sketchplanations
Explaining the world one sketch at a time, i.e. very slowly, but steadily. By Jono Hey
All the things: sketchplanations.com
- Just watching the spectacular and entertaining opening ceremony to the Winter Olympics In case you were curious about the remarkable flag: podcast.sketchplanations.com/olympic-flag...
- I love Reggio Emilia’s concept of the environment as the third teacher. This idea works just as well in early childhood education as it does in a primary school classroom—or even an office. A thoughtfully designed environment can support learning, foster good habits, and boost overall wellbeing.
- Some writing tips for the web and lists. Not for your novel.
- Know your clouds: How to identify common cloud types How to identify some common types of clouds. Mostly it's about shape and height. Stratus: layers AND Cumulus: heaps Modify each with the height that you see them and add Cirrus at the very top and you’re a long way already.
- A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it. — G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man James Clear, in his latest 3-2-1 newsletter, may have found for me the source of this “Only dead fish go with the flow” My previous attribution was “a sign in a pub in Wales” =)
- For an all-seeing, all-knowing being, the future is as clear as the past From Pierre-Simon Laplace, A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities
- Seems like a reasonable time to share our friend Mercator and its effect on Greenland. Excerpt from Big Ideas Little Pictures
- I released some new pieces recently. Something calming and peace-ful to listen to in case, like me, you're in need of it. You can listen on all platforms and here: ditto.fm/foundling-re... Hope you like it!
- Never look at dunes in the same way again. And other fun geography-related sketches.
- "Got a pile of books by the bed? Stack of unreads staring at you from the shelves? This is one of my favourite 'when there’s a word for something very specific' cases: tsundoku" sketchplanations.substack.com/p/tsundoku-a... Inspiration from the brilliant: @tomgauld.bsky.social
- Contentment is what you have relative to what you want. — @morganhousel.bsky.social From his book The Art of Spending Money
- Plan ahead Plan ahead and avoid mistakes like this. Writing a card? Try air-writing first. 'Plan ahead' is also a nice example of a pleonasm. And I've lost count of how many times I've found this technique useful to draw a bike.
- Some thoughts and prompts for goal-setting and reflection at the start of the year. More about SMART goals in this week's newsletter. Wishing you a smashing 2026. Jono
- An often-quoted adage goes: Doing business without marketing is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you're doing, but no one else does.
- How do you balance having two big stars in your film? Diagonal billing, that's how.
- Are you passionate about something? Do you know something inside out where others barely give it a glance? Prints: www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/1693...
- And if it's not a tradition, well, it should be 🎁 📚 ☕️
- In the N hemisphere I love yesterday’s solstice as it signals the lowest point for the sun starting back towards the higher—towards longer days and more sunlight. But then I love the summer solstice for its wonderful long days too. We win either way!
- Cream first or jam first? As someone with more ties to Devon, I’ve always gone the cream then jam route. But I know that some people swear by the other way. Either way, I can vouch for both ways being delicious. Which way do you go? Cream first or jam first?
- It's disability history month in the UK. Here's my favourite sketch and something to think about.
- Creative people display contradictory personality traits. This finding has stuck with me since I read it over 20 years ago in psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention.
- Hear from “probably the UK’s greatest statistician”, and author of The Art of Uncertainty, Sir David Spiegelhalter. This episode was so fun and interesting I’ve listened to it twice and enjoyed it the second time as much as the first. Find it here: podcast.sketchplanations.com/microlives-t...
- Latitude and longitude: How to remember which is which
- Not too late as an idea? Concept from Pragmatic Parent
- "If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples, then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas." Ideas are different from things. They're additive and abundant.
- It's National Tree Week. Here are some sketches about trees.
- "somewhere between that abstract red square, and the real kind of butcher heart, is the graphic shape that kind of looks like that, and kind of looks like that, and it's just right to transport this idea of a symbol for love." — Christoph Niemann, from Abstract @christophniemann.bsky.social
- "Pillars of Hope" is a tongue-in-cheek name for steel starter bars, also known as starter rods or rebar extensions, that protrude from the roofs of houses after construction.
- Write a newsletter? Perhaps you can relate. Don't lose heart. PS You can subscribe at sketchplanations.com/subscribe
- It's World Kindness Day. One of the simplest and wisest views on kindness from Brené Brown. Can you be clearer with someone today? It's kinder.
- Roses are red, roses are blue, depending on their velocity relative to you. (from __Dawn__Amber__ on Reddit)
- The remarkable illusion of a mirage
- November is usually a good month to start thinking about snerdling
- A collective noun is a word used to describe a group of individuals or things — most commonly groups of animals. The best capture character and imagination in a single word. As there appears to be no established authority, may the best collective noun win. A torment of personal trainers?
- Do you know what Halloween means and where it comes from? Excerpt from Big Ideas Little Pictures - bigideas.pictures
- Heating people, heating spaces With well-insulated houses and central heating as standard, I always grew up with heating the space as how you stay warm in the winter. A colleague once shared with me that where he'd lived, they thought of it as heating people, not spaces when looking to stay warm.
- A tool for making sense of complex problems Rich pictures are a systems thinking tool to visualise what you know or think about a problem space — without needing a strict method, structure, or artistic skill.
- I absolutely loved listening back to yesterday’s podcast episode with author and etymologist Mark Forsyth - @Inkyfool True to form, Mark is both fascinating and at times hilarious. Have a listen: podcast.sketchplanations.com/ordering-adj... Or search Sketchplanations wherever you listen
