For a long time now it’s been evident that soon technology will rule the world (if it doesn’t already). It seems as though every day surprising amounts of new electronic gadgets are introduced, and the good old pen and paper get forgotten in the attic to collect cobwebs and mold.
This article will address why you should turn off your laptop, put away your tablet, and go back to the basics during your design process, as well as provide some of the best tips to getting started with effective sketching.
The benefits of sketching in the design process
1. It lets you dig deeper
When you first start a project, there’s a tendency to automatically start coming up with different ideas. These ideas may seem great at first, but the truth is, there’s a big chance that your first ideas are pretty obvious.
For example, if you were creating a logo for an orange juice company, the first, obvious solution most people would think of would be an orange. While the logo will probably end up having something to do with an orange, what can you do to present this orange in a new and unusual way?
Use sketching to find out.
Sketching lets you get all the obvious ideas out of the way, so you can start coming up with stronger, more innovative concepts. Plus, you never know what will inspire you – it could be one of those obvious sketches that spark a million dollar idea!
2. You can do it from anywhere
These days you can take a laptop almost anywhere, but taking a sketchbook and a pen is even more convenient. With a sketchbook you might end up finding yourself in more rural areas like rivers and parks, as well as museums and subways, and who knows where else! Another benefit is that you will be exposing yourself to different environments, which will inspire your designs and bring you new ideas.
3. Get in touch with your artistic side
There’s something about holding a pencil in your hand that gets your creative juices flowing in a much different way than holding a mouse. When you get used to sketching, the movements of your hand become much more fluid and it becomes really easy and natural. You may also start seeing some ‘artistic’ influences in your design work.
The more you practice, the better you will become at sketching.
4. Expand your abilities and develop a skill
As a designer, it pays off to have a varied skill-set. Developing a strong ability to sketch will allow you to present ideas quickly and easily on paper – for yourself, your art director, or for your clients.
5. Know why you’re designing
One of the most important benefits of sketching is that it gets you in touch with your design work on a whole new level. By spending so much time developing a solid concept, you have a stronger understanding of the elements that go into your design, and you’re able to explain it more eloquently to clients and defend it more successfully if disagreements arise.
Tips for getting started
Mind maps and word lists
These can come in very handy when you’re starting a new project, or completely stuck with one you’ve been working on for a while. With both minds maps and word lists you basically list every possible word that’s related to the subject of your project. When I use these for my projects, I first come up with all the words I can think of, then circle the best ones and create little sketches for them to get things going.
I’ve heard there are several online applications for these brainstorming methods, but nothing beats doing it on paper, where there’s full freedom to go with the flow of your associations, and add sketches too. Plus, if you’re hesitant about actual sketching, this is a great way to ease into it.
Draw something, draw anything
Often, especially when you haven’t sketched in a while, facing a blank page can be a bit intimidating. Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start and what you’re supposed to sketch.
Just sketch anything!
Start with a dot, a line, a circle, a square. It doesn’t matter. Just let your mind wander and your hand wander with it. Fill a whole page with doodles if you have to. It’s much less intimidating to face a page that has some character than a blank one. As long as you’re sketching something, you’re on the right track to coming up with your next great idea!
Mistakes are opportunities in disguise
Keep this in mind: your sketches don’t have to be the next Mona Lisa. Sometimes when I sketch, I find myself wanting to make things “perfect”. Don’t fall into this trap…every ‘mistake’ you make is really an opportunity to get better and learn. Welcome these ‘mistakes’ – take them on as challenges and you’ll grow as a designer.
In fact, experiment with making some of your sketches as ugly as possible – make them practically hideous! If you plan on drawing a circle, draw a jagged, oddly shaped ellipse. This will help you loosen up and express the ideas that come to you freely, without getting caught up in how well you can draw.
If all else fails, remember this: no one has to see your sketches – you can keep them as private as you’d like – so don’t be shy!
Sketch the worse possible solution
A while back I was working on some cover designs for a product for firefighters. I had a pretty massive creative block at the time – the kind that sinks its teeth into your brain and gets you irritated at every moving (and non-moving) thing around you. For the life of me I could not come up with the ‘perfect’ idea… I couldn’t sketch… Nothing.
I was talking about this to a friend of mine, and he asked me the following question: “What’s the worst possible design you can come up with for this?”
Now there was a question I could answer easy as pie. I could have a giant fire truck with two muscular firemen in suspenders (who are obviously not firemen) holding their axes, with giant flames in the background…oh, and don’t forget the water hose. I sketched this, got a good laugh, and before I knew it my creative block dissolved like two Alka-Seltzer in water.
Here’s my point: when you come up with the worst possible solutions for a design, and give them life by sketching them, it frees your mind from their weight, and leaves it open to new, innovative, and brilliant ideas.
Sketch everywhere
I like to buy notebooks and sketchbooks, it’s a bit of an obsession I have, since I just can’t resist them, no matter how hard I try. I also like to designate specific notebooks and sketchbooks for specific things. “This will be the sketchbook for my own branding,” I say. “And that one will be for making to-do lists! And that other one will be great for client projects.”
Unfortunately (well, maybe it’s not unfortunate), it doesn’t always end up like that. The sketchbook I designated for my own branding ended up serving as all of the above.
Which brings me to my next point: sketch anywhere and everywhere. Ideas have the tendency of visiting us at unpredictable times, and in unpredictable places. It’s often hard to keep track of which idea is supposed to go in which notebook, and which one you’re supposed to be carrying around. My solution to that is to use whatever’s available – even napkins.
Sketch everything
Including sketching as a significant chunk of your design process requires a bit of falling in love with it. It makes the process much more enjoyable and lets you to really dive into it without dreading it.
To start falling in love with it try sketching in your free time, too. Sketch things for fun – things that interest you – big things, little things, tall things, short things, trees, buildings, clocks, pens, robots, fluffy animals… whatever floats your boat. Personally, I really, really like sketching fruits and vegetables… interestingly enough it makes me quite happy.
Experiment
Find what works best for you. Try using different tools like pens, pencils, watercolors, charcoal, and chalk – to name a few – as well as different surfaces. Use ones with which you feel you can express yourself in the best possible way and you enjoy most. The more fun you make this for yourself, the easier it will be to stick to it.
What do you think? Add your thoughts
How important is sketching in your design process? Do you mainly rely on technology or paper to develop your ideas? Plus, do you have any other tips to share that worked well for you?
Written by Lou Levit Follow @Lou Levit
Very interesting article. You’re very right about these things. I’m also having talent at drawing, but I can’t get the feeling I get by working directly with Illustrator. Anyway, nice article!
@Cosmin Negoita, Hey, I’m glad you found this article to be useful. What feeling do you get working directly with illustrator?
@Atlanta Graphic Designer,
I mean when sketching, I cannot get the same quality as in Illustrator. In my point of view, if the more quality my logo has, the more interesting it seems to me. I don’t know if you understand me, but this is the way I think. Of course whens sketching you have all the power in your hands!
@Cosmin Negoita, I understand what you mean. You can still use sketching to develop your ideas and then take those sketches to illustrator and get the quality you like there. I’ve found that sketching really helps in developing strong concepts before you make them digital.
@Atlanta Graphic Designer, I appreciate your advice. To be honest, I’ll try your way
It sounds effective!
Lovely article, thanks! What’s great about sketching for me is that my artistic skill is much better on paper than on the screen, despite having a Wacom. It’s much easier to draw something and scan it in, and then possibly trace it. If nothing else, it gives it more character.
On a similar note, I would like to use this space to vent my frustration that my first Moleskine has not arrived despite me ordering it a few weeks ago.
@Conor O’Driscoll, Scanning works better for me too. I think I tried using a Wacom to sketch one time, and then decided I would never do it again. There’s just something much more raw and honest in my designs when I sketch, so I don’t ever compromise it.
can wait to start my sketch
Well written… Made me get the pencil and the pad… From time to time it’s good to come across an article like this that will remind you that Illustrator is not a master
)
Nice article, I was actually working on this topic for my own blog and had some similar points. I already talked about the idea of using a notebook for ideas and writing, so I wanted to talk about this as a follow up.
One of the ideas I wanted to explore is that when working with pen and paper, you aren’t limited to what the computer can produce. Sometimes the vision in our head can’t be properly created with a mouse and the Pen Tool. Even using a tablet isn’t exactly as precise (although they get better every day) as pen and ink.
@Joe Gillespie, Hey Joe, this is also relevant when creating more complex graphics. For example, if someone is creating a design that involves photography, they may limit their design based on stock photos that are available to them, as opposed to developing an idea first, and if a photo is not available anywhere, creating it in some way. I think designing this way creates more of a challenge, but it makes you grow as a designer quite significantly.
@Atlanta Graphic Designer,
Yes, I sometimes find myself in the same situation. You have a great concept worked up, but you can’t find the proper stock photo. Luckily at Fox Chase, we have an in-house photographer and we can usually get the right shots ourselves if the stock house comes up empty.
Also, having a sketch in hand can help get your point across if you are out on a photo shoot.
Hey,
Awesome article! I know as a copywriter I use a similar process for headlines. For many headlines I’ll write out lots of variations. Initially the “obvious” ideas get out, then they get a little better – until finally I have a headline to write home about
Thanks for the inspiration,
David
@David Tendrich,
Some great application there, David. I took a second to read through your blog and you have some great things there. As a fellow copywriter, I will be sure to visit your site frequently.
Here’s a question: How do you know when you have finally reached that moment when you should “write home about it”? I mean when do you know it’s time to stop? that you’ve reached the perfect option?
Thoughts?
@Preston D Lee,
I’m very big on pencil and paper. Take my notepad everywhere, write down everything and then walk away when the idea tank is absolutely spent.
After catching up on other projects, emails and whatnot, I go back to my headlines and can easily weed out the junk and focus on what feels right. Definitely a gut reaction, a visceral thing. If nothing grabs me, I start all over again.
My first CD insisted that I write 100+ headlines before he’d even look at what I’d written. These days, I don’t get all the way to 100, but damn close. My best stuff definitely comes when I’ve spit out the puns, cliches and start getting a little delirious.
Thanks for the great post ~ desiree
@Preston D Lee,
Hey Preston,
You know… I’ve sat here at my desk, thinking about your question for the last few minutes. And after twiddling my thumbs and staring at the ceiling – this is the best thing I’ve come up with…
When it shows up under my pencil – I always get this sinking feeling in my stomach, like the stars are aligned and angels are cheering me on. I know, it’s weird, and I literally want to “write home about it”! I feel this need to share it and show it off. Like the world has to see it.
Usually Lou is sitting right beside me, so I make her stop whatever she’s doing and listen to it. The gleam in her eyes confirms to me that it’s the right headline.
So I guess it boils down to a gut feeling. Not a very tangible answer, but it’s the best I can come up with.
How about you? How do you know? Would love to hear your thoughts.
David
@Preston D Lee, My biggest problem with knowing when to stop (I’m speaking more about design now) was when I was working on our logo/branding and it went through about three incarnations…it took 8 months, believe it or not…it was pretty ridiculous. But I just couldn’t stop. Somehow when you’re designing for yourself everything becomes ten times harder, especially determining where that elusive finish line is.
Lou
@Preston D Lee,
Hey, by the way, glad you like the blog! I look forward to seeing your comments (hint… hint…)
Hey!! Very useful and interesting article!
I try and sketch as much as humanly possible
This is funny. I had actually started doing this a few weeks ago to try and get my creative juices flowing a bit more. I was starting to feel like a pixel pusher and technical person rather than someone who is creative.
Now that I stumble across your article it is good to see I was on the right track. I feel like sketching is just easier than tinkering in photoshop or illustrator. You can have an idea and just put pencil to paper, rather than getting out the pen tool and messing with vectors.
This blog is now on my RSS feed. Thanks!
Elliot
@Elliot,
Glad to hear you’ll be reading from GDB regularly, Elliot. I hope to see you back soon in the comments section.
I would also add to what you said: to avoid “pixel pushing” too much you should probably stay away from the computer as much as possible during the initial brainstorming phase. I know that when I think I have a great idea with one or two sketches, and I rush to the computer, I never return to the sketchpad. A big NO NO.
How long do you usually sketch before you take it to the computer screen?
Great article – I’m a massive fan of sketching as part of the design process. The one extra(ish) benefit I’d add is that it’s simply much faster. I tend to think of ideas and variations much faster than I can translate them into pixels, and being able to sketch them out really helps my creative process.
And totally agree with @Joe Gillespie’s comment about computers potentially limiting what we can produce.
It’s also worth mentioning the media we can use to sketch with: not only pencil + paper, but on whiteboards and glass for team-based ideas generation and refinement.
Again, thanks!
@Ben Crothers,
Some nice additions here, Ben. Thanks. I LOVE sketching on a white board because it’s so easy to alter and I just love the feel of it. Weird I know.
Anyway, the whole idea of it being faster is spot on! Our brains move faster than our hands do in the first place, but make me use the pen tool, and my brain is going at supersonic speeds in comparison.
So what is it about whiteboards that you (an your colleagues) like so much?
Nice article! The funny thing about sketching is that at first it doesn’t sound ‘effective’ or ‘professional’. But once you try it you find out it’s the opposite. After some time, your works seems to get better!
@Júlio Bueno,
That’s a great point, Julio. Why do you think that is? What is it about sketching that makes your designs turn out better in the end? Any thoughts?
@Júlio Bueno, That’s really interesting. For me I’ve always had the opposite impression since I’ve never ‘known’ design without sketching…so I always thought that design that did have an extensive sketching process was more effective and professional. But it’s pretty amazing what a difference sketching can make in your work! I would encourage every designer out there to include it in their process.
awesome post! it’s been a while since I sketched…I’m getting a sketchpad and start doing it again!