Adrian Raudaschl

Sketchbook

I think by drawing. Comics when a paper is hard to explain, a cat in a bow tie when search is, and pages of notes that were never meant to be seen. Most of it was drawn on an iPad; the rest on whatever paper was nearest.

Professor Cat

A cat in a bow tie who turns up whenever an article of mine needs something explained.

Professor Cat holding a magnifying glass under the words 'Ask me about new Mendeley Search' — Mendeley Search launch, 2020

Professor Cat sitting in a museum washbasin beside a sign reading 'Please don't touch the art' — 2021

Professor Cat under a brain being fed by papers, headphones, books and a microscope

Professor Cat in the middle of a huge tangle of scribbled lines

Professor Cat celebrating with papers flying overhead

Professor Cat on a stage in front of an audience

Pencil rough of a comic page with Professor Cat reading a glowing paper — Pencil rough for a comic about an academic paper

Professor Cat shouting through an enormous megaphone

Professor Cat slam-dunking a basketball

Professor Cat beside a frame hung with coloured labels, leading to a brain

Professor Cat on a road with yellow rays spreading from the horizon

Professor Cat looking through a window at a sign reading 2021

Professor Cat in a crown, balancing on a tightrope

Professor Cat with the word coronavirus written across the forehead — 2020

The number 2020 in heavy black brush lettering above Professor Cat — The best of 2020

Professor Cat beside a green sand dune under a small sun — For an essay on complexity

Professor Cat standing in a boxing ring — Earn the right to argue

Professor Cat running on a treadmill among confetti — Innovation is slowing down

Professor Cat at a desk surrounded by flying papers — The Accountability Gap

Several Professor Cats among drifting sheets of paper

Professor Cat curled inside a golden ring of symbols — The Relevance Trap

The number 2025 packed with small doodles, with Professor Cat in the middle — 48 reflections on 2025

Professor Cat with a magnifying glass beside a cheering figure, under the words 'People Finder' — People Finder

Professor Cat waving at a small robot — SeqRAG: agents for the rest of us

A brain casting a beam of light down onto Professor Cat and a small figure

Professor Cat reading papers under a string of hanging notes

Professor Cat bursting out of a green starburst among lab equipment and scales

Professor Cat on a stage with red curtains, a hand lowering something from above

Professor Cat beside an open red box labelled 'obligation'

A space station saying 'Come on in!' to Professor Cat floating in a green bubble

Professor Cat working at a laptop marked 2024 beside a small robot — 2024

Professor Cat holding up a phone under a sun and the number 2025 — For my reflections on 2024

Comics

When a paper or an idea is hard to explain, I try it as a comic first.

Six-panel comic of a child and parent talking about cognitive enhancement — The Talk: a comic about nootropics, 2019

Six-panel comic continuing a conversation about smart drugs

Six-panel comic of two characters weighing up the reasons people take nootropics

Six-panel comic ending with coloured bubbles for sleep, diet, exercise and meditation

Comic panels with bell curves and two small figures talking

Six small drawings of brain hacks: cold showers, a standing desk, an exercise bike, supplements and sleep — Brain hacks, 2019

Four-panel comic titled 'Good Future 2030: we win the fight against climate change' — Good Future 2030, after the Global Futures Council, 2019

Six pen sketches of a better future: fighting climate change, fair economies, clean energy

Three-panel comic about finding papers, ending with 'a new paper for every tab' — Explaining Paper of the Day, 2019

Storyboard showing a paper, topic and image combining into a new-tab page

Two-panel comic showing papers flowing through a classifier into a cloud

Four small scenes about working remotely, with speech bubbles and a chart — For an article on remote work, 2021

First page of a hand-lettered comic in which Professor Cat explains the coronavirus — Professor Cat explains coronavirus, 2020

Second page of the coronavirus comic, with green virus characters

Third page of the coronavirus comic

First page of a Professor Cat comic about intermittent fasting — Professor Cat reads a paper on intermittent fasting, 2020

Second page of the intermittent fasting comic

Third page of the intermittent fasting comic

Fourth page of the intermittent fasting comic

Three-panel strip from the intermittent fasting comic

Two comic panels in colour from The Talk

Inked comic page with Professor Cat reading a glowing paper

Two-panel comic: 'We can finally have that chat about working together'

A sheet of doodles: a virus, charts, robots and Professor Cat

Drawings

Things drawn for no better reason than wanting to.

LeapSpace T-shirt, December 2025

Ink drawing of a figure hunched over a spin bike — Spin class, 2019

Watercolour sketch of a restaurant front with a figure waving in the window — Ottolenghi, Spitalfields, 2019

A figure with headphones carrying a large green umbrella

A figure with a megaphone looking up at a mountain labelled 2020, with 'Search' written beside it — A search roadmap, drawn as a mountain, 2019

A page of small character sketches and icons

Watercolour of a V60 coffee dripper, a cup, a kettle and a chart

A figure in a green apron pouring coffee behind a counter — Adrian the Philosophical Barista

A small figure leaping from a giant hand above a jagged pink and green landscape

Pen drawing of two peaks with a valley between them and tiny figures — Local maximum, from The Relevance Trap

A small tree whose roots spread down through a black mass of scribble

A weight, a user story card and a horseshoe magnet

The number 2020 with a lightbulb, a trophy and a sign reading 'lessons' — Reflections for a better 2021

A DNA helix surrounded by small symbols — Your genome as a service

Notes

How I take notes when I'm trying to understand something: boxes, arrows and too many colours.

Colour-washed notes tracing how a car gets made, from raw materials to distribution

Stick-figure diagram comparing how Uber and Tesla connect drivers and cars

Mind map labelled 'Art Hub' with branches to museums, painters and galleries

Hand-drawn system diagram for the Paper of the Day service — Paper of the Day architecture, 2019

Notes on cognitive enhancement grouped into biochemical, behavioural and physical — Research notes for The Talk, 2019

Six boxes of notes outlining an article on cognitive enhancement, with small charts

A page of notes on cloud gaming with coloured highlights and a small network diagram

Notes on consumer and business coffee markets, with a diagram of beans being processed and roasted light, medium or dark

Game ideas

Pages from a notebook of games I'd like to exist.

Sketches of rooms and hand-lettered titles: 'Sea, Mountains and Monsters' and 'The Pouring Room'

A hand-drawn city map labelled New Glasgow, with districts washed in purple and orange

Watercolour sketches of a street, a floating island, a winged red creature and a ruined city

Storyboard panels of creatures, a volcano and a small house under the heading 'Sea, Mountains, Monsters'

Six small scenes including a ferris wheel, a blue screen and a crowd in a city

Sketches of a creature in a bubble, a bridge, and brightly coloured birds

Storyboard with a waterfall, a shop front and a red block-shaped character

Pencil and watercolour studies of an island, a domed building and a dark tower

Diagrams of puzzle rooms with red and green markers and arrows

Character studies of small figures labelled cold, heat and gas, beside street sketches

Where it started

Coloured pencils first, then lined paper, then 3D software by 2002.

A child's coloured-pencil drawing of planets, a rocket and a yellow sun, dated 16.4.95 — By AJB, 16 April 1995

Pencil drawings of Sonic-style characters filling a page — Sonic-inspired characters

Two pencil comic pages of robots and machines on lined paper

A three-panel comic strip of fish on torn lined paper

3D render of green glass towers under an orange and blue sky — Metropolis, a game concept, 2002

3D render of a dark street with graffiti reading 'Freedom' and 'Revolution'

3D render of a row of shops at night with lit windows