Sketching as Design Thinking [1 ed.] 1138579408, 9781138579408

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SKETCHING AS DESIGN THINKING

This book argues for the importance of sketching as a mode of thinking, and the relevance of sketching in the design process, design education, and design practice. Through a wide range of analysis and discussion, the book looks at the history of sketching as a resource throughout the design process and asks questions such as: where does sketching come from? When did sketching become something different to drawing and how did that happen? What does sketching look like in the present day? Alongside an in-depth case study of students, teachers, and practitioners, this book includes a fascinating range of interviews with designers from a wide variety of backgrounds, including fashion, user experience, and architecture. Sketching as Design Thinking explains how drawing and sketching remain a prominent aspect in our learning and creative process, and provides a rich resource for students of visual art and design. Alma R. Hoffmann teaches graphic design at the University of South Alabama. She is also a contributing editor at Smashing Magazine. She freelances and practices lettering and calligraphy. She has received several awards for her work, has written several articles, and presents her research on creativity and sketching at international and national conferences.

SKETCHING AS DESIGN THINKING

Alma R. Hoffmann

First published 2020 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 Alma R. Hoffmann The right of Alma R. Hoffmann to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Hoffman, Alma R., author. Title: Sketching as design thinking / Alma R. Hoffman. Description: London; New York: Routledge, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2019028232 (print) | LCCN 2019028233 (ebook) | ISBN 9781138579408 (hbk) | ISBN 9781138579415 (pbk) | ISBN 9780429508042 (ebk) Subjects: LCSH: Design–Philosophy. | Drawing, Psychology of. Classification: LCC NK1505 .H635 2020 (print) | LCC NK1505 (ebook) | DDC 124–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019028232 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019028233 ISBN: 978-1-138-57940-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-57941-5 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-50804-2 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India

Each accomplishment is the result of a net knitted by those whose hands and love support us. I dedicate this book to my children, Aramis and Marisol. Curiosity has been a door opener for me and that includes this book. May you never stop asking and wondering, what if I did…? To you, my mininos, because it is and it has always been about you. I love you to the moon and back and back again. To the man who supports me and loves me, Tyson, you are my home.

CONTENTS

List of figures viii List of tables xi Acknowledgments xii Introduction

1

1 Sketching: A short history

5

2 Sketching: Visual information processing

17

3 Interviews: What sketching means and looks like for other designers

24

4 Sketching: Purpose, attributes, and types of sketches

118

5 Sketching: Exercises and tools

136

6 Exploring beliefs and practices about sketching in higher education and in the design profession

155

Concluding thoughts

168

Appendix: Exploring beliefs and practices about sketching in higher education and in the design profession: Survey questions 171 Bibliography 181 Index186

FIGURES

1.1 Alma Hoffmann, “Perforated pattern and anthibola in ink and watercolor with a depiction of The Lamentation from Carfu, 18th c.” 2012 10 1.2 Mike Rohde, “Sketchnote future of water pencil sketch v2.” 2011 16 2.1 Alma Hoffmann, “Sketch explaining the process of how we see and interpret what the brain sees.” 2017 19 3.1 Karl Jahnke, assistant professor of animation at the University of South Alabama 25 3.2–3.4 Karl Jahnke, “Sketches.” Unknown date 28–29 3.5 Anastasia Pistofidou, director of the FabTextile research lab and the Fabricademy 30 3.6 Laura Civetti, interior designer 35 3.7–3.11 Laura Civetti, “Sketches.” 2017 40–42 3.12 Mark Tippin, design communicator, design thinker, and visualizer 43 3.13 Diane Burk, exhibition designer and collage sketcher 46 3.14–3.16 Diane Burk, “Collages.” 2017 52–53 3.17 Joe Sam Queen, architect, and at the time of this interview, running for State Legislature in North Carolina (he won the election) 54 3.18–3.21 Alma Hoffmann, “HART. Haywood Arts Regional Theater, Waynesville, North Carolina. Designed by architect Joe Sam Queen.” 2018 59–60 3.22 Mike Rohde, user experience designer, professional sketchnoter, and author 61

Figures 

3.23–3.25 3.26 3.27 3.28–3.32 3.33 3.34–3.35 3.36 3.37 3.38 3.39 3.40 3.41 3.42–3.44 3.45 3.46 3.47 3.48 3.49 3.50–3.54 3.55 3.56 3.57–3.60 3.61–3.63 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6–4.7 4.8 4.9 4.10 4.11 4.12

ix

Mike Rohde, “Sketchnotes.” 2018 69–70 Mike Rohde, “Sketchnotes.” 2015 70 Sahm Jafari, car designer at Tesla 71 Sahm Jafari, “Car sketches.” Unknown dates 77–78 Eva-Lotta Lamm, “Sketchnotes.” 2017 84 Eva-Lotta Lamm, “Sketchnotes.” Unknown date 85 Eva-Lotta Lamm, “Sketchnotes.” 2017 86 Barbara Trippeer, “Flat sketches/studies.” Unknown date 90 Barbara Trippeer, “Croqui studies.” Unknown date 90 Barbara Trippeer, “Gesture drawing study.” Unknown date 91 Barbara Trippeer, “Gesture study of live model.” Unknown date 91 Barbara Trippeer, “Historical study.” Unknown date 92 Barbara Trippeer, “Iterative studies.” Unknown date 92–93 Barbara Trippeer, “Notebook studies.” Unknown date 94 Barbara Trippeer, “Notebook studies for Air France uniforms.” Unknown date 94 Barbara Trippeer, “Gesture drawing.” Unknown date 95 Brandon Gibbs, designer and innovator 96 Brandon Gibbs, “Sketch.” Unknown date 98 Brandon Gibbs, “Sketches.” Unknown date 99–101 David Kadavy, “Sketch.” Unknown date 106 Denys Mishunov, front-end developer and illustrator 107 Denys Mishunov, “Gorilla sketches.” c. 2012–2013 114–115 Denys Mishunov, “Sketches.” Unknown date 116–117 Alma Hoffmann, “Which ball?” 2019 119 Alma Hoffmann, “Sketch of the design process.” 2018 122 Alma Hoffmann, “Sketches made while explaining how to sketch type in class.” 2018 123 Alma Hoffmann, “Sketches done while in a faculty meeting.” 2017 124 Karl Jahnke, “Character studies.” 2017 125 Benjamin Shamback, “Learning Dutch.” 2018 126 Joseph Beuys, Energie Plan for the Westman, 1974 127 Karl Jahnke, “Annotated sketches and studies.” 2017 128 Alma Hoffmann, “Photo of Harley Davidson blueprint.” 2017 129 Benjamin Shamback, “Thumbnail studies.” 2018 130 Alma Hoffmann, “Live notes during a talk by guest speakers Johnny Gwin and Stacy Welborne in class.” 2018 131

x Figures

Alma Hoffmann, “Practicing calligraphic strokes creatively.” 2017 132 4.14 Eva-Lotta Lam, “Problem solving interaction photo scrolling.” 2017 133 4.15 Eva-Lotta Lam, “Travel diary.” 2017 133 4.16–4.17 Danielle Sack, “Study with cut letters.” 2018 134 4.18 Diane Burk, “Collage sketches.” 2017 135 5.1 Alma Hoffmann, “Sketchnotes, Moleskine sketchbook, and pens.” 2019 137 5.2 Alma Hoffmann, “HART. Haywood Arts Regional Theater, Waynesville, North Carolina. Designed by architect Joe Sam Queen.” 2018 139 5.3 Alma Hoffmann, “Abstracting the composition as points.” 2019 140 5.4 Alma Hoffmann, “Abstracting the composition as lines.” 2019 140 5.5 Alma Hoffmann, “Abstracting the composition as planes.” 2019 141 5.6 Alma Hoffmann, “Abstracting the composition using different lines.” 2019 141 5.7 Alma Hoffmann, “Combining points, lines, and planes.” 2019 142 5.8 Alma Hoffmann, “Watercolor to music 1.” 2019 144 5.9 Alma Hoffmann, “Watercolor to music 2.” 2019 144 5.10 Alma Hoffmann, “Example of one-point perspective in landscape.” 2019 147 5.11 Alma Hoffmann, “Example of disjointed human figure shapes.” 2019 149 5.12 Alma Hoffmann, “Sketchbooks.” 2018–2019 150 5.13 Alma Hoffmann, “Tools and pens.” 2019 152 4.13

TABLES

6.1  A  nswer distribution of questions that were the same for each category 6.2  Requirement of sketches for educators while attending art and design school 6.3  Requirement of sketches for students and practitioners 6.4  Questions asked to design educators 6.5  Questions for students 6.6  Questions for design educators and students 6.7  Questions for design practitioners 6.8  Questions for design students and design practitioners 6.9  List of keywords and use frequency on open-ended question defining sketching

157 158 158 160 161 162 163 164 165

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Words are not enough to thank every person who helped me during this journey. I have been incredibly blessed to have the unwavering support of my family. My husband and my children who saw my ups and downs in this journey and were my f loating device, I can’t thank you enough. I love the three of you more than words can say, though I try anyway. To my dear sister, brother, and best friends, Angie and Iván, you are a witness to my life. What else can be said? To the girls—my beautiful nieces and new nephews, each one of you is a star in my sky. And you shine ever so brightly. Love you immensely. To every one of the designers who contributed to this project with your words, images, time, and encouragement, thank you! Each one of you made this book such a joyful adventure and I learned so much from each one of you. A lot of you had never met me and yet, we jumped on Skype or Zoom to talk about sketching! The best part of this book was the conversations with each one of you! To my dear friend at work, Dr. Christina Lindeman, for endless texts when I got confused and lost in rabbit holes, thank you! To my editors at Routledge, Natalie Foster and Jennifer Vennall, who have been so kind and supportive, I am deeply grateful. To my students who encouraged me every time I shared my challenges, thank you so much. Getting to know each of you is a joyful adventure. To Paige, who always has a radar on me and always messages at the right moment, thank you. A deep gratitude to my in-laws, Dr. Norman G. Hoffmann and Linda Hoffmann. This book would have never happened had it had not been for you both. Your kindness, generosity, support, and belief in me as a scholar, as a designer, and as an academician have been a source of comfort and encouragement in more ways than I can count. A crazy thought at breakfast one morning about going away for a summer to write and just like that, you made it happen.

Acknowledgments 

xiii

The core of this book was made during those six weeks while being neighbors. I love you both so much. Last but not least, to my mother Carmin. Your courage, bravery, and hospitality have always marked who you are. And to my wonderful titi Bruni, whose love always sustains me. Thank you, God, for your kindness and guidance. You are all in all.

INTRODUCTION

My fascination with sketching started years ago. After teaching at a junior high school for almost five years, I went back to college to study graphic design. At that time, the discipline was transforming itself from a completely analog process to a digital one. The adoption of the computer in design schools indeed revolutionized not only the education of a designer, it also changed the industry. I was a computer novice. My education in the fine arts was traditional: paper, pencil, acrylics, pastels, collages, photocopy, ink, pens, T-squares, and compasses. I felt lost in a world where the software was taking over. I resolved to use my strengths and slowly learn to use the computer while doing what I did best: researching, conceptualizing, and sketching. I learned that thinking skills are more powerful than software, but the software allows me to move faster. In this process, I became fascinated by my classmates’ sketches as well as my own. Each one of us had a particular way to express our thoughts. Later on, as I started teaching at college, I observed that the strongest students in the class were those who would take the time to think through sketching. My fascination and intrigue with sketching grew through the years of teaching. Sketching can serve many purposes: communication, note taking, problem solving, diagrams, as preparation for a larger work, a study of specific parts, as is the case in figure drawing, or it can simply be an act of quick journaling of ideas. It can almost be called the kitchen of thoughts and ideas. Lines and shapes are in constant f lux, creating and morphing to fulfill their creator’s intentions and goals. Though sketching is and has been a crucial and vital step in the design process, sketching is not usually taught at schools. There is no class titled “Sketching” that I know of. Rather, it is something that it is quickly demonstrated in a drawing and/or design class. Drawing, on the other hand, is not only taught everywhere,

2 

Introduction

but there are several types of drawing classes: still life, figure drawing, landscape, etc. And yet, sketching requires less skill and commitment from the artist and/or designer than an elaborate drawing does. Some designers, such as architects, fashion designers, and industrial designers, share similar visual vocabulary among their disciplines. Graphic designers, unless we are designing a website for which there are templates called wireframes, don’t necessarily have a shared visual vocabulary. Perhaps we do not have a shared visual vocabulary because we have not created a class dedicated to learning to sketch ideas. A visual vocabulary is necessary in order to move faster through the ideas, but I often saw myself struggling with developing one for myself. Sketching can also be seen as the playground of ideas. But it is a playground of the ideas of many people. We do not have to be artists or designers to learn to sketch or to draw simple basic shapes to express an idea. However, we need to be willing to externalize those ideas visually. We need to be vulnerable. The reality is that we are all capable of designing. Perhaps not with all the same level of brilliance, but as members of the human race, we are thinkers, problem solvers, and creators. An idea is like the wind. It comes and goes. Without a record of it, it will be lost. At times the wind blows strong, almost demanding to be put down and captured. Other times it is a pleasant breeze that lingers in the mind. In either case, the idea will keep traveling until it finds a captor, an idea catcher, a net, and a refuge to f lourish. That is what sketching does. It is the means through which we give an idea a passage into the physical world to live. My own experience as a former student has helped me to appreciate sketching as a type of laboratory where ideas coalesce to become a reality. Some will be a good reality and others will be a not-so-good reality. Sketching as design thinking is simply the willingness to work out ideas and concepts with our hands and tools. Similarly, to what our ancestors once did on caves: through sketching we externalize our thoughts to the world, make connections, invent, formulate solutions, and improve our lives by making something that was not there before or improving on what was. Moreover, sketching is an essential component of design thinking. It is a vital step in a methodology of searching for solutions and applications in which aesthetics are important but so is smooth functionality for its intended audience. Sketching provides the designer a physical bridge between the intended goals, audience, and stakeholders. In the art and design field, the act of sketching is ubiquitous. It is a common, if not daily, activity among designers and artists. Even amidst the digital revolution we are experiencing, sketching, as a form of drawing, maintains a position of importance as an efficient and cost-effective way to visually communicate with each other. In a way, the digital revolution has amplified the relevance of sketching by the introduction of devices that aim to close the gap between it and a pencil, a brush, a marker, and a sketchbook. This book explores sketching as a conduit of thought or the channel through which our thoughts become a visual and physical reality. Because sketching allows

Introduction 

3

the designer to explore, even mistakes can be the catalyst for a new and unforeseen idea. Edward Hill, author of The Language of Drawing, says, “Consuming projects from small ambitions grow” (iii). After a year working on this book, I can see the truth of these words. One morning, I sat at my kitchen table and in a surge of inspiration outlined the entirety for the content for this book. Since then I have been researching as much as is related to sketching and drawing that I can. I still feel there is a lot more to read and understand about sketching. How does a humble and unpretentious activity like sketching have so much depth and scope? Sketching is in many ways a window to someone’s soul, to someone’s heart, to someone’s perspective, to someone’s values, and to someone’s mind. Studying a sketch is like reading the mind of the person who made it. I wanted to understand this process better. Sketching as design thinking is to explore ideas on paper or a tablet with the audience’s needs in mind. Design thinking however, is not limited to sketching. Sketching is one step of a process that can be best defined as an unpredictably predictable series of actions to either solve a problem or communicate with others. That is, of course, more in tune with the applied arts or design fields: interior design, architecture, graphic design, etc. Fine artists also think through the process of sketching. There is a need to compensate for our limited memory capacity. Thus, ideas that are made visible and physical on a surface have greater likelihood to reside in our long-term memory, and therefore the sketch becomes a catalyst as well as a mnemonic device. This is what I intend to explore when I refer to sketching as design thinking. In order to understand how sketching became such an important means of design thinking, we will brief ly discuss the history of sketching and how and when the terms sketching and drawing acquired different meanings in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2, we will discuss the effects of sketching on our mind and how the brain processes visual information and its relationship to sketching. In Chapter 3, I share the interviews I had with 12 designers in different design fields: architecture, car design, fashion design and illustration, user experience, graphic design and graphic recording, and 3D design. The interviewees include Mike Rohde, known for coining the term sketchnoting and author of The Sketchnote Handbook; Eva-Lotta Lamm, user experience designer and well-known for her visual notetaking practice; a professor of animation from the University of South Alabama, where I work; and an architect and politician from North Carolina. Each interview offers significant insights into the mind of these designers who often share how they see sketching and visual thinking as a metaphor for life. In Chapter 4, I talk about the purposes, attributes, and types of sketching based on how I teach my students to sketch. Chapter 5 contains exercises to help us think in shapes as a way of abstracting what we see, and the tools I recommend practicing with. And last but not least, the report of the survey I conducted in 2017 titled, Exploring Beliefs and Practices about Sketching in Higher Education and in the Design Profession. I collected the responses of 320 participants from different parts of the world.

4 

Introduction

The survey provided me with a clear picture of the state of sketching in general among design students, design educators, and design practitioners. For me, this book is the beginning to understanding the relationship between the mind and sketching or drawing. Writing the book has made me hungrier to re-learn drawing and practice it more to become a better thinker. I hope this book inspires you, too: to become a design thinker who sketches.

1 SKETCHING A short history

To understand the development of sketching as design thinking and how it is used today, we need to look back to the beginnings of graphic history, art, and design. Researching how sketching surfaced and became an idea generation tool is complex. In part because sketching has often been linked to doodling and other modes of record making such as writing, calligraphy, lettering, and scribbling. Thus, differentiating when sketching became distinct from drawing can be difficult. The definition of each term presents both advantages and disadvantages as some focus on the outcome of each mode instead of the process of making a mark and its source. Peter Medway, however, offers a definition that I find most helpful. He states: Drawing covers a range of practices and products. The latter range from impressionistic sketches to finished pictorial renderings, used particularly for persuasive presentations to clients or competition judges; and from diagrams showing, for instance, the mechanics of a seal between a window and wall, to working drawings. (Medway 1996: 35)

The beginning The history of sketching is intrinsically linked to the history of drawing. Sketching, as a form of drawing, can be simple, detailed, and layered in order to explore, communicate, study, notate, record, think, and ref lect on a subject. The designer’s and/or artist’s intentions would determine the style, purpose, and function of said drawings. These forms of drawings are known among designers and artists as a preliminary step in a design and/or construction of visual and physical artifacts that aim to communicate, provide, improve, and facilitate the manner in which we, as a society, live. Humankind, however, has been drawing

6  Sketching: A short history

since the beginning of civilization: on caves, surfaces, tools for their daily life, etc., in order to communicate, connect, or record events. Before we, as a civilization, learned to write, we were drawing to communicate. Thus, we can suggest that sketching and/or drawing, as a visual representation of thought, is to art and design what writing is to language. If drawing has been a mode of language and representation of thought, how did these drawings become sketching, a preliminary step before a composition, a problem-solving tool, or a tool through which we designers think? Archeologist and paleoanthropologist Louis Leaky asks similar questions when he states the following: How and why did it first occur to man to make images of parts of his world? Did plastic or graphic arts come first? The answers to these and kindred questions can, at best, be no more than guesses. Nevertheless, it is certain that the mere making of an image proclaims its maker human. Such an achievement is even farther from the powers of a pre-human animal than it’s the shaping of a tool or articulate and purposeful speech. (Leaky 1956: 144) To borrow from the words of John Heskett (2005), the history of sketching is, like the history of design, a heavily layered process in which each step forward borrows from the previous one, adapts old tools, and invents new tools as needed. He defines design as an act that, “stripped to its essence, can be defined as the human capacity to shape and make our environment in ways without precedent in nature, to serve our needs and give meaning to our lives” (Heskett 2005: 5). And an inherent part of the design process is the act of sketching in order to think about the designs that will shape and make our environment, serve our needs, and give meaning to our lives. Henderson states that sketching is ”the real heart of visual communication” and “essential to getting ideas across” (Henderson 1998: 27). In early civilizations, as Heskett indicates, the most “crucial instrument was the human hand” and any tool (clam shell, claw, sticks, etc.) was simply an extension of the functions of the hand (Heskett 2005: 9). Eventually, in a process of trial and error, humans would improve on these simple tools. These tools would in time improve, or new ones would be created. Back then, this process probably relied on word of mouth as opposed to written and visual representations. In our day and age, new products, techniques, and improvements of an artifact rely on documentation—notes, drawings, sketches, etc.—to support the ideation and record of development. We are, after all, according to Heskett, not much different from our ancestors, facing similar human dilemmas: how to sustain our creative and thinking processes in order to improve our lives?

The terms “drawing” and “sketching” The terms “drawing” and “sketching” have been used and continue to be used interchangeably in the literature of the history of art and design.

Sketching: A short history  7

However, sketching is a more recent term. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first use of the term drawing dates back to the 7th century while the term sketching came later, in the 17th century. These two instances, however, do not refer to the meanings we are familiar with: to make marks, to trace, to outline, etc. The first time the term drawing is used to refer to a “trace (a line or figure) by drawing a pencil, pen, or the like, across a surface” dates back to the 14th century. Conversely, the first time the term sketching is used in reference to draw or as “the outline or prominent features of ” (a picture, figure, etc.), as preliminary or preparatory drawing to develop further, dates back to the 18th century. Furthermore, even when the terms drawing and sketching are used to differentiate the type of marks and functions of each, there is still a tendency among scholars to use them interchangeably. Thus, when researching the history of sketching, the resulting entries are more limited than if researching the history of drawing. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. It is an advantage because drawing and sketching, as well as other forms of mark making can be grouped together. In general, it means that we acknowledge similarities between these graphic marks produced when either drawing, sketching, and doodling. In contrast, the interchangeable use of the terms is also a disadvantage when researching the origins of sketching as a thinking tool. The history of sketching is a linear progression but within that line, there are many overlaps and directions to follow.

A short history Cave paintings and marks How did man decide to paint [draw] on caves and what to paint [draw] on caves? And how did he/she decide the subject matter of said visual expressions? A common hypothesis that is often proposed is that man/woman was captivated by their shadows (Leaky 1956: 144). Thus, a painting or drawing might have been the result of an inquisitive desire to lock his/her shadow or an animal’s shadow in place (Leaky 1956: 144). Leaky suggests that these marks were done by using his/ her finger on the ground to trace the contour lines of the shadow or the form of the animal. Another known reference to drawing from shadows ref lected on the ground is discussed by Alan Pipes in his book Drawing for Designers. Pipes relates the Greek legend where “Dibutades traced around the shadow (a projection) of her lover, which her father then cut out into a sculpture” (Pipes 2007: 28). Whether early paintings [drawings] were executed with the intention of understanding the shapes to help with the recognition of animals while hunting, to establish a record of their lives, to teach younger ones about nature, or to reproduce a two-dimensional representation into a three-dimensional structure, the fact remains that our ancestors needed to create visual marks. As an act of externalization, an act of ref lection, an act of daily problem solving, or simply an act of journaling, these marks would help someone else make decisions that

8  Sketching: A short history

impacted their survival. For instance, the design of the spear and other tools needed for survival is the first evidence of a design process taking place: Prehistoric man was the first ‘designer’: to kill an animal, he needed a branch of a tree. In this operation, the abovementioned prehistoric man searched for a branch with a form useful for the necessary function (in the modern ‘methodic design’ such an operation is called ‘design for function’, i.e. to realize a given object with a configuration suitable to perform the wanted function. (Rovida 2013: 19) When we study cave paintings, reliefs, and others, we come across some common themes. For instance, hunting, rituals, religious and spiritual events, storytelling, and conquest. These were depicted with varying degrees of detail and/or depth. Cave paintings and reliefs not only tell us of our ancestors’ lives and needs but also exemplify visual communication modalities that evince how man/woman perceived and dealt with their reality and solved problems even while being unaware of this thought process. We can mention two examples where we can infer that there was an effort to communicate. For instance, the drawing of a spear to use for fishing was—“form useful for the necessary function” (Rovida 2013: 19). A second example that allows us to see the use of marks to represent abstract thought is the Ishango Bone found in the Congo dated to be 22,000 years old. Dr. Terence Love, Director and Founder of Design Out Crime, observed in an email conversation that this is the earliest record of mark making “to make abstract representations.” The image shows a “column of marks on the bone that contains the sequence of number 3, 6, 4, 8, 10, 5, 5, 7.” The numerical sequence translated to graphic marks demonstrates one of the vital reasons for the use of visual marks to explain concepts: the need to keep track of complicated or lengthy strings of data and recording abstract thought.

Byzantine period and the Middle Ages During the Byzantine period, we see two important developments in the evolution of sketching as an idea generation tool: drawings that resembled diagrams to illustrate a process, such as the details of a machine, and the development of templates, also known as anthibolas, that would permit an artist to replicate a particular painting. The interest in machinery allowed for the development of drawings that were popular among members of society interested in warfare, or an improvement in supplying basic needs, such as water, weaponry, or even plans of defense and attack. For instance, “scientist, artist, [and] architect Villard the Honnecourt’s drawing of a machine resembles modern day diagrams” (Rovida 2013: 27). However, it was evident that some of the technical drawings of this time were not precise in terms of measurements and proportions. These drawings were

Sketching: A short history  9

done for the purpose of describing (Pipes 2007: 31) rather than being used as scale drawings. Though in the current practice of design we have come to believe and expect sketches to be proportional and to scale with a degree of exactitude, this was not the case during the Middle Ages and part of the Renaissance. The interest in and development of machine drawing continued as the development of weaponry for wars and ship building needs increased. It is easier to transport a piece of paper with a diagram than carry large pieces of metal, weaponry, or even a ship. Anthibolas, or templates, were done to replicate work and fulfill the demands for religious iconography. During the Byzantine period and the Middle Ages, there was a growing demand at the time for paper and a surge in the interest in religious iconography. To accommodate these demands and make it possible for artists to replicate paintings, a system was developed. It consisted of puncturing the contour of a drawing on paper, or as Marr explains, the paper was “pounced” (2013: 86). This punctured paper would allow the artist to replicate a particular icon for many patrons. Anthibola is a Greek word for “working sketches” according to The Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens. The Byzantine and Christian Musuem Virtual Museum’s website offers the following explanation: Working sketches, [or anthibola, were]designed to help reproduce iconographic subject matter … . They are the working drawings of mainly postByzantine painters … . The increasing demand for icons and the spread of paper as a drawing medium gradually led to their becoming commonplace in the wider Greek region … . They were a precious resource, handed on (sold, bartered or bequeathed) from one painter to another, transferring a particular iconographic tradition (iconographic types and characteristics) from one workshop to another. The use of the term ‘anthibolon’ or ‘athibolon’ became widely established in the 18th c. thanks to Dionysios of Phourna and his ‘Hermeneia’ (Painters’ Manual), which also provided the basic guide to the technicalities of making and using ‘anthibola’. As a method of reproduction, the anthibola grew in popularity and was continued until the 19th century. Below is an image from the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens, Greece.  

Renaissance Ann Bermingham, in her book Learning to Draw, states that during the Renaissance drawing was often thought to be analogous to handwriting. The teaching of drawing borrowed from handwriting manuals in which the forms were separated to allow the student to progress in the construction of letters and words. The comparison stems from the belief that both drawing and writing depended on the manipulation of the line (Bermingham 2000: 42). We also see the beginning of the sketch becoming a problem solving and thinking tool, or, as

10  Sketching: A short history

FIGURE 1.1 Alma

Hoffmann, “Perforated pattern and anthibola in ink and watercolor with a depiction of  The Lamentation from Carfu, 18th c.” 2012.

Rovida puts it, it is during this time period when “the first technical drawings” appeared (Rovida 2013: 62). Several advancements established sketching as a thinking and problem-solving tool: the study of science, the development of measuring tools that allowed for better scientific observations, the rapid adoption of the use of drawing and illustration as a communication and documentation tool, the printing press, and the development of treatises (which needed images to explain concepts to a still largely illiterate population). As travel expanded commerce with other countries and markets, drawings and models were necessary in order to communicate concepts of artifacts and ornaments before production (Heskett 2005: 16) between those who spoke different languages. The use of sketches to explain concepts became an important factor during the Renaissance. Andrew Marr states in his book A Short Book About Drawing: “Drawing had always been important for architects as science began to advance, it became an important skill for mathematicians, anatomists, collectors of botanical rarities, designers of military fortresses, astronomer” (Marr 2013: 87). The Renaissance was, as the word implies, a rebirth. It was a type of cultural and intellectual revolution that allowed for the arts and sciences to thrive together. Drawing became a very important tool and component that allowed those interested in science to annotate and record their learning. In addition, the

Sketching: A short history  11

printing press liberated knowledge by making it accessible to all in smaller books. Thus, many classics were printed, which included works featuring drawings of machines in great detail. Such works included the drawings of Marco Vitruvio Pollione. These works, according to Rovida, were instrumental in the development of the drawings of machines in the Renaissance, even though Vitruvio’s books were originally written in 23–27 bc (Rovida 2013: 33).

Notable figures in the Renaissance There are many notable figures in the Renaissance that show us evidence of the use of drawing as an intentional method of observation, study, planning, prescription, and record-keeping of events. Two key figures are Mariano di Jacobi detto Taccola and Leonardo DaVinci. The most familiar and most known example of the use of drawing to explain and understand concepts in science, in a form that resembles a thinking design journal is Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo’s drawings are of special significance because of the amount of detail, accuracy, and annotations. His drawings offer value not only in the technical ability to represent the subject being studied, but also because of the skill he demonstrated in the graphical and pictorial quality of each drawing. Furthermore, he offered multiple points of view, annotated his drawings, and expressed his curiosity for his subjects in a very similar manner to contemporary artists and designers. Writer Roderick Conway Morris, in an article he wrote for The New York Times, cites Galluzzi when he says that, [Leonardo] raised technical drawing to previously unattained heights, inventing numerous new techniques, such as multipicture cinematic effects to show the torsion of a figure, or the oscillation of a bell, and layer-bylayer anatomical drawing – artistic innovations that were of enormous and enduring benefit to the advancement of science. (Conway 1991) It is, however, a less familiar example and one of Leonardo’s forerunners whose work is pivotal in the history of sketching as design thinking. Mariano di Jacobi detto Taccola was born in 1382 and his death is recorded in some of the literature circa 1452. Taccola was a multifaceted and prominent member of Siena’s society; held many diverse jobs such as sculptor, engineer, and notary; had relationships with members of the court and also with artists, architects, and sculptors of the time. Among such friendships were the architect Filippo Brunelleschi and King Sigismund of Luxembourg, who was also elected and crowned as King of Rome in 1415. After visiting Siena, the King appointed Taccola as one of Sigismund’s nobiles familiares. Taccola dedicated a book of drawings to the King with a drawing of his portrait on the cover. Taccola’s drawings are numerous and diverse. As he enjoyed considerable fame and standing in society, his drawings evolved to include not only a marked

12  Sketching: A short history

interest in technology and machinery but also “subjects … that are in part unexpected and unknown in Sienese art” (Prager 1968, 167). A significant contribution of Taccola is the collection of hundreds of rough sketches on the pages of an unfinished book. Because these sketches are contained, they provide us with the ability “to follow a person actually working out technical ideas for the first time in history” (McGee 2004: 73). Certainly, books with drawings were kept before but often these drawings were done in loose paper for presentation and for communication purposes between fellow artists and patrons. Because Taccola’s sketches were rendered in the empty pages of one of his unfinished books, it turned the book into some sort of sketchbook or notebook. The sketches, as it turns out, were working out ideas for his book De Machinis (McGee 2004: 73). Taccola may have not intended to invent the concept of a sketchbook but that is exactly the effect his collected drawings had. It is, according to McGee, “the invention of the sketch” (McGee, 2004: 73). I would add that the invention of an iterative process as having the sketches contained and one next to the other would naturally allow for comparisons, revisions, and the corresponding annotations “providing him with a graphic means of technical exploration” and a method of “systematic investigation through variations” (McGee 2004: 76). Taccola’s drawings and annotations inf luenced Leonardo, and many of “Leonardo’s drawings are detailed copies of the designs of others [Taccola] – ‘like a series of photos recording contemporary technology’” (Conway, 1991).

Text and image The Renaissance also saw a surge in the interest of the image over text. Collaboration between scholars and artists was common as scholars would prefer to have texts illustrated to aid in comprehension of the written text. Rovida (2013: 35) confirms this when he remarks that authors started to favor the use of images as being a more reliable mode of communication than text alone. As a result, drawing continued to evolve to become more accurate, as the rules of geometry and perspective were applied.

The evolution of drawing in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries The 18th century became a very fertile scene during which drawing, and with it, sketching, “[come] into their own,” as Bermingham states: “As a social practice, drawing came into its own in the eighteen century when, for the first time, its claim to be considered a polite art were taken seriously by many in the upper and middle classes” (Bermingham 2000: 98). She adds that the popularity of drawing coincided with the “growing popularity of landscape as a professional pictorial genre” as well as a map making and militarism. One interesting aspect that helped with the developing of sketching as a faster, lighter way of drawing was the use of portable tools—notebooks and pencils.

Sketching: A short history  13

I consider three factors as crucial for the development of sketching, as we start witnessing the fragmentation of drawing as a tool in communication and thought. First, better modes of transportation facilitated increased commerce between countries. This allowed for artists formally trained in drawing to be commissioned to produce concepts according to the trends of the time. Second, the continued advancement of geometric principles that were applied to drawings which, in turn, facilitated the production of more accurate diagrams and technical drawings of machines. Some of these drawings are known as orthographic drawings. Third, the institutionalization and reputation of drawing grew through private academies and military schools and so did its role as a tool of study. From the 18th until the 20th century, drawing was considered part of the skill set of any educated person. During the 18th century, education became institutionalized but drawing standards for such orthographic drawings would not be developed until the 20th century. To aid with the interpretation of these drawings, annotations were used on the side to express scaled dimensions and other appropriate information. These drawings were also used in applications for patents (Rovida 2013: 125). Though the rediscovery of perspective during the Renaissance contributed to the development of drawings that had remarkable accuracy, it was not until the 18th century that France, for instance, “supported applied drawing” (Henderson 1998: 34). Gaspard Monge—French mathematician, military engineer, and author of Descriptive Geometry—transformed the history of drawing by applying geometric principles (Rovida 2013: 72). Thus, we now see the principles of geometry being applied to drawings of machinery, transportation, weaponry, science, annotations, and encyclopedias that facilitated the development of sketching as we know it today—an aid to thought (Buxton 2011: 105). The reputation of drawing grew to the point that it was seen as a more reliable tool than photography. The development of orthographic drawings to explain how a machine and/or canon was built helps us understand how they were assembled. Simply put, drawing could explain what photography could not. Drawing allows for a type of visual abstraction not possible with photography. In other words, we can strip the object to its most basic shape to assemble and reassemble as necessary. In this sense, a drawing or a sketch is not only prescriptive but also descriptive, as it visually describes the object and its components. For the purpose of understanding sketching as a tool that facilitates mass production, drawing became crucial in “informing manufacturers and assemblers how the parts of the machines must be realized and assembled” (Rovida 2013: 121). Drawing also became crucial in the development of the encyclopedias. To help with the understanding of the content, drawings became the favored method of illustration. One encyclopedia in particular, the Encyclopédie, provides a varied collection of drawings as “explicative and documentary tools,” “representations

14  Sketching: A short history

of instruments, tools and machines relative to all professions” and representative to what life was like in the 18th century (Rovida 2013: 81). Drawings facilitated the transmission of “information to people who were not scientists.” It is perhaps the interest in developing weapons and shipbuilding that helped cement the development of sketching as a tool for production and thought. According to Pipes in 1815, “the US military decided to manufacture standard muskets with interchangeable parts” (Pipes 2007: 32). These could be pulled apart, mixed with other parts, and reassembled. But in 1852, German engineer Ferdinand Redtenbacher decided to create drawings of the weapons because they were cheaper to transport. At this point, drawing became both a symbolic and an accurate representation of an object to be mass-produced. These types of drawings impacted how we started seeing the separation between the designer and the maker, as the separation between concept and making. A designer would design and/or represent the object, and a craftsman would trace copies of it for reproduction. During the 19th century, drawing continued to enjoy its growth in its establishment as a tool of communication, documentation, and aid to thought among the scientific and educational communities. In addition, quicker forms of drawing became more common. With a new interest in naturalism emerging in society there was a desire to document these studies. Thus, quick drawings “on the go” grew in popularity as a practice in society. It was common to see both amateur and professional artists as well as tourists carrying a sketchbook in order to capture the moment; retain memories; and/or draw the landscape, sights, animals, and f lowers. The development of standards and regulations in the 20th century facilitated the development of distinctive styles among each design industry. These distinctions allow us to establish two directions in terms of sketching: sketches intended to aid in the thought process of the designer—the type of sketch that exists in his/her personal journal, for a client, or for personal use to aid in the navigation of a visual problem. The second type of sketch is the one intended to be “read” by other participants of the design process including clients, manufacturers, and other designers. The separation of making and/or producing from the design becomes a norm. Hence, a tendency to see drawing in the Fine Arts arena as something different from the technical and science drawings started to take hold. The advent of the computer in the later part of the 20th century, while creating more avenues of expression and facilitating reproduction, has often had the side effect of making the process of creating visual representation (sketching) invisible. Another unintended effect was that throughout the history of art and design drawings were created from observation. But with the computer and/or the digital tablet, it has become common to create drawings without observing and measuring. These skills were once a primordial component to the development of manual drawings. Other tools that were vital before the computer— compass, rulers, and templates—have also been substituted by the computer.

Sketching: A short history  15

Ron Slade, author of the book Sketching for Engineers and Architects, explains the importance of sketching even in the computer age, as “above all, drawing is about communication and is universal” (Slade 7).

Sketching in the sciences and education As discussed earlier, during the 19th century, education, and drawing with it, become institutionalized. On one hand, students were taught to draw because, along with handwriting, it teaches students “manual ability, observation skill, and precision” and also because “it is a tool in the scientific-technical disciplines” (Rovida 2013: 126). Thus, teaching drawing became mandatory in schools in France, Italy, and England. Though the mandatory teaching of drawing in schools is no longer practiced in the 21st century, drawing remains a tool to develop by those who practice it to gain the skills mentioned above, mostly in the Fine Arts. When we think of drawing and sketching, it is not common to think of their relationship to the sciences, or their relationship to other disciplines. However, the term sketching is not used exclusively in the art and design field. For instance, in theater, a sketch is a short play (usually comic in nature) that is part of a revue. In literature, it is a tentative draft or a short composition in a familiar tone. In the context of a crime, it is a descriptive drawing of what a person looks like. In math and in natural sciences, a sketch is a graph or diagram intended to communicate, record, and/or analyze a situation. Such is the case of physics, where a linear drawing called free body diagram is used to analyze forces on an object or body. In painting and drawing classes, a sketch is a study of the subject matter that will be developed. Against a digital revolution, the humble sketch has resurfaced with strength. Sketching has grown inside and outside the art and design fields and also within hand lettering, calligraphy, scribbles, and doodling. Skills that have traditionally been confined to art and design disciplines are now spreading to other areas. Designers such as Mike Rohde, Eva-Lotta Lamm, and Craighton Berman have popularized the use of sketching not only as a way of thinking of design solutions, but also as a note-taking activity during classes, meetings, and conferences to improve learning, retention, and recall. This increased interest in the analog methods of recording has given way to another area to surface called graphic recording. Graphic recording is akin to a live performance during a large conference or meeting.   The history of sketching is not only heavily rich but also full of twists and turns. Today, sketching is considered a ubiquitous aspect of a much larger process that aids in the communication between teams by making ideas, thoughts, and concepts physically visible. A sketch gives an idea a physical presence that helps in leveraging a design discussion and solving problems. But today sketching is more than solving problems. Instead of sketching existing solely as the means to solve or communicate, it has become, for many, an art form in and of itself. Many

16  Sketching: A short history

FIGURE 1.2 Mike

Rohde “Sketchnote future of water pencil sketch v2.” 2011.

books are published showcasing the processes of how sketches of designers and/ or artists are created. The sketches of famous artists and designers fill the rest of us with awe and admiration for their visual thinking process. It is almost as if we are peeking into that artist’s or designer’s mind. Indeed, sketching is a humble activity. It can be done anywhere with any tool, and yet, it yields tremendous power as the seed of inventions and masterpieces.

2 SKETCHING Visual information processing

For many of us, being caught sketching, drawing, and/or doodling while in a meeting, class, or lecture has been a source of embarrassment. Or we have caused embarrassment in others who doodle because we have perhaps assumed that they were distracted or not paying attention. We tend to look at sketching as the black sheep of writing and the thinking process. We stigmatize drawing, sketching, and/or doodling in meetings or classes as a lesser activity or even a distraction. But what if it wasn’t? What if drawing, sketching, and even doodling—like writing—is a way to think and create, a form of active engagement with the content we are receiving? In this chapter, we shall explore the physiological and neurological arguments for why drawing, doodling, and/or sketching, like writing, should be taught and used in our classes regardless of the topic. In this chapter, we will discuss how drawing, sketching, and/or doodling enhance memory and retention because they engage multiple modalities of encoding (semantic, visual, and motor aspects of memory). Drawing as a form of communication has been practiced since the beginning of civilization. It predates the use of the written word in communication. Cave paintings in several areas of the world clearly indicate that the use of symbols in these drawings or marks was a vital tool in establishing communication among a group or groups. These simple recordings help us learn about their historical context and their purpose. Drawing is more than skillfully rendering a representational graphic. Drawing establishes a record, a memory, a snapshot, a witness to what was there before. When we humans started as a civilization, or as species, we did not have computers, billboards, posters, smart or dumb phones, TVs, newspapers, magazines, etc. We had f lora, fauna, food, the urge to mate, and a very deep desire for survival. Relying on our vision to recognize threats was crucial for survival. Survival also depended on communicating with others, even by using simple recordings on the walls of caves.

18  Sketching: Visual information processing

Sketching and doodling are forms of drawing. For the purposes of this book, drawing is looked at by its simple definition, which is the making of simple marks. Sketching is a way to make quick marks or studies to solve a problem or work out a visual solution; there is a purpose to sketching. The term sketching comes from the Greek word schedios, which means done extempore, or without planning; done in the moment. Doodling is the making of aimless marks on paper that are not necessarily directly related to the present moment. Drawing is and has been for artists and designers the heart of any creative endeavor. Many designers are known for keeping multiple sketchbooks simultaneously. Some have even published the contents of their sketchbooks. Simply put, designers sketch. Joe Duffy, partner at Duffy and Partners in Minnesota, while speaking at the Ist Annual Cross Cultural Perspectives of Visual Communications Conference stated that “a designer must be able to draw his thoughts.” Milton Glaser, who is considered by many as the most celebrated designer, and Steven Heller, graphic design theorist, critic, and historian, consider sketching a form of thinking, planning, and problem solving; as a way of recording thoughts, experiences, and real-life components in the moment. Thus, sketching, drawing, and/or doodling are marks created in response to stimuli, or information we receive. Though we receive information in both verbal and visual form, it is the visual that concerns us the most because of its relationship to learning, long-term memory, and retention. It is believed or assumed by many of us that we see with our eyes. A visit to the doctor to examine our vision reinforces a certain conviction in this belief. However, in a sense, we don’t see with our eyes, we see with our brain. Our eyes are a mere conduit of visual information. It is our brain that holds the key to understanding, processing, and giving meaning to the images we are constantly receiving. To accomplish this, the brain dedicates a lot of its resources to the processing of visual stimuli. According to Margaret Livingstone, author of the book Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing, “vision is information processing, not image transmission” (2002: 53). Processing visual information is much more of a challenge than processing auditory information because visible light “comprises a much smaller range of frequencies than audible sound and because differences in wavelength are on the order of nanometers, differential signaling of wavelengths of light presents a much bigger challenge” (2002: 197). To understand why we should sketch, it is helpful to know a little bit about how the brain works and processes the data we constantly receive. Furthermore, this chapter also aims to explain how sketching, drawing, and/or doodling—the process of creating a graphic—is a method that facilitates the recall of long-term memory. The information explained in this chapter is not intended to substitute or replace scientific expertise. This chapter is written out of the need to understand how our minds process visual information, and visual information’s relationship with long-term memory. In addition, we will explore how the intrinsic and natural process of storing information is the foundation and the reason to support sketching, drawing, and/or doodling beyond art and design contexts.

Sketching: Visual information processing  19

When we see groups of photons, which we call light, they enter our system through the cornea. Once the light hits the cornea, it continues to travel through the lens where it hits the retina. The retina is a group of neurons that are in the back of the eye, which turns light into electrical signals. John Medina, developmental molecular biologist and Director of the Brain for Applied Learning Research Center at Seattle Pacific University, states that the retina is really an outgrowth of the brain. It is connected to the brain through the optic nerve, which goes through the thalamus, and the thalamus connects to the visual cortex. The visual cortex is in the back of our heads. So, when light hits the retina, the retina sends an electrical signal which travels to the visual cortex through the optic nerve passing through the thalamus (see Figure 2.1).   Often, we talk about our vision as if it were a camera taking snapshots. However, Medina states that when we refer to our vision as a camera, it is an inaccurate description of what really happens. The experience of processing visual stimuli is like the experience of being in an immersive visual environment. The retina has nerve cells whose only job is to interpret the photons they are receiving and make patterns out of them. Medina goes on to explain that the retina creates small movies of what is going on. These small movies are called tracks and their function is to interpret and categorize the light the retina is receiving

FIGURE 2.1 Alma

Hoffmann, “Sketch explaining the process of how we see and interpret what the brain sees.” 2017.

20  Sketching: Visual information processing

while they travel down the optic nerve toward the thalamus. The thalamus is like a distribution center. Its job is to send this information to the visual cortex through neural paths. Rita Carter states in her book titled The Human Brain that we have two types of vision: conscious and unconscious. And these two types of vision are processed in separate pathways in the brain, which we can call higher centers: “The upper (dorsal) route is unconscious and guides action [depth and motion], while the lower (ventral) path is conscious and recognizes objects [form and color]” (Carter 84). The dorsal and ventral pathways are subdivided in smaller areas responsible for very specific stimuli into something called “association regions” that integrate it all together. So, the brain gathers, disassembles, and then reassembles the information received. These areas are so specialized that, for example, when the brain interprets diagonal lines, one area processes and interprets a line tilted at 40 degrees but another one interprets a line tilted at 45 degrees. Carter (82) offers a summary of the names of each area and their responsibilities listed below: V1: responds to visual stimuli V2: passes on information and responds to complex shapes V3, V3D, and VP: angles and symmetry while also combining motion and direction V4D, V4V: color, orientation, form, and movement V5: movement V6: detects motion in periphery and visual field V7: perception of symmetry V8: perception of color Since different areas of the brain are responsible for different types of visual information processing, the brain must efficiently fragment the data, distribute it, process it, and find patterns in it. Then all this information is sent to the higher centers of the brain. The fragmented information and analysis must be recombined in one coherent image which we call “sight.” All this must be done quickly, efficiently, and in real time. However, the process is not 100% trustworthy or accurate. There are instances where subjects “see” things that are not there. And no, we are not talking about mental illnesses. As it turns out, the optic disk, where the optic nerve leaves the eye in the retina, has no cells that perceive light at all. It is usually called the blind spot, and each eye has one. Based on this, we should be seeing black holes in our field of vision but as Medina explains, our brain “detects the presence of the holes,” “examines the visual information 360 degrees around the spot and calculates what is most likely to be there. Then, like a paint program on a computer, it fills the spot.” Medina says that though it is called “filling in” it should really be called “faking it” (228–229). The principle of “faking it” is also evident in why we see one image when we have two eyes. Each eye produces an image that must be processed and combined. The brain takes the “two images” entering

Sketching: Visual information processing  21

through the cornea information, disassembles it, and then reassembles it into one coherent image. The process of “faking it” begs the question: how do we know that what we see is real when we see it? The answer relies on two things: first, we are born equipped to make sense of what we see. Second, our accumulation of experiences and knowledge as we grow and learn corroborates the visual images the brain produces. The brain dedicates a lot of thinking resources to process vision. Medina states: “it takes about half of everything you do” (240). Vision is so dominant that, according to Medina, when people lose an arm for example, in certain circumstances, they “see” the arm they lost. It is called visual capture effect. For example, a person who had lost an arm sat at table with a divided box that had two portals (one for the arm and one for the stump) and a mirror as a divider. When the person looked at the ref lection of their arm in the mirror, “the phantom limb woke up.” The person felt as if the arm that was missing was there. As Medina puts it: “This is vision not only as dictator but as faith healer” (232). How does knowing and understanding the processing of visual information help us understand and appreciate the value of sketching, drawing, and/or doodling? Jonathan Fish, who wrote several journal articles about sketching and how it supports the functions of the brain, cites a study conducted by Standing, Conezio, and Haber in 1970 where they found that “after viewing 2,560 colour slides for 10 seconds each, their subjects could distinguish 90% of the familiar slides from unfamiliar ones several days later” (170). An explanation for this can be found when Medina states that “the more visual the input becomes, the more likely it is to be recognized—and recalled” (Medina, 233). This process is called Pictorial Superiority Effect or PSE. Oral information will have a recall of 10% after 72 hours. However, information that is accompanied with a picture will have 65% recall after the same amount of time. PSE refers to the phenomenon that pictures will be remembered more than words. It is based on the theory developed by Allan Paivio, a psychology professor at the University of Western Ontario. Paivio proposed the dual coding theory, which suggests that verbal and visual information are two distinctive systems. In other words, when we think of a chair, we recall the label of a chair through the verbal system and its image through the visual system. But this process of thinking and visualizing activates yet another process called “association.” The process of association means that cognition relies on interdependency between the concept and image. Thus, when one is encoding and/or recalling information, two cognitive processes are activated: the verbal and the visual. However, it is the visual that is remembered to a larger extent rather than the verbal. Sketching, therefore, aids in memory because it becomes a graphic representation that helps retrieve memories and the information stored in our brain. Thus, vision plays a huge factor in memorization and accessing long-term memory. So, what does this mean? It simply means that the processes of drawing, sketching, and/or doodling help us to remember because they aid us in encoding or attaching data to a physical representation of memory. Jackie Andrade,

22  Sketching: Visual information processing

a psychology professor at Plymouth University, reported the results of a study about the relationship between doodling (making simple marks unrelated to content) and memory in her article, “What Does Doodling do?” In the study, she found that those who doodled simple shapes while taking RSVP information from a phone call could recall 29% more details than those who didn’t doodle. Andrade’s study proved that unrelated graphics created during the act of listening to information improved memory in the participants due to doodling helping the participants reduce the wandering of their minds. However, other studies conducted in 2014 by Jeffrey D. Wammes, Melissa E. Meade, and Myra A. Fernandes published in an article titled “The Drawing Effect: Evidence for Reliable and Robust Memory Benefits in Free Recall” found that drawing graphics related to the content had an even bigger impact in retention and recall. Wammes et al. state: “drawing enhances memory relative to writing, across settings, instructions, and alternate encoding strategies … . We propose that drawing improves memory by encouraging a seamless integration of semantic, visual, and motor aspects of a memory trace” (2016: 1752). Images, be it in the form of a photo or a drawing (sketching and/or doodling), are, as Medina puts it, like glue for the neurons (239). Fish also stated similar thoughts in his article, “Cognitive Analysis: Sketches for Time-lagged Brain,” saying that “sketches’ attributes exploit such [fast access to long-term memory for perceptual completion] unconscious processes providing memory search and retrieval cues that improve the availability of tacit visual knowledge for invention” (172). Fish continues to state: “The problem with visual thought, however, is that long term visual memory is inaccessible for manipulation. Thus, retrieval capacity is a key component of visual invention that needs support in the form of verbal notes or visual stimuli” (170). The process of creating and memory seem to have dual properties: when drawing something we are tapping into the existing bank of visuals we have accumulated through experiences. Thus, we have an idea of what we want to draw or sketch. When we are sketching an idea, the sketch works as a catalyst because each stroke we make evokes other ideas. Fish goes on to say that “early design sketches are like catalysts in that they combine with and transform at high speed superimposed mental information in working memory” (169). In other words, sketching not only helps us remember because memory is facilitated and strengthen with visuals, it also helps us to create and encode new concepts and images. This is largely because when we combine notes with drawings, doodling, and/or sketches, the process allows the brain to access much larger memory components. Drawing, doodling, and sketching offer another benefit to those who practice them: kinesthetics. Drawing, doodling, and/or sketching engage not just our vision, but also engage our hands and thus activate additional sections of the brain. In addition, the process helps us boost our critical thinking skills. When we sketch notes, lectures, or conferences, we are no longer passive listeners, but we become engaged and active participants by recording information in our own words in an expressive and graphic format that helps to seal the verbal mode and

Sketching: Visual information processing  23

the visual mode. All the while, these marks become visual mnemonics to help us later in accessing long term memory. As Wammes et al. puts it, We argue that the mechanism driving the [drawing] effect is that engaging in drawing promotes the seamless integration of many types of memory codes (elaboration, visual imagery, motor action, and picture memory) into one cohesive memory trace, and it is that this that facilitates later retrieval of studied words. (2016: 1767) Our students, regardless of class topic, should be taught to sketch the content of their lectures. If the students and/or the audience are engagingly recording in a graphic way what they are receiving in real time—even if we are talking only of stick figures and very little development—they will retain more of that information as shown in the studies discussed in this chapter. More information is retained and recalled when listening is supported with images, drawings, sketches, or doodling through engaging dual modes of learning: verbal and visual. In addition, because the act of drawing, sketching, or doodling is physical, it allows for the engagement of motor skills. Thus, the learning experience becomes a holistic and immersive integration of receiving, analyzing, and storing information. As designers, however, we reap a bigger benefit, we strengthen our abilities to solve visual problems when it comes to page layout, hierarchy, and contrast while continuing to exercise and hone a skill that to us is precious.

3 INTERVIEWS What sketching means and looks like for other designers

Sketching, as we have established, is a visual process to aid in thinking; a tool of creative pursuit, as architect Kevin Lair puts it. But what does sketching look like in other disciplines of design? While pursuing my graduate studies in design, I was often mesmerized by my classmates’ sketches and the sketches of some of the architecture students posted on the walls or on their sketchbooks. Their sketches looked like a crossover between a sketchbook and an art journal. The use of line, shape, and color imparted their sketches with a sense of life. Each designer imparts his/her sketches with a unique sense of style. Each designer’s style, look, and feel eventually become their own visual language. These visual expressions, visual thoughts, if you will, enthrall me. It is challenging to precisely explain the reasons for my attraction. But it is this feeling beholden to the quality of these sketches that became the reason for this book. I wanted to understand the relationship between the mind and the sketch. This chapter presents the interviews I had with several designers over the course of the year. I wanted to understand other designers’ perspectives about sketching. Each designer had something profound to say about their sketching process. For some, sketching was something ubiquitous and nothing to dwell on, while for others, it was almost a sacred part of their creative process. I developed a set of loose questions to help guide the conversation with designers and practitioners. Sometimes the conversation was very spontaneous and other times the conversation was more methodical. In either case, I found great insights from every designer and/or artist being interviewed. I am deeply grateful for their time, support, and willingness to be part of this project. Please note that minor editing was necessary for grammar and concision.

Interviews: Designers on sketching  25

Interviews Karl Jahnke Animator and professor of animation

FIGURE 3.1  Karl

Jahnke, assistant professor of animation at the University of South Alabama.

My first interview was with Karl Jahnke, who is an assistant professor of animation at the University of South Alabama. Previous to joining the faculty at USA, Jahnke worked in the industry as a motion graphic designer and character concept artist for over ten years in places such as Country Music Television, Elara Systems, and Roxxor Games. His films have been shown at Fairhope Film Festival, ASIFA (International Animation Film Association), ANNY (Animation Nights New York), and others. He also has extensive experience in medical visualization.   Alma: Did you attend art and/or design school? When? Karl: Private four-year art school. I have a BFA from The Academy of Art University in San Francisco and an MFA from Clemson University. It was a bit of a journey to get here. I attended a city college to major in chemistry. Dropped out of chemistry with only two classes away from graduating.

26  Interviews: Designers on sketching

I was originally a fine arts major in printmaking. I loved it. Then, switched to oil painting. I took a Photoshop class that was required and realized that the quantity of art I could make in short amount time was greater than just painting. I changed majors to computer art. Alma: What was your first job in the role of creating? Karl: My first job was at Roxxor, a video game company. Worked on a new game, In the Groove. Then left to work in medical visualization. I applied for what looked like an insignificant ad that did not compare with the magnitude of the company. The company was Elara Systems. I worked at Elara for two years. After leaving Elara, I worked at Country Music TV (CMT) doing motion graphic work; lower thirds (the lower third), motion billboards, etc. But I also started teaching part time and I realized I needed to pursue an MFA to be able to teach at the state university level. I enrolled at Clemson University and majored in digital production arts. Alma: Where are you in your career? Karl: I am an animation professor. Alma: While in school, either at the undergraduate or graduate level, were you instructed on how to sketch in your particular design discipline? Was there a class for it? Karl: In the undergraduate program at the Academy of Art University, I took a class taught by a comic book artist. He taught drawing or sketching in perspective. The instructor approached perspective tied up with the sketching. It instilled in me an industrial design aspect to all of the sketches I did and helped me figure out camera angles, scenery, characters with form (3D). The instructor taught a formal and structured class with demos of perspective. It stayed with me. Alma: Have you always sketched? In college for design classes, sketches might have been required, but when did you start sketching as a personal commitment, as a way to keep practicing your creativity, or as a way of thinking? Do any of these sketches or doodles make their way to a professional job? Karl: Yes, I am always doodling or making drawings. While I was in high school, the school refused to take my Biology textbook back because I had doodled all over it. I had created a f lip book on all the edges of the book. Alma: How do you define sketching? Karl: Making marks with purpose; for the project. Alma: Do you keep a sketch journal or sketchbook? Karl: Not anymore. I used to sketch daily. I do it now when I have a project. For me, personal goals and the particular project are the catalysts for sketching nowadays. Thus, I sketch with purpose. I don’t keep sketches organized anymore. When I approach sketching, it is for a purpose. To me, sketches for a project have to be full of purpose and authoritarian—especially when it comes to 3D. Everything has to be organized.

Interviews: Designers on sketching  27

On the other hand, doodling for me is mindless experimentation. However, mindless may be too derogatory and that is not my intention. I doodle all the time, in meetings, classes, etc. … These doodles are for my sanity and health. There is a mindlessness in it that I find soothing, but it can also be a distraction from something else. Alma: How do you use sketches in your professional life? Karl: When sketching for a project, I organize them in folders with subcategories: characters, props, background, etc. Alma: Do you see a parallel between sketching, doodling, and writing? Karl: Yes and no. I believe that doodling has no correlation with writing, but I believe sketching has a lot to do with drafts in writing. Doodling is similar to cut-ups in writing. Alma: Do you see sketching as an umbrella term for drawing, doodling, scribbling? Explain. Karl: To a layman, yes. To the professional, absolutely not. It is like gaining experience and wisdom. As you gain experience you realize that there are things you do with purpose and those you don’t. Alma: Do you see yourself sketching more or less as you have gained experience as a designer? Karl: My quality has improved so my quantity has been reduced due to the experience. Alma: In your teaching, do you require students to sketch? Karl: Yes. I ask students to sketch. Though I do not require a specific quantity, the quality of the final product is evidence of how in-depth was their preliminary work (sketching). Alma: Do you think sketching is drawing? Explain. Karl: Sketching is a rough draft version. Drawing is a more refined aspect of sketching. It depends on your point of view, style, and genre. Words change meaning throughout history and time. Thus, the meaning of drawing has been modified to include sketching and vice versa. Our language evolves over time and meanings and words can be complete opposites centuries later. Alma: Why do you think not everybody sketches? Karl: I believe it should be taught. We have created a disconnect between hard and soft sciences and I believe that is one of the reasons we are losing critical thinking. For example, we teach Physics, but we do not teach people how to draw in physics and because of that, we lose an analytical step in the thinking process. There are people who need to draw to understand. For instance, I did not understand math. But once I started doing 3D animation, all these concepts of geometry and algebra clicked in for me. It was all because I was able to see it in a 3D space, to actually visualize it while making it. Alma: Did you ever stop sketching? If so, explain and why did you start again? Karl: No, I have always been doodling. Yes, I have stopped sketching daily when there is no project but doodling, yes, all the time.

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Karl Jahnke’s sketches   

FIGURE 3.2 Karl

Jahnke, “Sketches.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.3 Karl

Jahnke, “Sketches.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.4 Karl

Jahnke, “Sketches.” Unknown date.

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Anastasia Pistofidou Architect and co-founder of Fabricademy/co-founder of FabTextiles

FIGURE 3.5  Anastasia

Pistofidou, director of the FabTextile research lab and the Fabricademy.

Anastasia Pistofidou refers to herself as a “body architect.” She has a Master’s degree from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia 2010–2011 in digital tectonics and a Bachelor’s degree from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Architecture. Anastasia and I connected through a mutual friend, Mariona A. Cíller, a member of the Smashing Magazine Conference team. Our conversation was very delightful. Anastasia works with cutting edge technology at Fab Labs. Fab Labs was created “by renowned inventor and scientist Professor Neil Gershenfeld at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2005.” Fab Labs are digital fabrication laboratories set up all over the world “to provide the environment, skills, advanced materials and technology to make things cheaply and to make this available on a local basis to entrepreneurs, students, artists, small businesses and in fact, anyone who wants to create something new or bespoke” (www.fablabni.com/what-fablab.html).   The nature of Anastasia’s work at Fab Labs is very experimental. The laboratories aim to not only democratize design by making it accessible to all, but also to push the boundaries of what is known about materials, fabrics, and technology.

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Because of this, her relationship with sketching can be categorized as a utilitarian one. She sees the sketches as a means to an end. Our conversation was informal, and we did not follow the questions in any particular order. Below is a summary of our conversation. Alma: What brought you here? What brought you to this path? Anastasia: I was fascinated with this network, the Fab Lab network and what it stood for. I have seen it growing exponentially in a very fast way. They found that there was nobody actually tackling a specific technology and industry around textiles. The technology was more engineering-oriented or architecture design-oriented but did not have a specific focus on and research on textiles and fashion. So, I tried to establish the research lab and now I share all the knowledge that I get into the network so that others can get started in creating a new community for the people that want to apply these new technologies into the textile industry. Alma: Can I call you a fashion architect? Anastasia: Yeah, more like a body architect. Alma: You mentioned that you don’t sketch a lot. What do you mean by that? What do you think sketching is, how do you define it, and why? Anastasia: We use a lot of digital tools, 3D modeling, and 3D printing. We do technical drawings in the computer, 2D modeling, and f lat patterns. When I sketch, I sketch the overall concept—similar to a rough draft and then I sketch close-up details. I sketch mostly in what I like to call “medium scale resolution.” A sketch may not have every single part of the object that you want to make. It is rather a general and overall picture, and then you sketch some small details around the object. The execution is done in the computer most of the time. Alma: Basically, your creative process happens with a combination of tools then? Anastasia: Yes. And I think it’s more interesting. For example, if I sketch something, then I scan it and I use the sketch for different kinds of processes. I can extrude it in 3D, 3D print it, or I can laser cut it and do some kind of pattern on the fabric, or I can manipulate it in Photoshop and Illustrator. Then, I digitally print it on fabrics with the sublimation technique. Alma: I guess that, can we say that for you, the sketching process is like an entry-level aspect to your bigger project? It’s like testing the waters. Then you take it to the computer to develop it? Anastasia: Yes, exactly. It helps me see the steps in for making something on the computer. I understand then what the steps are that I need to do in the computer. The sketches are more for me to get the overall picture. I also teach. I have many students that sketch and do nice sketches. They’re very used to it. I was not so very good at sketching and I didn’t use it a lot as my tool because I have always been fascinated the digital tools.

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Alma: You will feel more comfortable playing out the ideas in the digital world. Do you use an iPad? Anastasia: No, no. Alma: Do you draw on the monitor? Do you have a Wacom tablet? Anastasia: I normally draw on a notebook. Alma: So, when you were studying architecture, did you not sketch too, did you do that part of the process in school? Anastasia: Yeah, so exactly. When I studied architecture, we were the first ones that got into CAD modeling and we did both. Yes, we had to sketch. But I liked CAD modeling more. In the first years we were actually doing a lot of the technical drawing for our classes and to restore buildings. Each drawing had to be a very detailed drawing. Alma: Do you keep some kind of digital journal of your drawings, or do you only draw for design projects, or do you do some work for yourself, and do you keep it all in the computer? Anastasia: Yeah, I think that the sketches that I do are mainly for me and my thinking for my processes. I don’t use them so much afterward. The sketches help me to communicate with other people that I work with. We can talk over a sketch. But I don’t even have my notebooks. Alma: I wonder what makes you say that you don’t really sketch because you seem to have some kind of preliminary process to help you think and map out something. So, what makes you feel like you’re not a big sketcher or how do you define it? Anastasia: Because, there are other people, for example, in architecture, who are more into sketching than I am. They use sketching as a medium for communicating more than I do. I don’t use it so much. Sketching is not my favorite part of the process. I don’t spend so much time sketching I guess. Alma: But do you feel sketching is important or do you feel it’s not as important? Do you see it as a relevant step in the design process or do you see it as something that is optional? Anastasia: To me, sketching is more effective when it is used in combination with other tools. When I sketch, I sketch only to draft something out quickly and to explain an idea to a colleague of mine. At the same time, I appreciate it. I value designers that sketch because you can take these hand drawings and transform them through the digital processes and get the other results out of those sketches. I think that I’m interested in a good collaboration between the hand and the digital processes and how a sketch can be transformed for something digital. This part I can do very well. Often, we have an artist and he/she has some hand drawings to be engraved on wooden boards. Then, we take the drawings and we use the robot to draw over them. For example, I can be collaborating with a fashion designer and he/she hands out the drawings to us. Then, we can draw them, we can laser cut them, and/or we can actually digitize them. We find the correct fabrication processes and methods in order to be able to do what he/she wants

Interviews: Designers on sketching  33

to create. Sometimes the ideas on these sketches may not be possible to do manually. This is the part that I really like: when I collaborate with a designer. For example, there was this designer who wanted to make 3D shoes. But there was no other method to fabricate them with the kind of complexity that she designed them. So, she drew the shoes in her notebook and we actually did a 3D model from the drawing. The sketches are not only for me to communicate with others, but they are also a bridge between a designer who may be doing something very manual and the new technologies that are arising nowadays. Alma: Sketching is something very functional and practical for you. Sketching is a very practical, small but significant, step in the whole series of steps that take you to the final stage. It’s like one step in the ladder to take you there and it’s not necessarily something that breaks or makes the project, but it’s something that definitely connects one link to the other. How do you teach your students when you assign a project, or do the students come to you with the project that they want to do—and you collaborate with them—or do you tell them we’re going to do this now? Anastasia: There is an agenda in the studio where I teach. We tell them what exercises to do; whether it is a professional one or if it’s integration with a professional. The professional needs to hand out to the students the things that he wants with his/her drawings. Alma: Do you tell the students what to do or how many sketches you want to see? Anastasia: It’s mainly up to them. Alma: Let’s talk about your creative process. What is your creative process like? How do you start an idea? How does the idea become the physical reality of a project? How do you nurture it? Anastasia: I think that in the beginning I mainly imagine some kind of application or, because I work a lot with materials, I do a lot of tests. I try to find different materials to test them and see how they work. I think about what kind of process and what design I can apply to these materials. I do a lot of research on the current trends. We try to understand the terrain of digital fabrication and innovation. And then, we do projects according to that. We push the technology one step forward, but we want to make it accessible to people. And also, we do projects out of curiosity. Maybe I have an idea now, but I don’t have the time to do it, but it’s always in my box of ideas and at some point, it will come out. Looking at the big picture of the creative process, I believe that somehow all projects that we do and those that are never started, or those that are never finished, are continuously building upon the things you have done or will do. I find myself coming back to old concepts. I find that there is a relationship between all of the different projects. Everything is linked.

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You are defined by things that you like, and these things will come back to you in all your projects. Alma: Your process is very tactile. Your connection to the material would be more important than your connection to a specific idea. Because for you the material can inform the process, it becomes an interaction with the material and the material itself will tell you this is what needs to happen with it. The material informs the outcome. Anastasia: Yes, the material in combination with the digital process that you want to do—whether it is 3D printing or laser cutting. There are different processes. I say to my students that first they need to understand their material. Then, they need to design a tool that does what they want to do with the material and then they need to design the technique and the workf low of these tools in service of the material. Every time they execute the process, they will have a different outcome. The recipes stay the same. But you always have many different outcomes. It is not about the products, but they should design systems instead. Alma: Talk to me about that: “It is not about the products, but they should design systems instead.” Anastasia: When you start talking about designing a workf low, you design a system that you can actually iterate with. Anytime you iterate, you will have a different product that is based on the same technique. For example, there is the blowing glass technique and every time you blow glass you will have a different object. We draw to invent new kinds of these techniques. Alma: What do you see yourself doing in the immediate future, where do you see yourself going as an architect or as a body architect? Anastasia: I will continue pushing for techniques and methods that I can share with the world in an open source way. And also, continue to lead the education across [Fab Labs] in the world to ensure the network is positioning new practices in textile and fashion industry. In three years, we will be implementing new mindsets and new ways of thinking about places in the world that actually have a lively textile industry. Alma: What do you have to say to a new generation of design students? What … what would be your … your biggest advice to them? Anastasia: I say to them that if you can express your idea with a pencil, you don’t need to use other tools. The tools are there only to facilitate. You don’t have to become a slave of the tool so that you actually use it for the sake of using it. You can express yourself with a lot less. The question is how do you want to do it: with a sketch or a pencil? You really don’t need to use other tools. We don’t need to force everybody to use digital technologies. If you want to make a small cup for your kitchen, you’d say, okay, I will design, and 3D print it. Maybe this will take four days or three days. Or you could have done this with your hands wrapping things around like reverse engineering the cup. It’s not always better to work with digital tools. Sometimes things need to be done manually.

Interviews: Designers on sketching  35

Laura Civetti Interior and wearable designer

FIGURE 3.6 Laura

Civetti, interior designer.

Laura Civetti is an interior designer with a degree in interior design from the Instituto Europeo di Design (IED) in Milan. Laura completed an internship at Iris Van Herpen Atelier in Amsterdam. Currently, she is a Collaborator with the Wearable Technology team of “Noumena  – Design Research Education” and Coordinator of “Reshape – Digital Craft Community.” Noumena was founded in 2011 by architect and researcher, Aldo Sollazzo. Its website defines the company’s practice as “a multidisciplinary practice developing innovative solutions in a wide range of fields such as architecture, robotics, advanced construction and wearable technology.” Its focus is on “innovative projects, combining computational design, digital manufacturing, robotics, virtual reality and hardware development.”   I came in touch with Laura through Anastasia Pistofidou, who referred me to her. Our conversation was full of laughter and Laura had some profound insights to share with me. We did not follow the questions methodically. Rather, our conversation took a life of its own. Below is a recap of our conversation. Alma: Where are you right now? Are you in Spain or Italy? Laura: I am in Barcelona, Spain, where I met Anastasia because I took the course that she’s teaching at the fabric academy [Fab Lab].

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Alma: Tell me about you. Have you always sketched, how did you get started? Laura: My journey started when I was in 11th grade. My teacher said I was great at sketching and drawing. I continued to pursue drawing and painting through high school and then college. But I was always fascinated about fashion. My mom used to buy me the book Marfy. Marfy was a monthly book containing fashion sketches. I would copy the sketches on the model. The proportions on my drawings were off. I kept practicing and my interest in sketching increased while learning to draw accurately. The configuration of the body and correct proportions became important to me. Even today, when I need to do a quick sketch, the first thing that I do is to build up the skeleton. I didn’t study Fashion Design because I had the impression that it was a superficial and difficult world. I didn’t see myself in that world. I studied Product Design, but I ended studying Interior Design. The quality of my sketches is important to me because it is through sketches that I communicate all of my ideas. Because I did not consider myself to be good at speaking and/or writing, sketches were the only way that I could communicate. My teacher was really appreciative. I still keep a sketchbook. I need to sketch. Alma: What was your first job? Laura: When I became an interior designer, I didn’t feel myself. I was conf licted because for me, interior design was just luxury. I needed to design something with function. At that time, I think it was five to seven years ago, fashion designers started to collaborate with experts from other fields such as scientists and programmers. Clothing became a new arena to experiment with using 3D printing, electronics, and smart materials. I realized that that’s what I wanted to do. I knew that I could bring together my passion from when I was a child [fashion] and all the knowledge that I had in interior design. Mixing these two got me interested in wearable technology. Now, I see clothes as a way to test, to improve, and, to design something new that would have more functions other than just wearing. I spent one year building up skills such as computation design, sewing, and pattern making. I started to work on creating a new portfolio which mixed 3D modeling design skills with fashion. I applied for a job at one of the companies that worked on this field here in Barcelona. The design studio is Noumena. Alma: Anastasia had an interesting term; she referred to what she does as fashion architecture. She calls herself a body architect. Do you consider yourself a body architect as well? Laura: I consider myself a body designer. When I learned about Fab Lab and their course offerings, I thought that was the place for me. It is a beautiful course because it brings together the innovation of technology, materials,

Interviews: Designers on sketching  37

and devices that people could use. For example, we work with a bioplastic, with bacteria, and with electronics. It is a challenging course, but it is all really interesting. In the studio that I work now, I design 3D model clothes, VR, robotics, and drones. It’s really a dynamic place, really. Alma: When you were in school learning all these skills, did the professors sit down to teach you how to sketch or is that something that you developed on your own? Laura: Nobody taught me how to sketch. That was something that I learned by myself. We had a drawing course during the first year of college. I think it was the best and the most beautiful course that I ever attended. The teacher was really creative and provocative at the same time. One time I was … I was using an eraser to erase my sketch and he asked me, “Are you shy about what you drew? Why do you remove it?” He was trying to tell me, “Don’t be shy. What you are drawing is something that comes from your mind. It’s something also even if it is a little sketch. It’s important. Leave it there.” And now, I don’t use an eraser. I have a pen or pencil, but I don’t erase anything from the sketch. Alma: Do you think there are similarities between sketching and drawing? Laura: I think drawing is a more dedicated process than sketching because it needs more time in order to achieve a specific goal. Sketching is quicker. Alma: If I was going to put your definition in the dictionary, how would you define the word sketching? What would you say? Laura: A quick sketch is something that naturally comes out from your mind. For me sketching is something natural, like doesn’t have any stops. But of course, you have to be really confident with yourself to accept the sketch. I think that is why people are shy to sketch. There has to be a self-confidence, and that plays a big role in sketching. Alma: I liked that you said that your professor taught you to leave your mistakes, to not use an eraser, to leave every single mark because it is important. It seems you adopted your teacher’s philosophy. For you, any mark is a representation of a thought. But, perhaps is not finished yet. Sketches for you are like a word here and another word there, but eventually these words are going to come together in another sketch or in another mark. Laura: Yes. Another exercise that my teacher taught me was to use your nondominant hand to draw. It’s helped me to do everything. When I draw with the left hand, I don’t have any constrictions. If you force yourself to sketch with your left hand, it allows you to make more natural sketches because you are not forcing yourself to be perfect. Alma: He seemed to be a good professor. Laura: The only one I remember to be honest. He got a part of my soul.

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Alma: Oh, that’s beautiful. Do you keep in touch with him? Laura: No, actually no. I think I will, I will search for him now. Alma: Do you keep one sketchbook, or do you keep many sketchbooks around the house? Laura: I’m a bit particular about that. It has to be one sketchbook and it has to be good. I realize that according to what type of notebook I am using, my design process changes. If I’m sketching on a small one (A5), it would be for fast and quick sketches. These sketches are just to put them there and will serve as a reminder later. I also use A3 sketchbooks to have a good sketching process. The quality of the paper is important … it has to be thick. I use pencils, colors, and pens. I hate when you turn the page and you have [ghosting]. I try to keep one sketchbook because I think is fundamental for me to track my process in one sketchbook. I don’t like to spread my process out in many different sketchbooks. Alma: Let’s say you’re sketching and something doesn’t come out exactly the way you want, what do you? Do you build that up or do you move to the next page? Laura: I draw something next to it. I think at the end it is better to have an overall view of the entire thinking process. I have to see all the process. If I am sketching something and it doesn’t work, and I draw on the space next to it until I fill a full page, I can see all the movement of my thoughts on the page. Alma: Is sketching like a reflection for you? Laura: Yes. I’m really confused in life. I believe that everything we do is a ref lection of your life. When I design, I’m questioning myself and I process a lot of ideas trying to see all the design possibilities: why this could work in this way? How I can improve it? I’m not able to keep all of my thoughts in my mind, so I need to jot everything on paper. Later on, I can see all the things I was thinking in order to not go back to the same idea. Alma: It’s like your process is a cyclical motion of sketching as fast and as much as you can, no matter what comes out, filling the page as an exercise of emptying your mind and then when it’s all full, going back to it and meditating on what is good and what is not, and analyze it. And then moving on. Laura: When I start a new project, I bring myself in a specific mood to start drawing. Music is key. Depending of what I need to process, I listen to classical music or a super techno music really hard. I keep it in a repetitive loop because I need the rhythm. I get a feeling and I start my drawing. There is a specific moment that I can feel it. I don’t know why, but I feel it. And that’s okay. This is the process. The music and the written word

Interviews: Designers on sketching  39

become a prompt. I use this time to think and put down my thoughts in the drawing, it lasts about four hours, at night. Alma: Do you have a specific time that you sketch or is it something that happens to you all day? How does it work for you? Do you have a moment or do you use the morning or night to sketch? Do you say “I’m going to sketch,” or do you just go about it the whole day? Laura: Whenever. But I’m sketching more at night. I work during the day, so I don’t have time to go through my sketches. I have to sketch for work. At work I need to be consistent and quick. It is not the type of sketch that I am used to doing when I have more time. Alma: Do you see a parallel or a relationship between sketching, doodling, and writing, or are these things totally different to you? Laura: The question is whether I think there is a connection between sketching and doodling? I know that doodling is something unconscious. I do it when I’m on the phone or when I’m watching something or someone. I don’t f ind it relevant because I don’t think there is a pure movement of my hand. I use it to f ill up gaps or do circles, but there is no research involved when I doodle. I usually get bored doodling. Alma: There has to be a purpose for it, right? Laura: I like the sketch to be just a pure expression of myself. I’m always sketching with a purpose. I’m looking for something, an idea. I have some goal, or some concept that I am looking to figure it out. Alma: So, the purpose of the sketch is about figuring out an idea or finding out a concept or trying to put it together, but it’s also the actual practice of sketching that improves your sketching at the same time. It’s like symbiotic. You’re looking for the idea, the actual exercise of looking for that idea while you’re doing it—like this improves the ability to continue doing that. Laura: Yes. Alma: Why do you think that not everybody sketches? What are your thoughts on that? Laura: I think it has to do with the self-confidence. People think that they are not good at drawing, so they don’t do it. Friends tell me, “Oh Laura you are so good! How can you do that?” And my answer is, “If you take a pen, you can do it as well.” I think people think they are not able. But if you look at the sketch as a process and not as showing off, that shyness will disappear. Alma: People don’t really sketch because they don’t give themselves permission to do it? Laura: Right. I like how you synthesized my thoughts.

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Laura Civetti’s sketches     

FIGURE 3.7 Laura

Civetti, “Sketches.” 2017.

FIGURE 3.8 Laura

Civetti, “Sketches.” 2017.

FIGURE 3.9 Laura

Civetti, “Sketches.” 2017.

FIGURE 3.10 Laura

Civetti, “Sketches.” 2017.

FIGURE 3.11 Laura

Civetti, “Sketches.” 2017.

Interviews: Designers on sketching  43

Mark Tippin Design communicator/LUMA Institute/MURAL.co  

FIGURE 3.12 Mark Tippin, design

communicator, design thinker, and visualizer.

Mark Tippin characterizes himself as a human-centered design communicator who conducts workshops aimed to incorporate design thinking and processes into a company’s culture. As Mark himself puts it: “My practice is deeply involved with both human-centered design and visualization—encouraging sketching, drawing, diagramming—as a way for groups to extract meaning.” His clients include Wells Fargo Bank, Boston Scientific, Mayo Clinic, Philips, and Autodesk, Inc. Interviewing Mark was suggested by Karl Jahnke. Interviewing Mark was a pleasant experience since I discovered we share a love for design and sketching. Our conversation was a little under an hour, but during that time I learned quite a bit about what he does and why sketching is important. We followed the questions I had listed as a way to keep us on track. Mark specializes in conducting workshops that teach optimal workf low, improve productivity, and the necessary skills to address and readdress the needs in the market to large corporations. The first thing he does on these workshops, according to him, is to have participants sketch with Sharpies on paper. He stresses the importance of creating (sketching) for communication. Mark is also a remote facilitator. That is, some of his workshops are done via websites that facilitate online and real time collaboration such as Mural and Luma. In these occasions, according to him, “sketching is being seen as a critical component of the experience.”

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Alma: Did you attend art and/or design school? Mark: Yes, I graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in Design and Photography. Alma: Were you instructed on how to sketch in your particular design discipline? Was there a class for it? If yes, how was it? If not, how did you come to an understanding that sketching was a preliminary step to the final solution? Mark: I had a drawing class where we would draw still life and/or life drawing. There were no sketching classes. However, college was not my first introduction to sketching and drawing. My two older sisters were my first introduction to design. They taught me to draw as a game. It was a very loving and fun environment. My mother too was very supportive and would facilitate articles and literature to nurture my interests. Alma: Have you always sketched? In college for design classes, sketches might have been required, but when did you start sketching as a personal commitment, as a way to keep practicing your creativity, or as a way of thinking? Do any of these sketches or doodles make their way to a professional job? Mark: [Sketching] was my least favorite thing to do at school. I did not see a purpose or a goal in it. It wasn’t until I started dating my wife that I started to keep a journal or a sketchbook. She is very disciplined and keeps a journal. If, for example, we take a trip to France, she will keep a journal just for that and spend time filling it. She got me into sketching not only about work but also about life. Currently, I keep two sketchbooks: one for ideas as they manifest themselves in my daily life and the other for my work. If I am in the car and I see something and get an idea, I jot it down. So, that sketchbook is full of odd ideas. For instance, one day I saw this car and I wondered what the car would look like if we attach organ pipes to the top and it was playing music. I sketched it quickly. I have this endless loop of ideas and feedback because I go back and annotate it. Recording ideas verbally, as in using the phone to record it, does not work for me. You have this large audio file. But a notebook is cheap, easy, and small. Alma: What does sketching mean to you? Mark: Sketching to me is a way to externalize thoughts. It is like a drawing cycle where you think of something, draw it, reinterpret, and record. It is a way to see an idea roughly before you commit to it. But it is also a way to put that idea down before it goes away. Sketching is a process of ugly marks that connects the cognitive thinking with the visual. It is a f luid and kinesthetic experience. Alma: How do you use sketches in your professional life? Mark: I see it as the responsibility of the designer to understand how his/her visuals communicate and impact people. It is about being conscious about the work you are doing. There has to be an intention. Sketching is not just about your ego. Our industry is art for commerce and for communication.

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Alma: Do you see a parallel between sketching, doodling, and writing? Mark: Yes, I believe they are all integrated practices. In my experience, these are all connected. I move f luidly from drawing here, writing parts there, and making bubbles and lines to connect things. The experience is an interconnected set of these variables that are both intuitive and perceptual and connect the analytical with the language. After all, words are similar to a photocopy of the idea in our heads but to recreate the emotion in your head, you have to sketch it. Alma: Why do you think not everybody sketches? Mark: I believe there is a disconnection in our education system. We don’t see how drawing actually facilitates learning and understanding because we see it as a merely visual expression, like an art that serves no other purpose. We start drawing as kids but later, we stop. There is a missing piece in the puzzle in the educational system. But I believe we are not fragmented beings. Sketching helps us integrate all our beings, it helps us complete that puzzle.

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Diane Burk Exhibition design consultant at DBurk Studio  

FIGURE 3.13 Diane

Burk, exhibition designer and collage sketcher.

Diane Burk is an exhibit designer based in San Francisco, California. She worked at the Exploratorium: The Museum of Science, Art, and Human Perception for several years before taking a yearlong sabbatical to explore the world. It was during that sabbatical that she started collaging intentionally with the purpose of processing her travels and experiences. She maintains a blog called Design to Go where she posts her collages. What intrigued me about her work was that these collages were functioning as sketches rather than final compositions. I contacted her, and she graciously agreed to be interviewed. The experience of interviewing Diane was one of the most meaningful ones because it felt like we knew each other. We share similar experiences and perspectives not only about the topic of sketching but also about life in general. Her experience as Art Director at the Exploratorium in a way echoed her upbringing. Her father was a geologist and her mother, an artist. Seeing her parents share a passion for what they did inspired her not only to become a thoughtful designer but also to see the parallels between the exploration that occurs in both science and the arts and design. This is how she expresses the message she received from her parents:

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Science and art are essentially the same as explorations. Intuition often plays a role in science and pragmatism often plays a role in art. Alma: Did you attend art and/or design school? When? Diane: I attended California College of Arts. At that time, it was called CCAC because they also had crafts. In 1974, a lot of people were focusing on materials like textiles, clay, and glass. There was a physicality that people were interested in. There was no design department or architecture. I became a museum graphic designer soon after I graduated. Alma: Were you instructed on how to sketch in your particular design discipline? Was there a class for it? Diane: At school, I studied life drawing, including free-form instruction, and left-brain training. Life drawing was exciting for me because it was tactile. At the time, left-brain thinking was considered edgy. It doesn’t matter what we were drawing. We would draw with our opposite hand, or with our eyes closed. We would make points, or do a drawing that was just one line, never lifting the pen or pencil up, things like that. I think exercises like these can be very powerful for designers because they can be too much in their heads. It’s hard to get them to think freely and to have f lexibility in their mind. Alma: How did you come to an understanding that sketching was a preliminary step to the final solution? Diane: I loved life drawing because it required abandon and intuition, as well as discipline. Most importantly I learned how to get in the “zone.” Life drawing felt like visual thinking because the process was transparent and immediate. Alma: You used to sketch normally with the pencil or the pen on paper. So how did you make the transition to collaging? Diane: Because I went to art school originally, collage was an art medium from that time. It was something I did occasionally, for personal reasons, or collaging in books with different narratives. I also used collage to explore narrative and organization in design. And when I left my job in October 2016 for a yearlong [sabbatical to travel] around the world I decided that I would start a design blog called Design to Go to post my sketch collages. I wanted to do collage while I was traveling, and it turned out to be an experience that really helped me understand the value of the practice. Since I’ve returned, I continue collaging even though I’m not traveling. I’m doing it all the time now because I see the value in doing the collage. Alma: When did you become a designer and/or artist, architect, etc.? Diane: When I was 28, I became a Museum Graphic Designer at the Exploratorium, SF. I worked there for 32 years. For the last two years I was the Art Director of Graphics. Alma: What was your first job in the role of creating? Diane: My mother was an artist, so I grew up in a house with her studio there and we also had a family art room. We were always creating, exploring

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different mediums—it was an expected part of my upbringing. When I went to work at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, which is a very nontraditional museum started by Frank Oppenheimer, we always had visiting artists and scientists on staff. They were always working together, and it was really the perfect environment for me because I had both those elements growing up. I think having the art room meant that we were doing art a lot. I didn’t get as much direct experience of science with my dad, but I understood that they were essentially the same kind of passion. Alma: Where are you in your career? Diane: I am semi-retired but interested to continue with creative work in museum design consulting, design journalism, collaging, or education. After I resigned, I took a yearlong sabbatical around the world design and started my Design to Go blog. Alma: Was this position what you always wanted? Diane: My career at the Exploratorium was a perfect fit because my mother was an artist and my father a scientist, and I discovered my abilities as a designer, which is a hybrid of science and art. And I was lucky to work at an experimental museum that embraced the relationship between science and art. Alma: Do you keep a sketch journal? Diane: I have a practice of making collage postcards. Alma: How do you use sketches in your professional life? Diane: Many ways: •• Sketching as design problem solving: As a Museum Graphic Designer, I always carried a sketchbook because it was a constant necessity. In my experience, on the museum f loor and in the shop, designers and builders constantly sketched, side by side and on the spot to solve problems in graphic design layout or exhibition space design. It was a pure thinking process; visual communication to serve collective problem solving. We never cared about how these sketches looked nor valued them in their own right. •• Sketching as graphic design elements: I often used sketching for graphic design thinking. Occasionally a thinking sketch was turned into an actual element in the final design. For example, loosely hand-drawn typography or other elements communicate informality, physicality, process, etc. A spontaneous “thinking” sketch might be refined into an intentional rendered form, keeping its spontaneous and authentic aesthetic. •• Sketching as concept sketches: Sometimes I made “concept” sketches to be used in presentations to clients or partners. If an exhibit concept proposal is overly rendered and formal, it will lead to misunderstandings because It will be interpreted as more final than it is. Every detail will

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be taken seriously and analyzed. Even when the concept has been carefully thought out, it needs to be “sketched” to appear rough enough to facilitate a constructive discussion and further brainstorming. •• “Use drawings” as graphic design strategy: For the graphic labels on interactive exhibits, I developed an instructional “visual language” that cut down on the number of words needed for both readers and non-readers, cut through language barriers, and represented a spectrum of real visitors. At first, I spent a lot of time freely “sketching” visitors to think through the strategy. Then I spent a lot of time drawing visitors to “execute” the idea. It was a pleasure to interact with them brief ly, and then capture them in a f leeting (diagrammatic) portrait of sorts. This was drawing as a form of graphic design strategy. •• Arranging as visual thinking: Graphic design is communication art. One of my passions is the relationship between word and image—photography in particular. I am interested in exploring and refining the associations between words and images, in how they form the narrative and organization in publication and exhibition design. Graphic design layout is largely concerned with contrasts, and the power of arrangement. I have found that freely rearranging miniature images and words is a powerful way to “think visually” about associations. The physical involvement is not the hand making marks, rather the hand is moving things around, thinking through arrangement, allowing unexpected creative ideas and solutions to surface. This practice of thinking through arranging is related to my practice of collage as sketching. Alma: How do you define sketching? Diane: To me, true sketching is an open-ended visual thinking process. It is playful and free. It can be applied to solve an existing design problem. Or it can be an open-ended process used to exercise our creative development. As a museum graphic designer with an art degree, I use collage as a way of sketching. I always carry a pouch with scissors, Nori glue, postcards, and a sharpie. For example, I started a practice of making postcard collages when I started my sabbatical. My professional activity was keeping a design blog (Design to Go). When I felt dazed and overwhelmed by traveling, I turned to personal collages as a way to digest my experience. Even designers need creative outlets, practices that go beyond their job description, deeper on a personal level, wider on a world level. I think designers need to maintain creative equilibrium in their work between “acting on” and “receiving from.” In my case, I am acting on the blog and receiving from the collage. Collage requires going into a “zone” beyond

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my usual design thinking, discovering deeper messages that are surprising, perplexing, calming, and inspiring. If graphic design is the arrangement of word and image to communicate a predetermined message, then for me collage is graphic art in the service of mystery, an unconscious arrangement of found word and image to discover complex meanings—visual poems of experience. That’s probably the best way for me to describe what the collage sketching means to me. It’s the unconscious part of it, like giving up control, not trying to determine what I’m saying, feeling, or experiencing. … If somebody was doing travel sketches, they might sketch, you know, the place they are [visiting]. I take pieces that relate to the place like maps, images, words, or whatever. Similar to travel sketching but taking actual tactile pieces and moving things around. Collage is a very unpretentious art form. It’s something that’s accessible to anybody. So, there isn’t that stigma around; whether the person can draw or not is irrelevant. Anyone can collage. The medium goes back to origins that are probably Dadaist. [Collages] can be serious art but there is also the other extreme, which is sort of a decorative and meaningless use of collage. The relationship between word and image become the perfect medium for exploring on my own, looking into myself internally. Literally just moving things around becomes the sketching. The materials that are chosen; the fragments or pieces you’re moving them around; and if the words overlap, that offers one feeling; if the images are separated from the word, that has a different feeling. Collage sketching is about the power of arranging without any preconceived idea about what you’re trying to say or how you really feel about it. The ultimate impact of collage sketching for me is that it helps create a balance between working on the world (blog) and letting the world work on me (collage). Alma: Do you see drawing and sketching as related disciplines? Diane: I think the real meaning of sketching is a little elusive. It is a visual thinking process. What’s called sketching and what’s called drawing is kind of arbitrary. Sketching can also have an aesthetic feel. Plus, there are different kinds of drawing. [But there is] a certain look that is associated with them. Sometimes we might think something is a finished drawing, but then it is presented as a casual sketch because of its aesthetic, and vice versa. For example, there are brilliant artists who can draw an absolutely elegant drawing that’s totally spontaneous and doesn’t necessarily look like a process at all. There are all those nuances in sketching, but ultimately, it is true visual thinking. Some of the sketching that I would do for graphic design jobs, I would say that it would be pure thinking. It was the act of arranging elements to

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think at work that was a segue for me to start using collage as a kind of sketching. Alma: How do you see the relationship between collaging and sketching? Diane: Collaging is not drawing. But I think what’s interesting about thinking of collage as sketching is the visual thinking. It’s definitely physical because you’re moving things around. How is that different than doing it at your computer if you’re producing a graphic design layout? Rather than drawing lines, you arrange and move things around. I think collage falls into the category of sketching, although at first, I didn’t call it that. Someone at SEGD (The Society for Experiential Graphic Designers) invited me to put them on their website. She wanted the sketchbook to be displayed because she considered my collages as sketching. I hadn’t really identified it that way until then, but she was totally right. With collage, I’m saying what I’m wanting to say. It’s even more than visual thinking. It’s like visual feeling. We call sketching visual thinking. To me collaging is like going into an internal dialogue, an internal landscape, not just thinking but also feeling the associations. A lot of times the result [of a collage] is totally bizarre, funny, weird, or surprising. I really like that. Because it’s about the process. When I was traveling, I was having so many rich experiences every day and the collage allowed me to actually process that experience and to digest it as I went along. Otherwise I think I wouldn’t have been able to hold it all. When I look back at collages, they communicate more to me about the experience than any photo or travel journal alone could have done. Because the process is a synergy. All of these relationships [you experience], you can feel viscerally when you’re moving things around. Anyone who’s done a lot of graphic design layout understands, particularly in publication design, the power of visual arrangement as well as working with different kinds of contrasts. Arranging [elements] fascinates me because it always changes the meaning. Why that is I’m not sure. Alma: Why do you think not everybody sketches? Diane: Many designers are computer-dependent, and do not have a “hand” in their own work. I think the physicality of sketching is important, but I’m not sure how and why exactly. There is fear of technical failure as an artist and also a fear of how personally revealing it [sketching] is. If you don’t spend enough time sketching, you’re going to limit yourself. You’re not f lexible. You have to have that humility, the open mind, and confidence. You have to be comfortable with what you know and don’t know.

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Diane’s sketches (collages)   

FIGURE 3.14 Diane

Burk, “Collages.” 2017.

FIGURE 3.15 Diane

Burk, “Collages.” 2017.

FIGURE 3.16 Diane

Burk, “Collages.” 2017.

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Joe Sam Queen Architect and House Representative at North Carolina General Assembly  

FIGURE 3.17 Joe

Sam Queen, architect, and at the time of this interview, running for State Legislature in North Carolina (he won the election).

Joe Sam Queen is an architect from Waynesville, North Carolina, where his roots go back six generations. At the time of this interview, he was running for the state legislature. Among his most recent works is the Hart Theater in Waynesville. The Hart is a beautiful facility intended to accommodate a variety of plays and events. It is designed to emulate a barn that takes its design cues from the surrounding landscape. Joe Sam is very personable and accessible. We met at Panacea Coffee Shop where we talked about his sketching process, what sketching means to him, his practice, and how being an architect has helped him in politics. We had an informal conversation, one which I enjoyed very much. Below is our conversation. Alma: Did you attend art and/or design school? When? Joe Sam: I went to NC State, North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Alma: And studied architecture? How long have you been practicing? Joe Sam: I got a Master’s, and then the next four years an internship apprentice, and since Groundhog Day in 1978 I have been in private practice.

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Alma: I’m sure you have seen a good range of diverse projects in your practice. Joe Sam: I’ve primarily been a small-town architect in a small practice. No more than two architects most of the time in the studio. Alma: At school, did they teach you to sketch? Do you sketch to begin with a project? Joe Sam: Yeah. It’s part of my process. Alma: Were you taught a particular way to sketch or they just leave it to everybody to decide how to sketch, or how was that? You started out and went to school before the computer. Joe Sam: I started before computer imaging, so I learned to sketch by hand. At that time, we were expected to draw a lot by hand. Moreover, at NC State we didn’t have any T-squares or tools. It was not until my last semester in undergraduate when I used a parallel ruler for the first time. Up to that point I, I did everything by sketch and a lot of modeling. Alma: So, how were your lines? Did they need it to be straight or were they looser? Joe Sam: I would draw things loosely. I could draw things to show what I was thinking but that was different to drafting. Drafting is a very particular kind of drawing. Most of the early design education was schematic and conceptual in nature and much more interested in the creative process than in the actual, drafted document at the end of the process. Educators expected us to be more interested in doing a good job of analyzing the problem, developing options, alternatives, and approaches to the problems, seeing the opportunities, and how all of that lent itself to sketching. Alma: How do you feel about the computer now in terms of whether it has aided or not aided the process of sketching or creating? Joe Sam: I learned to draft. In an architectural practice you definitely draft. I did overlay drafting layers by hand. In contrast, the computer allows you to do layered drafting with a stroke, but back in the day, we used mylar to create layers. You could take the layers off or put layers on, change words, and then print them in the blueprint machine. I personally don’t draft with the computer. I freehand all of my drawings. I’m quick and good at it, but most of the time, I just hand draw. A lot of times I also do details on tracing paper rolls over a grid and I follow the lines pretty carefully on the grid. Even though it’s a hand sketch, a lot of times I draw some full-scale details. Alma: Do you draw only for jobs or do you have a personal practice of sketching? Joe Sam: I mainly draw and sketch to help me visualize all kinds of issues. I like geography, mapping things in space, and sketching things in space. Alma: How do you define sketching for you? Joe Sam: Well, for me it’s in pencil for the most part and usually on tracing paper that you tear off. I trim it. I use the manila colored tracing paper.

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Alma: For you, sketching is mainly something done on pencil? Joe Sam: It’s a way—it’s quick to get a concept down, little site plans, and/or to understand how a building would look on the site quickly. Then you need to sketch the relationships of the sections because visualizing them is very important. I always sketch a site. I go out, I sit, and I watch the site. I get a feel for the lay of the land on the sketch. Elements such as the land horizons, streams, contours of the slope, and the natural paths. By sketching while I visit the site, I capture more in my memory than with photography. Then I may use the cell phone camera to take some pictures to remind myself of what I am doing. But I always like to get the feel of the site. You get the essence with pencil quicker than with the camera. There is too much information on a photograph. The sketches are an edited visual aid to capture the essence in my mind to design a concept or draw from. These ideas spring from the essence of the place. I also like to research other architects. I’d like to see their process. I’m more interested in where they started. That’s my dilemma, getting started. Once I get started, ending is a smoother situation, but you’ve got to start. Alma: Who are your favorite architects? Joe Sam: Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles and Henry Green, and my mentor Harwell Hamilton Harris was very large in my life. I liked the early California style because of Harwell. Alma: Do you keep your sketches that you do? What about the Hart theater? Joe Sam: I’ll always keep the end product more or less, but I’m not as good an archivist as some would like. Nonetheless, I always start with sketches and then move to a model. I usually develop a plan, a square foot circulation. For example, the Hart Theater, it’s a mountainscape on the landscape. It’s all about shelter, right? The structure is expressed inside and outside. The cladding is a nice plank clay, which is very natural feeling for this region. Then when you enter the building, the structure continues. You enter the belly of the whale and you see its ribs. The theater has no windows. It has a very expressive feel, inviting, and opening. We wanted variety because we wanted to transform reality as the theater does, but still maintain its sense of place. We’re on a historic site that takes clues from the historic barn on the site and the rolling hills around us. Alma: Since you got started before the current software technology, how do you see the use of the computer in the sketching process? Joe Sam: At first, I thought that the computer will make it so easy to replicate things and “stupid” will be replicated thousands of times. It’s not enough to be stupid one time, but it’s going to be “stupid” for ad infinitum. But actually, it has been the opposite because it’s easy to correct stupid

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things and fix them pretty rapidly. It allows for a strong feedback loop. Although it does allow amateurs to look professional when they aren’t. However, it also allows you to delete it with the stroke of a pen pretty fast. I don’t think it has done much damage. Though sometimes it can give a false sense of accomplishment. It is also really easy to share work and collaborate quickly. Overall, I found it not to be a big problem. Alma: Do you see a difference between your dedication, for example, to sketching and drawing by hand versus new architects’? Joe Sam: When I got started, you imagined things in your mind first. But now, designers tend to rely on the computer to help them imagine things before they actually imagine them in their mind. And in the past, we didn’t work that way. It was from your mind onto the paper whereas now it can be on the computer self-generating ideas in a feedback loop with you as the tool. Before the computer, there was more mindfulness in the process and it was imagined. It’s was more imaginative. In small towns and a small-time practice, the budgets are also small. So, you have ordinary people building ordinary things and it’s up to you as a designer to make it extraordinary. Alma: Do you see any relationships between doodling, sketching, writing, scribbling, or do you think they’re related? How do you feel about that? Joe Sam: I think doodling and sketching are a way to capture ideas and concepts. Sketching helps you to visualize the world, imagine things. Then those ideas are put on paper to visualize so you can both communicate with others and remember those ideas. Sketching is an interpersonal communication tool. I sketch all the time. If you have a big client meeting in two weeks, you’re going to have some pictures, some numbers, and some words. I always ask what are the pictures, the visuals that will help us move this project forward from the client’s imagination into reality? What are the numbers (square feet, cost, f low, budgets, and things like that)? What is the story, what is the sales page? Why are we doing this? These answers work together to create the sketch, the idea, and the concept. For every presentation I do, I have those three (pictures, numbers, and words) and sketching is one of them. Really put some time on sketching and the pictures, numbers, and words, and you can get hired. Sketching is all about getting hired. A sketch allows you to draw a lot and really quick, especially since a lot of times you only have a couple hours to get ready for them. But if you get the concept right to start with, it becomes real. Alma: Do you think that, even with the computer, it is important for an architect to know how to draw?

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Joe Sam: I draw it first before it even gets on the computer. I wouldn’t make the computer my drawing instrument too early. The starting point is imagination. You should start drawing early in life. Little children should draw and paint and model early on. It is just like learning to read, learning to count; the earlier, the better. Back when I was in school, everybody was trying to make me learn to read. I was a good drawer. I was always involved in an art project. Drawing is far more engaging. I would highly recommend parents, teachers, curriculums to start drawing for everything: science, problem solving, architectural things, making, explaining concepts, caricatures of public events in history, etc. Alma: Why do you think children stop drawing? Joe Sam: I think that sometimes we think that we are wrong. But, there’s no wrong way. Creativity is hugely rewarded by expectations. The drawings don’t need to be right. That is usually a bias that’s quite irrelevant. Realize that right is an individualistic thing. As kids go through the educational system, the system is trying to put them in their frame of reference that may or may not relate to them. But learning to draw would help every kid to understand that every other kid is intelligent in different ways. A lot of teachers are visually illiterate, teaching only numbers and words, and they don’t really realize how important the visualization is. Imagination is driven by visual phenomenon. Our eyes and our hands are very important to us. Getting those two working together is about getting our mind together to engage yourself. You want to learn to draw and you want to learn to make things. You want to learn to see. Alma: Do you use any part of your background as an architect and as a sketcher in your current political position? Joe Sam: I do. In politics, we analyze problems. Architects are problem solvers and we do everything. We’re comprehensive. We have a concept, we understand the layers of thinking, we visualize, and we actualize it. In public policy it means that rather than communicating in the same way to everyone, you find the best ways. There is a saying that there’s a lot of ways to skin a cat. Well, if you want him to be alive when you’re done, there’s just a few. Democracy is about variety and people think different. Just like in architecture you find the way things interconnect—it is the same in politics. Architects design for function but we also design to provide f lexibility. What is f lexibility? It’s very hard to design for f lexibility, but there are some ways to do it. Simple is better. Alma: Do you have anything else you want to add or share with me? Joe Sam: Sketching is not everything but it’s part of everything. Sketching can quantify and qualify. Sketching can help you share and explore. If you can’t draw it, you haven’t got it yet. Joe Sam designed the local theater in Waynesville, NC. Below are some photos of it.    

FIGURE 3.18 Alma

Hoffmann, “HART. Haywood Arts Regional Theater, Waynesville, North Carolina. Designed by architect Joe Sam Queen.” 2018.

FIGURE 3.19 Alma

Hoffmann, “HART. Haywood Arts Regional Theater, Waynesville, North Carolina. Designed by architect Joe Sam Queen.” 2018.

FIGURE 3.20 Alma

Hoffmann, “HART. Haywood Arts Regional Theater, Waynesville, North Carolina. Designed by architect Joe Sam Queen.” 2018.

FIGURE 3.21 Alma

Hoffmann, “HART. Haywood Arts Regional Theater, Waynesville, North Carolina. Designed by architect Joe Sam Queen.” 2018.

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Mike Rohde Principal user experience designer and visualizer at Johnson Controls 

FIGURE 3.22  Mike

Rohde, user experience designer, professional sketchnoter, and author.

Mike Rohde is a user experience designer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and author of the bestselling books The Sketchnote Handbook and The Sketchnote Workbook. His first book was published in 2012 and became an immediate success. He is credited with naming the process of visual notetaking as “sketchnoting” and teaches workshops at businesses and corporations to integrate visual thinking through simple sketching in their processes and communications. Below is our conversation. Alma: How did you start to sketchnote or to take notes visually? What got you started? Mike: I used to take notes the way everybody does: writing out every word on my notebook. I was fast and I did it with pencil, so I would erase a lot. I had no commitment to what I was writing, and I would not review it. I was functioning as a content recorder and there was just too much information to go through when I was done. Around 2007, I asked myself, what else can I do? I can’t keep doing this. It’s unsustainable. I need to do something different than this.

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I started thinking that as a designer you’re always faced with some limitation, right? For instance, you have to use this logo or only two colors or do by next week. There is always some constraint. I decided to experiment with giving myself some constraints. I acted as if I was my own client to solve this notetaking problem. I said, what would happen if I did exactly the opposite of what I’m doing now? I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Seinfeld. In one episode, George Costanza decides to do something different that he normally does. As a result, he gets a really high-paying job and a beautiful girlfriend. My case wasn’t quite that dramatic, but I made the decision to change what I was doing. I was taking notes on a large notebook and using a pencil to write information. That way I could erase mistakes or fix things. I was pouring everything onto these pages. I could write a lot because I had big pages. It had too much information that I wasn’t analyzing. As I was listening, I was writing, assuming that later I would find the things that were valuable. But I never went back to those notes. I thought: well what would happen if used the opposite of the big notebook? It could be a pocket notebook, and the opposite of a pencil would be a pen. I thought: what if I go 180 degrees in the other direction? I had purchased a Moleskine pocket notebook at Barnes and Noble. I didn’t know what to do with it. I was in the state that many people were when they buy beautiful notebooks and they’re afraid to write in them. It’s too beautiful. You don’t want to wreck it. It sat on my desk for a long time. I thought, If I use that small book it will force me away from writing everything down. There are not enough pages. The size would remind me that I’m doing something new. Instead of the pencil, I decided to use a pen. I decided to give it a try at conference in Chicago around 2007. At the conference using the pen, it forced me to commit to whatever I was writing. If a mistake was made, I would make it into something else or I would have to live with it. My idea was not to write everything down. The small notebook and pen served as a reminder. The combination of those two things brought me to this new place where I thought that maybe I should do more listening and analyzing what’s being said and decide in the moment what’s worth writing. Because I don’t want to write it down unless it’s important, and I don’t have that much space to write it in anyway, so I’ll be more critical of what I hear. I approached the design conference in Chicago in terms of asking myself these questions: •• •• •• •• •• ••

What are the big ideas that they’re repeating? What things are they’re talking about? What can I use? What’s applicable? What things can I use now, or might I use shortly in the future? What things that could be valuable?

In any talk there will be things they talk about that I’m not going to actually apply. Hence, I looked at it from that perspective and if the things I wanted to

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write down didn’t fit that criteria, then I would let go of it. I knew there would be somebody recording the talk or maybe somebody would be taking full notes. If I really wanted to get more notes, I probably could find it on a slide deck or something later on. This new way of taking notes with a pen and a very small notebook was about focusing on the things I could take away that would make sense to me and that I could then apply tomorrow. Since this new perspective gave me all this free time, I could do some lettering. I can make this or that word bigger or I could draw a picture of what I’m seeing in my mind when they talk about an idea. Suddenly this space opened up for me to start analyzing, drawing, and doing lettering as well as still writing. Sketchnoting is still writing but I started to add images and lettering. It also gave me the freedom to do more things with the sketching ideas or concepts. I was trying to name this new way of taking notes. I decided that I should call it sketchnoting, because I was sketching my notes. They were sketchy while I was still taking notes. These notes now had purpose and meaning. The lettering and the writing were still part of it. It is not all just drawing. It was a mix of the two (writing and sketching) and they kind of depended on each other. The drawings will have annotations or maybe the text that I was writing would have little images to support them and work together as a team. That’s how the concept of sketchnoting began. From then on, I was so excited because I enjoyed notetaking again. Because now these notes were more graphic and I liked—I knew that I would look at them again. I would f lip through them to remember. Instead of 12 full pages of notes of every single thing, it was maybe 4, and I could see everything for the day. I can f lip through and have a much richer memory. The experiment worked, so I wanted to try it one more time to see if it would hold up. I went to another conference shortly after in Chicago again and tried it at another fullday conference. This time the conference was about business concepts, which is something different to what I do for a living. But I wanted to try to use this new way to take notes on something unfamiliar where I’m less of an expert. I thought if I was still able do it and keep up with it, and it makes sense, then the next challenge was to do it for a whole week. I asked myself: Could I do this style of notetaking for a week? I went to a weeklong conference and used this new method of taking notes. I noticed that I started doing things like drawing the actual sessions, but I also found myself drawing in between the sessions; what I was eating and people sitting in the hallways. I realized at that point that I was really capturing the experience of being at this event. It was not only the information that I was receiving through the talks, but it became about my experience being there as well. From there I kept on sketchnoting everywhere. The conference organizers saw my work because I shared it online and put a creative commons license on it so anyone could put it on a blog or whatever. At that point, sketchnoting started to spread. I started getting invitations to do it professionally. Conference organizers would give me a free pass to come to be their official sketchnoter. Later on, in the process, probably about two years, people started to hire me. After the sessions were done, we would share them on social media as well.

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After a short time, I started The Sketchnote Army, which is a site promoting other people’s sketchnotes to create a community. Because sketchnoting can be done in many different ways, I wanted to provide people with a voice. My style is not the only way. Eventually, that led to a book project, The Sketchnote Handbook. The book did really well, and I was invited to write The Sketchnote Workbook. Now, the exciting thing is that I’m actually teaching sketchnoting. I go to school districts and companies to teach individuals how to begin, how to think about drawing in a simpler way, and then follow this practice. Alma: That is great! So, you are a user experience designer by trade? Where did you go to school? Mike: My story is interesting because I went to Milwaukee Area Technical College. Everything there is designed to get you a job as quickly as possible. It’s a two-year community college focused on technical skills. They would teach you how to become an automotive mechanic or to work on a press at a printing shop or to become a nurse. They also had a program for designers focused on production design. I did it in three years partly because I worked for the school. There was a design firm at the school which did a lot of the publication work for the school itself. Because our school was connected to a local public television station, we got to do graphics and other things related to public television. I had an opportunity to do a wide variety of work in that student-designer role. I also took classes in photography and printing. I also had training in high school because I went to a technical high school. I had learned to run the presses and make negatives. My background helped me in my print design career because I understood what the pressman would go through. I would go to a press check and knew how to speak with the pressman and know what things to ask for. After graduation, I got an opportunity to work at a design firm because of my portfolio. Since I worked at the school as a designer, I had professional work in my portfolio. Most of my colleagues at school had school projects whereas I would show professionally designed work with printed samples. I was very fortunate in having that opportunity. When showing my portfolio to possible employers, I would include the entire process, the thumbnails, the marker rendering, and then the final production of the work. Alma: When you were at school, did you take drawing or sketching classes, or how was sketching a part of the curriculum, formally or informally? Mike: I had sketching in a couple of ways. One was life drawing class. I had a teacher who taught us how to do life sketching. We would have inanimate objects and models coming in for us to sketch. My teacher was always pushing us on how to see. Maybe it was more from a fine art perspective,

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but each of these teachers would always focus on the practical application of the idea of sketching. I learned how to do marker rendering. I did pencil sketches and then I would render them with markers. In those days you might show these renderings to a client before you went to production because at that time computers were not yet part of the design process. Everything was manually done. Knowing how to do marker rendering informed my education. The classes in life drawing and inanimate objects helped me understand shape and light. I would apply the drawing skills toward advertising and design. So, it was really a practical type of sketching experience. A lot of the times it would be product sketching, like a sketching of a soda can or a bottle or a car or something that you’d see in advertising. I think the advantage of growing up before the computer and software were part of the design process is that it forced us to draw things or sketch things. It wasn’t about whether you were good at it or not. It was what you did. Some are better than others because they saw things differently or practiced more. I’ve always felt like it was an advantage to me. Learning to sketch allowed me to show more design process in my portfolio. I would talk to interviewers about why I made the decisions I made or why a project changed from the thumbnail to the final version. I looked at sketching as an advantage, but I also enjoyed it. I think that mindset helped me get through grade school, middle school, and high school without getting in trouble for drawing. I was able to turn it into a positive because in high school I worked for the school newspaper. In college I also worked for the school newspaper. I guess they saw me as a sketchier designer. I also did cartooning and things. Alma: Why do you think there’s a resurgence of sketching? Mike: That’s a good question. I think part of it is the digitization of our culture. I would say it is partly because everybody carries a phone and we do everything with our phones or computers. On one hand, I think there is a lot of visual information coming to us. We’re built to be visual. Our brains, the majority of our brains are made for processing visual information. I also think there’s a bit of a reaction to so much digital stuff in our lives that people want to feel and touch things. For instance, bullet journaling is really popular now. Coloring books are also popular. My wife just learned how to knit. So that’s another tactical thing where you’re feeling the yarn and you’re part of both the making and the experience. In the same way, sketching and drawing do the same thing, right? It’s something you do and feel while you see it happening. Even the digital devices are trying to meet that need for the tactile. For instance, the iPad Pro and the pencil are an attempt for the digital to bridge the divide between the analog and the digital. I think there’s a desire to feel things.

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For kids, everything is by default digital. That’s just normal to them. The things that are unique to them are the old things from the eighties, like the cassette players, cassettes, turntables, film cameras, and notebooks. These physical things which are not normal for them are now unique. The digital is normal now. In our time, everybody used to carry a diary and a notebook, and everybody used and/or did manual things. Now the manual things are niche things. Alma: What does sketching mean to you? Mike: I think of it as a language. It’s a way for me to express the thoughts that I’m having that I may not have words to them yet. Many times, there are ideas in my head that if you forced me to write them, it would be very clunky. I couldn’t find the words to describe them. But when I sketch it out, it helps me to see them. The sketch takes what’s in my head and it puts out there, it makes it physical, and often when I sketch it out, then I can describe it. I am able to describe what I’m thinking, or the process, or I can identify what’s connected to it, and then I start seeing interesting relationships that I probably never saw before. It’s a way to take what’s in my head and get it out. Which, I think, coming back to the conversation about technology, the problem with technology often is instead of your mind coming up with ideas, the software defines what you produce. There are some people who are f luent enough that they can bend it and make it do what they’d want to do. But for most people they don’t push beyond what the drop shadow in the software looks like and get locked into the features that the software offers. The advantage of sketching is that it allows you to not be limited by software, and you start pushing limits. I think sketching for me is really another language to express ideas. Alma: I like that. Another language to express ideas. Do you see a parallel relationship between sketching, doodling, writing, and lettering? Mike: Definitely. That’s really what sketchnoting is for me, is connecting those together. When I teach, sketchnoting to students, some are more willing and able to draw more f luidly, and some are more resistant to it, so they need a little more encouragement. Typically, people will come being very heavy writers and they do lots of writing. I have to encourage them to just reduce the writing a little or at least add drawings to it to add some depth. Sometimes I also notice that some students go almost 180 degrees the other way. They stopped writing words and it is only drawings, thinking that that’s the solution. But, I don’t know that that’s the solution. I think sketchnoting is a mix of all these [doodling, writing, and lettering] together. The mix of verbal and visual. Some of the research that I’ve seen suggests that we have a visual way and a verbal way of processing

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information. They’re both really powerful. It’s called the dual coding theory. But what’s really powerful is when you use them [visual and verbal] at the same time and they interlock and overlap. Then the person starts using all the different parts of their brain to store information. You would remember more because your mind is storing information in so many different places and it’d be more likely to find those things. There are researchers who did a test on typists versus longhand note takers. They ran the test multiple times and found that the longhand notetakers did better than the typists did at remembering. Typists tend to take verbatim notes but not really analyzing what it means. I’m hoping that there’s continuing research on why does this visualization help us remember more? Alma: Some designers tend to make a harsh line between sketching and drawing. Do you feel the same way or how do you feel about that? Mike: Well, that’s a good question. It’s a continuum to me. You can do sketches and maybe they are usable as a final for some things. I know some designers have this idea that sketching is one thing and illustration is another. They are separate but they’re on a continuum. Sketching is the rough end, and illustration or drawing—and painting—are sort of on the finished end. Right? But, how would you define where is the break point between sketching and something finished? We artificially separate it. Because, at some point, I get a canvas out and I might sketch on the canvas so that you can paint on it. Right? So, is it a sketch or is it a painting? It is both. Alma: In that continuum, where do you see writing, doodling, scribbling? Mike: Well, I mean if you really think about language, you know, we see writing as a verbal thing, but the letters themselves are drawn. Even if you do writing, typography, or lettering, there’s also a continuum there. All of these things are visual objects that we memorize. The danger there is that we have a tendency to think because we do it all the time, that it’s less valuable or less important. We think it’s different when we do the fancy expression of the same thing: lettering or typography or calligraphy. But there are different expressions of the same desire. I’m more of the idea that it’s more of a continuum in all those cases. And yes, you can define them as different points. It’s like saying I’m going to drive from Los Angeles to New York. Well, there’s clearly a time when you’re in Los Angeles and there’s a clearly a time when you enter Kansas City and then there’s clearly a time when you go to New York, but they’re all in the United States. In the same way, these expressions are all part of this whole overall thing that is still United States even though they’re separate places in between. It’s okay to define them that way, but they’re not disconnected from each other. It isn’t always so clear.

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Alma: I was thinking that the purpose defines them from each other. I did this sketch of an umbrella. The umbrella is a metaphor for the term sketching. As its metaphor, each rib in umbrella stands for different functions or purpose in the act of sketching. Mike: You could even call that umbrella “visual thinking.” Writing and drawing are both part of visual thinking. They are just different expressions. Mind mapping is a part of visual thinking. Sketchnoting is one way to do visual thinking. Infographics is another one. Comics is another one. Like, these are all different expressions of this broader idea that you use visual—whether it’s letters as a visual or a drawing is a visual. They’re all using elements to express ideas that we visually perceive. We’re recognizing patterns. Alma: What do you think is the best way for someone who is a beginner to get started in sketchnoting? Mike: I always start on my workshops with a really basic drawing. I provide them a pen and paper, and then we start with the basics. I teach the five basic elements, the circle, triangle, square, line, and dot. I consider that the line can be straight or wavy or it could be a spiral, right? Or you know, squares are rectangles, squares can be a parallelogram, and circles can be ovals. I introduce them to this idea of drawing with these five elements, because it gives people an approachable way to think about drawing. I have to accelerate them into this idea. That’s where my phrase comes from, it is about ideas, not art. It’s for people who have no art background and don’t know how to even approach it. If I say to them that they’re doing art, it would put too much baggage on their backs. By making it simple it gives them a sense that all of what you’re doing is sketching ideas. Teaching these five shapes, people can imagine things similar to using different pieces of Legos to assemble them in different ways. I draw a house, right? I put these shapes together and by giving them a little confidence and momentum, then they start to imagine: what if I keep adding things right now? It becomes more of a fun thing. My argument is that if you start and teach someone simple ideas like this, then they might get so excited about their ability and competence that they might actually enroll in a traditional drawing class! Alma: Do you still work full time or are you just only dedicated to the workshops and the teaching? Mike: I still work full time, but the workshops and the teaching are growing. My ultimate long-term goal, which is probably the next couple of years, is to do sketchnoting workshops and teach full time. My job now allows me some f lexibility to do these teachings. Hopefully, at some point, there’ll be enough demand that I can do it full time, do teaching, and book writing.

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Mike Rohde’s sketchnotes    

FIGURE 3.23 Mike

Rohde, “Sketchnotes.” 2018.

FIGURE 3.24 Mike

Rohde, “Sketchnotes.” 2018.

FIGURE 3.25 Mike

Rohde, “Sketchnotes.” 2018.

FIGURE 3.26 Mike

Rohde, “Sketchnotes.” 2015.

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Sahm Jafari Car designer at Tesla 

FIGURE 3.27 Sahm

Jafari, car designer at Tesla.

Car design is a very interesting field. I grew up in a culture where cars, the way they look, the way they sound, and the way they feel are as important as their function. Similar to architects, car designers tend to have a particular style of sketching. The use of line and shape is energetic, dynamic, but at the same time, the communication value of any one of these sketches is crucial for the design to materialize. Sahm is a car designer at Tesla. I decided to contact him, and he emailed me back right away. Needless to say, we had a great time getting to know each other through the interview. My first question was how he found himself working at Tesla. What follows is an interesting story about his ingenuity and love for car design. Alma: How did you end up in Tesla? Sahm: About five or six years ago, I was at the mall in San Jose, California. This mall was the first-ever mall to have a North American Tesla store. My family and I saw the car and we put a down-payment on it that was fully refundable. We had the car like a year and a half later. Seeing the car inspired me to write an assessment of the battery for a class at school where I was studying sustainability. I wrote a pamphlet about how to recycle a

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battery, posted it online, and then about a year and a half later someone from Tesla contacted me and asked me if I was an engineer. I told her, no, I’m actually studying art. A few months later I applied for an internship at Tesla. I didn’t get it then. A year later, I applied again, and I finally got the internship and that internship led to the job. Sahm: How did you find me? Alma: I searched for a car designer on LinkedIn. Your name came up first on the list. I visited your website and saw some of your sketches, I emailed you, and here we are. Alma: Where did you go to school? Sahm: I went to MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art). I studied Illustration for two years. I decided it wasn’t for me. I wanted to design things more conceptual. I found out about car design. I thought that was cool because you can design whatever you want and maybe people can use them. I applied to the Art Center College of Design and I got in. When the Art Center College of Design started in 1930, the school only offered car design. Studying there was like being at a boot camp and you have no life. You meet a lot of people and become close with them, you work so closely with them, and they become your friends. Everyone knew each other really well. It was a good preparation for me because in a professional environment everyone has to be okay with each other. When I was at MICA, I knew I didn’t want to pursue illustration. I actually combined what I learned in illustration with car design. I think what’s really unique about illustration is that it communicates a story. Alma: So, car design is not just about function. It’s also about how you feel in them. Sahm: That’s totally true. But now that we are producing cars that don’t need to be driven, how will car design change? What would be the story behind that person using the car? What would it be like to not actually drive the car anymore, to sit there and let the car drive itself? You will not need to go to the gas station anymore. How will someone use an electric car that does not need to be driven? Up until now we have designed for users to be in control but now their control on the vehicle is limited. We are transitioning into a new era, one that is not about the experience of driving or being in control of the car. We are transitioning into an era that is about the experience of being a passenger. Alma: How do you see sketching in all of this? How do you use sketching in car design? In the context of developing a story for a car, for example, what role does sketching have in your life as a designer? Sahm: In car design, it’s more about communicating, versus like maybe a fine artist where they’re expressing themselves. Car design is a communication tool. Whenever I sketch something at work, I’m expressing what I want someone else to understand so that they can produce it. Because in my

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industry you’re making physical objects. Every time I sketch it’s to draw something for someone else to see it like I see it. I try to get them to try to get them to understand what’s in my head. When I sketch, I’m giving instructions on how to change, upgrade, and/or update the model that we’re working on. If I’m working on the exterior of a car and let’s say I want to change the door to be a little bit further forward or maybe I want the door to be like a little bit lower, I will need to draw the before and after so that my visual instructions, my sketch, is clear. This is different from creating an illustration. Alma: Is it because it’s more utilitarian? Sahm: I think sketching is a tool to bring someone to be on the same page as you. But, if I didn’t work with someone else most of the time, my sketches or drawings can be a little bit more creative and a little more artistic. For my job, however, it’s not about being artistic with your sketches, it is about telling others how you want something to be. Alma: You’re giving them a map to follow. Sahm: Exactly. Yeah, that’s the best analogy, I think. Alma: Did you always sketch? Did you take a class on sketching? Did they teach you how to sketch in a certain way when you were doing car design studies, or did you come up with your own style? Sahm: You know how fashion designers have in their own style? I think that’s true about car designers too. But what’s similar between fashion and car design is that we all have to learn the fundamentals first. I think designing a car is similar to learning anatomy. When you’re a fashion designer, you have to learn the anatomy of a man and a woman. Similarly, when you’re designing a car, you have to learn its proportions— and by the way, the word proportion is usually used to describe the anatomy of a car. For example, with the Jaguar, the anatomy of that car is a big engine in front, four people or five people sitting on the inside, and then in the back you have the trunk. But when you compare it to a Ferrari, there is no engine in the front, so there will be two people in the car and the engine is behind them. I need to have the sensitivity to communicate these differences clearly in my sketches, just like you would visually communicate in a drawing what is a man versus a woman, right? You have to know the intricacies of the curves in the hips, the chest, the arms, the legs, and the differences in the shape of the head for a female and for a male. When I was studying car design, I noticed that while we were learning to sketch, we were also learning the anatomy of the car first. Then, slowly, they teach you to add weight to the line and the perspective. But, the most important thing about sketching was learning and understanding your subject. When I was studying illustration, I took two years of life drawing. We drew people from life, sometimes in public, and sometimes in a lit environment. The whole point of that is to become comfortable to draw a person in any angle so that you can sketch comfortably and communicate

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anything with people. With car design is the same thing. You have to know to draw a car from every single possible angle. Most of the time that starts by studying existing cars, studying them from different angles, and then trying your own ideas about the car in all of the angles. The first three or four years studying car design was about learning how to draw a car. That was about half of my education. It was not until the fifth semester that it was time to start using color. The school didn’t want you to have your own style in the beginning. They want you to learn just the fundamentals. Style came later. Alma: In your job, are you able to be more artistic with your sketches? Sahm: It depends on the tasks of that week. If it is to develop a brand-new car or like to work on a totally new part of the car, you want that sketch to be as beautiful and as ref lective of your own style as possible. But as soon as that sketch of a seat gets picked or someone says, “Okay, let’s make it,” you don’t have the time to do the artistic f lair side of it anymore. Similar to advertising, you need a catchy image, like a catchy catchphrase to make someone actually pay attention. I think that’s what it’s like in car design. I come from an art background, I try to make everything look as cool as possible—maybe to a fault sometimes. Most of the time, if your sketch it too stylized, someone may not understand it as well as if your sketch is realistic. You have to be careful to balance the artistic f lair with the need for others to understand the sketch. Alma: Was this your first job out of college, or did you have other jobs where you were working as a designer? Sahm: I worked in China as a car designer, also. I worked at an automobile company. I lived in China for about a year and about 10 months. It was a similar process to what I am doing now, but we weren’t using computers to model cars. We were using clay to be molded with your hands. It was a totally different feeling and a different speed. The work was more artistic, a little bit slower, and a little bit more perfectionist. Alma: Do you sketch more on the computer than with pencil and paper? Sahm: Whenever I’m working with someone whose job is to produce what I’m sketching, then I almost never use color. Everyone looks at color differently. I think black and white is simple and the easiest way to really tell someone what you want to produce. I like to draw with a ballpoint pen on paper and then I just scan it into the computer. I use the computer to color it or add some volume. Usually the sketches are about two or three inches big. I use Adobe Photoshop to add a little bit of color or value to make sure that it actually looks like something someone can read. Alma: Do you see yourself sketching as a daily practice outside of your job, for your personal benefit?

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Sahm: I sketch a lot at home, but I try not to sketch anything related to my job. Instead of cars, I will do a motorcycle or a bike. And almost always I like to include a person because it’s much more fun to look at. I just don’t have time for that at work, you know? Alma: Do you have a sketchbook that you keep with you? Sahm: No, actually, I just carry about 50 sheets of print paper in a folder at work. Because it’s much harder to give someone the sketch from a sketchbook. I just sketch my ideas on a sheet of paper and then scan it. I think the problem with sketchbooks is that they are not convenient if you’re working with other people because they can’t hold it. Alma: If you store the sketches, where and how do you store them? Sahm: I have four or five different hard drives and on each I have folders. I usually put the sketches in a folder in case I need them. I made a habit of it and now every time I draw anything, I just scan it and it’s always on my computer. But, sometimes I’ll even just throw them away. Alma: Do you ever use the iPad, for example? Sahm: No, I don’t think it feels natural. There’s nothing like paper. Alma: Do you see a parallel or a relationship between sketching, doodling, writing, scribbling, or do you see them as separate things? Sahm: I think drawing is an umbrella term for sketching, doodling, and writing. To me, however, sketching specifically is not like doodling or writing. I think sketching is a way to get someone to understand you. My definition of sketching is very specific to me working with other people. If I am in the phase where I want to really have fun and be more creative, sketching becomes more of a selfish, fun, and creative exercise. When you’re designing a car, you have to sketch maybe like 500 different cars to get one that looks good, right? If I’m drawing a Tesla, for example, and I want the headlights to be much different than the Model S that exist right now, I’ll draw 400 front ends of cars in different builds, slightly in different angles and exploring different headlights, different noses, different parts of the car, and the front. Then I’ll have about 50 sketches that have potential and I will scan them on the computer. I look through them and circle the ones that I like. This is the discovery process for me. It becomes more of an exploration and self-ref lection for you to understand yourself. I think sometimes sketching is more like a freestyle rapping where whatever happens, happens. Later you come back to those sketches and edit them. Alma: Do you believe that, in the general sense, designers should know how to draw? Sahm: I think designers need to be comfortable in expressing things realistically in a sketch. But if you don’t have that ability, describe what you’re doing with your words while you’re drawing it. There are a lot of

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designers that communicate verbally and though their sketching is not as great, oftentimes the result is better because their words accentuate their sketches. I think sketching is really important. I think that being able to draw something realistically is really important. But what’s even more important is that you can actually work with the people around and communicate clearly with your words. Sketching can feel sometimes like a decoding process, and the interaction that usually takes place when presenting these sketches is important. They want a clear idea of what I want them to make without me having to really talk about it. In my context of car design, if the sketches don’t have a good sense of perspective, it’s the difference between design and art: the sketch has to be clear because the people who are in charge to produce it, want a map; the design should be so obvious that there’s no process of deduction, you know? Alma: No ambiguity. Do you think sketching should be taught as part of learning similar to reading and writing? Do you think we should all be taught while we’re going through school to sketch as a way of communicating? Sahm: I think everyone should, especially in high school, have at least one art class that is mandatory. If you have the tool like doodling and sketching to help you, then I think you’re a richer person. You have a more intimate connection with what you’re thinking. Learning to draw is about learning and understanding yourself. It’s important. I don’t think you should learn to sketch to actually communicate with another person necessarily, like designers are taught. But sketching should be taught and learned so that you understand how you feel, so that you understand more closely what you’re actually thinking. Alma: Why do you think that not everybody sketches? Sahm: I think it has to do with judgment. I think people stop drawing because they get intimidated and they feel like they’re not capable as other people are. Once you feel comfortable enough with the craft of sketching or drawing and its fundamentals, you should branch out and try to find like your own voice in that. With car design specifically, maybe your voice is storytelling. Like the fashion design sketches— the designers know how to draw people and are good at anatomy. But they probably didn’t even start sketching in their individual styles until they were totally comfortable with their skills. I think it is important to not get comfortable with whatever you’re doing. You have to take a step to learn something new. It’ll enrich whatever you knew before and you’ll have a new tool set.

Interviews: Designers on sketching  77

Sahm Jafari sketches      

FIGURE 3.28 Sahm

Jafari, “Car sketches.” Unknown dates.

FIGURE 3.29 Sahm

Jafari, “Car sketches.” Unknown dates.

FIGURE 3.30 Sahm

Jafari, “Car sketches.” Unknown dates.

FIGURE 3.31 Sahm

Jafari, “Car sketches.” Unknown dates.

FIGURE 3.32 Sahm

Jafari, “Car sketches.” Unknown dates.

Interviews: Designers on sketching  79

Eva-Lotta Lamm Visual thinker, trainer, and speaker Interviewing Eva-Lotta Lamm has been one of the highlights of this research. I first came across Eva’s work in 2010 late at night, while walking to the train station in Chicago. Her work changed my view of the purpose of sketching. We talked on April 17, 2018 in the morning. She was gracious to accommodate my schedule since she lives in Germany, seven hours ahead. We had a great time! Eva is a user experience designer and visual thinker, born and raised in Germany and currently living in Berlin. She has worked at Google in the Android design team, Skype, Yahoo!, and Kahn + Associates, as well as freelanced and consulted for various agencies and her own clients. But what I know her most for is her sketchnotes. She fills the page with these fascinating and lively figures who, in a way, tell the story. Our conversation was a free f low of ideas and thoughts about sketching. Alma: Did you attend art and/or design school? When? Eva: I started studying graphic design and switched schools half-way through to a more interdisciplinary course at Köln International School of Design. The Design program there is more open and encourages students to see design as a holistic discipline. You can choose from diverse areas of design as well as typography, interface design, service design, design management, or design and gender. In the projects, students from all years worked together to expose you to different levels of experience. My focus was more on interactive projects, but I loved the collaboration and opening my perspective to a wider angle of design. Alma: What was your first job in the role of creating? Eva: I did my first internship in a web design agency in 1998. After the internship I started working there as a student for one to two days a week and during the summer. I guess that was my first “real” design job. Alma: Was this position what you always wanted? In other words, were you doing the job you had envisioned for yourself ? Explain. Eva: I’ll go back in time a little bit to explain my initial motivation for studying design and how this connects with what I am doing today. Growing up, I always loved drawing. When I got close to finishing high school and had to choose what to study, I had this rather naïve idea that because I liked drawing, I should maybe study graphic design. I didn’t really know much about design at the time. I grew up in a small town and I didn’t know any designers. There were no design agencies in my town and the internet wasn’t a thing yet. I had no first-hand experience of what exactly a designer does, but I had a hunch that it could be something interesting to do. When I started at the university, a whole new world opened to me and I discovered all the different aspects that design actually includes.

80  Interviews: Designers on sketching

I remember my very first Typography lecture. Our professor, an old-school chain-smoking typographer, talked for two hours about the design of the Helvetica typeface, about all the details and optical adjustments in the type design, and my mind was blown. Through my na ïve love of drawing I had stumbled into this rich and diverse field that I was just starting to discover. Design has held my interest ever since and always offered new facets to explore and learn about. That’s what I love about the field I am working in. From graphic design, I moved on to interaction design, information architecture and user experience. Now I am almost back full circle at my initial love of drawing: I sketch a lot in my work, and I teach others how to use sketching as a rapid technique to make thinking, communicating, and collaborating more engaging and efficient. So, in some way, you could say I am having the job that I always wanted. I think that to a large extent, design is an improvisation process. Usually, in the beginning, you don’t know what you will make in the end. You start by exploring what is there, the situation, the problem, the constraints, and then you work your way through, building on what you discovered, iterating, learning, and adapting until you get to the final product. You have a bunch of tools and skills that you develop over the years that help you in different situations that you encounter, but you always mix them in a different way to adapt to the situation. This is how improvisation works. Having an improvisation mindset is a big advantage for a designer because you can handle the ambiguity and uncertainty that is inherent in the design process and respond to it in a playful way to create new and unexpected solutions. And, of course, there is also a huge parallel between improvisation and sketchnoting. As sketchnoting is a real-time process where you have to make a lot of decisions on the spot and develop visual metaphors and structures on the f ly, you could call it a form of visual improvisation. Alma: While in school, either at the undergraduate or graduate level, were you instructed on how to sketch in your particular design discipline? Was there a class for it? Eva: In the two foundational years of graphic design at my first university, we had drawing classes once a week. It was about drawing more from an artistic or illustrative angle, I’d say. We would draw from nature— different objects, figures, scenes, architecture or animals at the zoo. It was all about training the eye and the hand. Sharpening observation and finding your own interpretation and quality of the line. My professor was very open and let us experiment. I loved these classes and I learned a lot about making marks, line quality, and creating tension and balance in a composition by experimenting and critiquing work on a weekly basis. I was never formally taught in “design sketching” or sketching for organizing thoughts or developing ideas though. Using sketching in my

Interviews: Designers on sketching  81

design process as a UX designer and using it for visual thinking or ideation was something that I developed much later, and I basically figured it out by myself as I went along. Today, I teach workshops about sketching as a practical thinking tool. It is so powerful and yet, many people don’t dare trying it, because they think, that they can’t draw and that they need an “artistic talent” to learn it. Many people are held back by the idea that sketching and drawing is something artistic, with the ultimate goal to make something. Of course, this is a misconception—or let’s say a very limited view of what drawing can be. In my world, sketching is a very functional and practical tool that helps you to organize and express your thoughts. In my workshops, the first step is to give people the permission to draw something that is not beautiful. Alma: Have you always sketched? In college for design classes, sketches might have been required, but when did you start sketching as a personal commitment, as a way to keep practicing your creativity, or as a way of thinking? Do any of these sketches or doodles make their way to a professional job? Eva: I have been drawing all my life, you can say. I loved drawing since childhood and as I mentioned, it was my main driver to start studying graphic design. There was stretch of five or six years, though, when I stopped drawing almost completely. After having sketched all the time at the university and carrying a sketchbook with me all the time, I started working as an information architect and interface designer and did not sketch or draw during the first few years of working. All of my work was made for and on a computer. I didn’t use sketching much in my design process and didn’t have much time or energy outside of work to keep drawing up as a hobby. I rediscovered drawing when I started attending design conferences. I had always taken notes in a more visual way, sketching small pictures or diagrams in addition to the written notes, to get a better overview of a topic or to make a quick simplified copy of design I had seen and wanted to remember. I also used this technique when trying to note down the interesting points from the conference talks. Around the time of the first design conference I attended, in 2006 or 2007, I saw some notes from Mike Rohde on Flickr that looked very similar to what I was doing. He labeled them “sketchnotes.” I thought: “Hmmmm, there seems to be a name for what I am doing. Why not use it as well.” That’s how I “officially” started sketchnoting. Over time I got more and more interested in capturing and organizing information visually in real-time and through sketchnoting at talks; sketching slowly re-entered other areas of my work.

82  Interviews: Designers on sketching

Alma: Talk about the structure of your sketches Eva: The main problem when sketchnoting a talk live is that you don’t know what is coming. Even if the presenter implies a structure, by naming her talk “The five golden rules of xyz” or by telling the audience that they are going to talk about three problems or ten tricks, it’s not guaranteed that there will be exactly this expected number of neat and interesting pieces of information to capture. Speakers go on tangents, there might be lots of interesting side points you want to capture, and some of the speakers’ points might not be relevant enough for you to note. You just never know. And this is where the improvising mindset is very helpful. You stay present, you listen, and you build your sketchnote as you go along. Sometimes a structure emerges, sometimes it does not. I don’t think it is a good idea to “pick” a structure to stick to before the talk, because you don’t know if it will fit and it might lead you to limit what you capture just to make it fit into the structure. It is not about creating a perfect layout but about capturing the key points that are interesting to you. In my workshops I put the focus on using visual hierarchy to build structure instead of using pre-defined spatial arrangements. The most important thing is to get good at extracting the important pieces of information; to re-phrase them into sharp succinct statements, note them down in nice compact chunks of text; and to consistently use different size, boldness, color, and styles of writing to pull out the keywords and main points. I encourage people to not worry too much about where on the page they put the information, but to pay attention to how they shape it visually. When adding a new chunk, I suggest they think about how it relates to what is already on the page (and not what might still come), choose a good place, put it down, and move on. They can always add structural elements like frames, connectors, and dividers at the end of the talk when they have a better overview over the material. When you are working live, you have to relax and take things as they come. You need to embrace “mistakes” and things that don’t seem to fit. But that’s also the beauty of sketchnoting. Over time you will build more strategies and intuition for working with the uncertainty, for creating structure in the unknown, as well as learn how to relax and play with the material. Alma: Do you keep a sketch journal or sketchbook? Eva: I have several notebooks in different stages of usage. But I sketch a lot on just loose sheets of A4 paper or any kind of paper that is close. I admire people who have very neat sketchbooks. I wish I had the discipline of always be sketching in a sketchbook so that everything is together in one place, but it never quite works out for me.

Interviews: Designers on sketching  83

I think one reason is that I feel less pressure to sketch something great when I just use loose of sheets. Another big advantage of sketching on loose sheets is that you can lay them all out next to each other to compare different versions or see the bigger picture. You can easily hang them up on the wall and discuss with other people, rearrange, exchange, and add to them. And scanning is also a breeze when you have a scanner with automatic paper feed. Alma: How do you use sketches in your professional life? Eva: I use sketching a lot in my professional life. Sketching is an integral part of my thought and communication process. I’d compare it to writing as a skill in terms of its usefulness and versatility. I sketch to understand and think through a problem in the beginning of a project. I sketch with other team members to brainstorm and develop ideas in a tangible way in the early stages of a project. I use sketching in meetings and chats with stakeholders to explain the ideas and solutions we developed. I sketch when I need to develop an outline for a talk I am giving or workshop I am teaching. The occasions when I sketch are manifold. I have one sure rule though to determine when it’s time to go from sketching to developing a design on the computer: when you start to sketch the same things over and over again, just with slight variations and you get really bored by it, then it’s a sure sign that you should get to the level of fidelity that is way better handled on a computer than on a piece of paper. Alma: Do you see a parallel between drawing, sketching, doodling, calligraphy, lettering, and writing? Eva: Yes, the main parallel is that they are all about making marks. I like to make a difference between the words drawing and sketching. For me, drawing is more related to making art, like drawing landscapes or still-lifes. It is a slower, almost contemplative process that is about observing your subject closely, noticing and capturing nuanced details, and creating an accurate portrait of the real world. Sketching is faster and looser. It is less of a representation tool and more of a thinking tool. Sketching is about trying to extract the essence of a thing and distilling it into a few lines on paper. It is about figuring something out, about solving a problem with the help of putting marks on a piece of paper as cornerstones and reminders of the thinking process. The main goal of sketching is not to produce a beautiful drawing, but to gain new insights through the activity itself. Sometimes people refer to sketchnoting as doodling. I don’t agree with this view. For me doodling is drawing for the sake and joy of drawing, without thinking, just letting the pen wander over the paper while the mind might wander in a different direction. I doodle a lot as well. It is a beautiful and relaxing thing to do. It’s almost a form of mark making

84  Interviews: Designers on sketching

meditation—a great way to practice being present and to follow wherever the line is leading you. But when I am sketchnoting, I am not doodling. My mind is not wandering, but it is laser-focused on listening, and synthesizing information, while my hand turns the processed chunks into visual representations on the page. Alma: Do you see yourself sketching more or less as you have gained experience as a designer? Eva: I am sketching more these days than I did in the earlier years of my career. Sketching is a great tool for thinking about problems on a highlevel, and to figure out big pictures, overall structures, and the underlying systems. As I progressed as a designer, the types of problems I am helping to solve have gotten more high-level and structural, more strategic than tactical. Sketching also helps me to stay on the right level of fidelity to see a problem as a whole and not to get lost in the details too quickly. Over the years I have also grown more comfortable with sketching as a tool. It’s now as natural for me as writing something down.

Eva-Lotta Lamm’s sketchnotes    

FIGURE 3.33 Eva-Lotta

Lamm, “Sketchnotes.” 2017.

FIGURE 3.34 Eva-Lotta

Lamm, “Sketchnotes.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.35 Eva-Lotta

Lamm, “Sketchnotes.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.36 Eva-Lotta

Lamm, “Sketchnotes.” 2017.

Interviews: Designers on sketching  87

Barbara Trippeer Fashion illustrator and professor Barbara currently teaches at the University of Texas. Her experience ranges from working at JCPenney, Target, and May Corporation as a research designer. Alma: Did you always want to be a fashion designer, or did you do something else before that? Fashion illustration? Barbara: As a young person, I was always interested in illustration. I took a workshop at Moore College of Art on fashion illustration and that brought me to design school. At the same time, I was also taking knitting and weaving at the Philadelphia College of Textiles. I always approached fashion illustration from a two-dimensional perspective rather than a three-dimensional perspective. While most get into the fashion illustration from a sewing background, I had come into the field wanting to draw the images. I was fascinated with fashion illustration and I wanted to replicate those images on paper. Alma: When you were taking classes was your education heavy on sketching? Barbara: I would say that yes, my education was more focused on sketching. I had been training in the traditional fine arts, life, model, and figure drawing, but quickly realized that I had to relearn everything I had learned in a new style. Therefore, I struggled during my freshman and sophomore years in making that transition because my training was traditional and open to exploration. Many of my faculty advisors thought that I should pursue a studio art-based discipline because there was a learning curve for me. I thoroughly enjoyed rendering, abstraction, nature, and accuracy in life drawing. I had to learn to adjust these things into a very tight form of illustration. I preferred pastels and oil paints but I had to learn to use gouache while manipulating the line. Gouache paint texture is something between acrylics and watercolors, and it felt different than oil pastels. I was also used to work on very large sizes, and I had to learn to draw in tighter constraints. The school trained us on was what was called “Parsons paper,” which is the quality of paper that is between a watercolor paper and press paper. We used this paper because our primary medium to render was gouache. I think the paper size was like 10 × 12 inches or something in the middle. I was struggling to fit within those confined restrictions. I was used to a lot of freedom and exploration. The way that I was trained to do fashion illustration was very structured. The school had a satellite campus in Paris and the instructors gave me more freedom and allowed me to work with collage. We could do any size we wanted, whatever was going to work best for your portfolio instead of working at specific sizes. I was able to find my voice again through that process and hit my breakthrough my junior year. My illustration then achieved the quality that in my mind I wanted to achieve. Alma: You mentioned in the emails that there are different types of sketches in the industry.

88  Interviews: Designers on sketching

Barbara: Yes, there are different types of sketches. In the development stage we do so very similar to what they use in graphic design, or you’re doing little small impressions trying to work out details.We often call them thumbnails, which is a term that the designers use for the figure. There’s also, if you’re doing multiple iterations, we’ll call them little croquis, or sketches, but it’s really an iterative design thinking in the sense that you are working out a concept or an idea for a product. Maybe it could be a detail on a product, too. For example, if I’m developing a mesh, I’m going to come up with all the different variations between two pieces—one piece and anything in between of that mesh.Which is a working out of the ideas to help guide you to get into more of a finalized solution.You might need to do 25, 50 sketches or more before settling on the final outcome, and then put it into a more perfected version of the sketch. When you put it into a more perfected version of the sketch, we have three methods or drawing styles that we use at that point—and I’m still talking flat sketch, which is essentially what the garment would look like if it were just laid out flat on a table in proportion, and there are the float sketches to give an impression to the future sample maker, future pattern maker, and also to use it as a selling tool for the buyer. Then there’s another version of that called fluff, which makes the garment look like it is dancing, or it is animated, but without a figure inside of it because it is a stylized sketch. It communicates an attitude. It’s rendered and it looks edited.   Alma: Interesting. Does that include a mannequin or a figure? Barbara: It could be a partial body. That’s how apparel is communicated in the fashion illustration industry. You would send it out for advertising purposes. For example, if there’s a spread of women’s daily-wear, the designer might submit their fashion illustration too as part of how they’re selling their collection along with their mood board. Or they may have fashion illustrations up on the wall which are part of their process and thumbnails. Alma: I’m assuming that there’s no digital. Barbara: We live in a digital world and the way that these illustrations work is that there is a blending of techniques. At this stage in time, the successful fashion illustrator will move between those hand skills and digital skills in the same way that a graphic designer will move between incorporating some of their hand skills or hand lettering into a font that they later develop. The work may start with a hand piece, scanned, and modified in Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator. But sometimes it works in the reverse. Sometimes they’re bringing in a digital image, or a photograph of their garment on the form while it’s being developed, and then they start doing hand sketches from it. It really works both ways. I also assign a notebook project. It allows the students to blend the analog and digital to record ideas. The designer’s notebook is kind of a collage composite of different things. There are artifacts, scraps of fabric, techniques that they’ve come up with a trim, or a full day methodology. Maybe it’s a lace, maybe there are pictures of the form they were draping or building. Or maybe it is a piece of a pattern that they wanted to create and then there are sketches and illustrations. It’s really this working diary.

Interviews: Designers on sketching  89

Alma: When you assign a project, do you assign a number of sketches, or do you tell them, as well, as long as it takes? Barbara: I have worked with a lot of different faculty members. There are different opinions on that. Some instructors assign a number. The goal is having a lot of prolific output and quality output. I’ve always challenged the students that they need to have quality pages of work. I use the magic number of six pages. Yes, of course, there are going to be those that only show up with six pages.They’ll say that’s what you asked for. I have found that if one challenges students to do 100 thumbnails, at a certain point, they’re just doing busy work and that’s not really the goal of the assignments. The goal is to come up with really a new way of thinking, a new way of working, and some really great original ideas. I give them feedback on what they’re presenting. Alma: It’s quality pages in that notebook that you were talking about. I imagine that the six pages have to be really fleshed out, I would say busy looking. Barbara: The goal is that they are busy looking. The challenges of the digital devices are that some of the fine motor and hand skills are lost in the process. They leave them behind when they start pursuing perfection. I am trying to get them back to the use of the hand skills. When they graduate, they’ll have a beautiful portfolio, but they will also have a very rich notebook that elevates them from everybody else who’s applied for those jobs. Alma: How do you grade the notebook, the design diary? Barbara: One of the attributes that I grade is the level of exploration and how far did they take their ideas. It is very hard to say how creative or how original you are. But you can quantify it, with attributes like a research component and the level of development that they were able to achieve. Alma: Do you see a relationship between doodling, drawing, and sketching? Do you see them as similar things or do you see them as different? Barbara: I see a relationship between the drawing and doodling. Alma: How do you define them? Do you think that sketching is a form of drawing, doodling, or scribbling? Barbara: I believe that there’s something to be said about developing your own style and your own way of working things out. That style or method comes with the process. I advise my students to observe a lot. Similar to graffiti artists, who are actually a great example. When you live in New York City, you would always make sure that you have a little pocket notebook with you because if you saw someone wearing a great hat, you’d take a note of that. Or as you passed a particular style event that called your attention. It’s similar to a journaling process that allows the students to work out unconscious ideas. I think that’s very important to do and it is a safe place to allow ideas to unfold. It’s a good thing to be challenged with sketching and drawing to achieve a more professional look. Taking visual notes constantly of the world around you allows the student to develop their skills. Doodling, it’s a free or loose or an open process. Doodling is creating some free lines. I compare it to the word croquis in their notebook. It’s less serious. There’s no final outcome attached to what they need to produce.

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Barbara Trippeer’s sketches         

FIGURE 3.37 Barbara Trippeer, “Flat

sketches/studies.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.38 Barbara Trippeer, “Croqui

studies.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.39 Barbara Trippeer, “Gesture

drawing study.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.40 Barbara Trippeer, “Gesture

study of live model.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.41 Barbara Trippeer, “Historical

FIGURE 3.42 Barbara Trippeer, “Iterative

study.” Unknown date.

studies.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.43 Barbara Trippeer, “Iterative

studies.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.44 Barbara Trippeer, “Iterative

studies.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.45 Barbara Trippeer, “Notebook

studies.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.46 Barbara Trippeer, “Notebook

studies for Air France uniforms.” Unknown

date.

FIGURE 3.47 Barbara Trippeer, “Gesture

drawing.” Unknown date.

96  Interviews: Designers on sketching

Brandon Gibbs Designer and innovator  

FIGURE 3.48 Brandon

Gibbs, designer and innovator.

Brandon and I met through mutual contacts on Instagram. We started to follow each other’s work and I became increasingly interested in the sketches he was posting. The sketches looked very much like architectural sketches. I asked him if he would like to talk about his sketches and process and we decided to meet in person. We met at a local coffee shop and we talked for quite some time. Brandon works at McCown Design, an emerging design studio and residential practice. What follows is our conversation, which I found to be a stimulating mixture of philosophy and design. Alma: Did you attend art and/or design school? When? Brandon: Yes, I attended Pratt Institute in New York. Then, I attended graduate school in London. Alma: Were you instructed on how to sketch in your particular design discipline? Was there a class for it? Brandon: We had drawing classes. In those classes we would draw still life, figure drawing, and anatomy. There was an emphasis in process and analysis. We would create diagrams and sketches from photographs. We also had a design tutor. During our last year, we had to choose a project to develop through sketches weekly. We learned to draw in perspective and in 3D. Our sketches would be developed in three states: plan, section, and perspective.

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We were also exposed to different methods. Sketching was our homework. We had to keep up with it. Alma: How did you come to an understanding that sketching was a preliminary step to the final solution? Brandon: I think that during those classes we developed the idea that sketching was essential for the final solution. But there is a difference between the client model and the art model. In the client model, we would work in teams with a coach. In the art model, it is you and your imagination. In the client model we focus in collaborating with the client, we explore options, and we make recommendations. In this model, there is not a lot of freedom. There is always that tension between form and function. I believe that architecture is inhibited in innovation when people do not sketch because they are restricted by function. The market gives you outlets, but the ideas do not need to be restricted by the market. Alma: What does sketching mean to you? How do you define sketching? Brandon: Sketching is imaginative. It is about finding ways to make things work together. It is about searching to find a moment full of emotion. It is about penetrating through failures to find these moments of emotion while aiming for an idea. Architecture, like other design fields, is brought forth by risk takers. Architects create moments in space filled with light and form. Similar to film making where moments are created to touch your emotions. Alma: Have you always sketched? In college for design classes, sketches might have been required, but when did you start sketching as a personal commitment, as a way to keep practicing your creativity, or as a way of thinking? Do any of these sketches or doodles make their way to a professional job? Do you see yourself sketching more or less as you have gained experience as a designer? Brandon: We are always sketching, whether it is in our minds or on napkins. Our minds are filled with ideas and thoughts. But as you grow older you can sketch less because you are more acquainted with sketching as a language. It is similar to playing chess. The greatest players remember their best games. Sketching is like that. Alma: How do you use sketches in your professional life? Brandon: I see sketching as something that needs time to be developed. There is never just one sketch. One sketch is part of a lineage or part of a larger picture. Sometimes hours or days are needed to work back and forth between ideas. Each building is, in essence, a development of one idea that is expanded; it was developed over time. A sketch may be just about the space, another may be about the details, and another about the lighting. Sketching is a powerful tool of expression because you can spend time with just one line, no rushing through to develop it. Alma: Do you keep a sketch journal? Brandon: I keep several sketch journals as laboratory of my work, as well as more pragmatic sketchbooks for particular projects. I also go through

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sketching here and there on trace paper to solve several problems throughout the week. Building great ideas requires several iterations and layering my sketch process is integral to design. Alma: Do you think sketching is drawing? Brandon: I think there is a difference between sketching and drawing. Sketching is just marking about ideas whereas a drawing is a step above each; like an intermediary between the idea and the final product. Sketching is like a dance where everybody participates. You may be finishing a sketch that someone else started. Sketching is an ideology: you can sketch with anything. Drawing, however, is a technique that requires more visual tools. I think comparing sketching to drawing is to limit sketching. In sketching you are pursuing form, chasing form, and you are building. I would say that sketching is a form of exploratory drawing and the drawing is like putting a tracing paper over that sketch to finish it. Sketching helps you see and draw but accuracy is not the pursuit. Sketching has a human element to it, like a new way of seeing things, and that allows for the person to add their own expression. There is power in the expression of sketches.

Brandon Gibbs’s sketches      

FIGURE 3.49 Brandon

Gibbs, “Sketch.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.50 Brandon

Gibbs, “Sketches.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.51 Brandon

Gibbs, “Sketches.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.52 Brandon

Gibbs, “Sketches.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.53 Brandon

Gibbs, “Sketches.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.54 Brandon

Gibbs, “Sketches.” Unknown date.

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David Kadavy Designer and author of The Heart to Start and Design for Hackers David Kadavy is a former designer who now writes for a living about creativity, productivity, and loving your work. His books, The Heart to Start and Design for Hackers have become best sellers. I read The Heart to Start and could not put it down. It is beautifully written, personal, and relatable. An interesting note is that David was my student at Iowa State University. He reminded me of this after I replied to one of his weekly emails to which I have been subscribed for a long time. Alma: Did you attend art and/or design school? David: Yes, I did. I went to Iowa State University. I went to a school in the middle of Nebraska called University of Nebraska at Kearney for the first year and then transferred. That was 1997 through 2002. I went to college for five years and I got my degree, my MFA in graphic design. Alma: Were you instructed on how to sketch in your particular design discipline? Was there a class for it? David: There wasn’t a particular class for sketching. There were several classes for drawing, basic drawing, and then there was drawing level two and then, and then life drawing. As far as sketching goes, I do remember there being some projects, particularly at the first school at Kearney where we were instructed to come up with 100 different sketches of an idea for an apple. These were thumbnail sketches. The idea was to practice getting as many ideas out there as possible. I imagine the goal was to stop any hesitation that one might have about certain ideas. That was the extent that I can recall of there being instruction specifically about sketching. Alma: How did you come to understand that sketching was a preliminary step to the final solution? David: We had to submit a process book for every project. The process book would show our thought process and it would involve a lot of sketching, of course. I think very slowly through that emphasis on process; I did come to discover that trying to come up with the perfect solution right away is not always the right way. Sometimes you have to come up with several solutions that are roughed out, and then allow those ideas to incubate and iterate on it. Unfortunately, it took me a long time to learn that. Alma: When did you become a designer and/or artist? David: Well, I mean, I guess I first did professional work in college. I remember doing some stuff through the practicum class and even working out. Then, I did something for a client outside of the class and it was sort of an exercise, but then that client did end up hiring myself and a couple of other design students.

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In the practicum class we had different clients who would come into the class and we would create things for them. In a professional sense it would be then that I became a designer. I went to design school because I liked art and I liked drawing, but I didn’t really know what design was. I didn’t really know what I was getting into. I just thought, oh, I can get a job doing this. Alma: What was your first job in the role of creating? David: My first full time job was the summer of 2000. I worked at an architecture firm as their first graphic designer in the office. That involved designing visualizations of their work, designing brochures, designing interactive CDs, designing and maintaining the company website, and designing for clients as well. Alma: Where are you in your career? David: I’m not a designer anymore. I don’t consider myself that. I consider myself to be a writer. About the time that I wrote my first book, which was on design, and got my first book deal in 2010, that was the moment that I stopped working and doing design work for clients. I did my own design work internally for my own company and now I’m trying to get to where I’m not writing about design so much. Which doesn’t leave a lot of time for doing design work. I’ve changed careers. I’m a writer now. Alma: Was this position what you always wanted—in other words— where you do the job you had envisioned for yourself ? David: No. I always envisioned myself designing fancy advertising for Versace. I interviewed at places like that up in Minneapolis and Duffy. I envisioned working for an advertising firm and the more that I learned about it, the more that I realized that it wasn’t the type of work I wanted to do. I didn’t really believe in what they were using design for. I wasn’t excited about making ads for soda or luxury cars. It just didn’t excite me. But I never envisioned being a writer. I didn’t enjoy writing even when I was going to school and growing up. No, I could have never foreseen where I am today. Alma: Have you always sketched in college for design classes? Sketches might have been required, but when did you start sketching as a personal commitment as a way to keep practicing your creativity or as a way of thinking? Do any of these sketches or doodles make their way to a professional job? David: I always thought of it as drawing, or I guess it’s hard to make the distinction between sketching and drawing, but when I was younger had a sketchbook and would draw things in there from my imagination or sometimes I might draw a still life or I would copy a picture from a magazine that I was reading or something like that. I do very little sketching now. I am mostly writing. Sometimes I’ll sketch out like a diagram or a mind map or if I’m trying to think through something that requires me to think visually, I will sketch. My personal commitment as a way to keep practicing my creativity is to write every day.

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Alma: Do you keep a sketch journal? David: No. Alma: What does sketching mean to you? David: Sketching is making a rough—exercising an idea through a rough visualization of that idea. In many ways when I write, I am sketching because I’m giving myself permission to draw something to explore. The sketch itself is not the product. This sketch is the exercising of the synapses in your brain to make those connections and to do the thinking. Sketching is like writing. And writing, like sketching, is training wheels for thinking. I write often, especially a first draft. I have a ritual where I write a bunch every morning and then delete it. It’s really just about exercising my brain to envision a more polished final product. Sometimes that doesn’t happen at all, but it’s just that, that process. I think that that’s the same process when you’re sketching and drawing since when you are a writing, you’re writing a rough draft and you’re trying to exercise those ideas. I guess that’s what sketching is, giving yourself permission to suck. I’m in pursuit of exercising an idea. Alma: How do you use sketches in your professional life? David: I don’t use sketches in the drawing sense, or in my professional life, but in my writing. I write rough drafts, doing this free writing in the mornings, and then throw it away. I am giving myself permission to write things that are extremely imperfect. Alma: Do you see yourself sketching more or less as you have gained experience as a designer? David: As a designer, definitely. I was sketching less and less as time went on to the point where I might just do a couple. I got better at envisioning the solution that I wanted. As I got better, I did not have to do too many sketches and then arrived at the solution much more quickly—I think thanks to exercising that process in my mind and having those training wheels for how I’m envisioning things basically, which is what sketching is. Alma: How do you define sketching? David: It is a rough ideation that is not a final product. Alma: Do you, do you see parallels between sketching, doodling, and writing? David: I think the distinction between sketching or doodling is that when you’re sketching, you are exploring in the hopes of reaching a solution, and when you’re doodling, you’re really doing what I would call brain surfing, which is you’re just going with whatever is on your brain or your mind, and wherever your mind is taking you. You are following that and putting that on the page, and you don’t have a goal in mind. Then writing, I think writing is actually a big part of the process. I think writing is highly underrated in design. I think that you put yourself at a huge disadvantage if you aren’t writing because writing requires

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thinking and the act of writing improves your thinking. If you aren’t writing, in some ways, you aren’t thinking. Alma: Do you see sketching as an umbrella term for drawing, doodling, scribbling? David: No, I don’t. I see it as … as its own thing, as a rough ideation in the pursuit of a solution. Alma: Do you think sketching is drawing? David: Maybe drawing is the umbrella term for doodling and scribbling and sketching. Perhaps, but then also there’s the idea of drawing something like technically drawing it, trying to reach realism, or trying to reach some kind of style, and trying to create a finished product. Alma: Why do you think not everybody sketches? David: I think that there’s a lot of shame around doodling, like you’re not supposed to doodle. You’re not supposed to doodle in class. You know, the teacher’s going to castigate you for that. I’ve seen studies before where if somebody’s doodling while they’re listening to a lecture, they remember more. I could see how that could technically work because it would give you an experience, a sensation, and a visual to associate with whatever you’re hearing at the moment that you are doing that doodling. Why do I think not everybody’s sketches? I think it’s because we’re perfectionists, we have a tendency to envision a final product, and none of us can create that final product without creating some sort of rough version of that final product first, unless we are an absolute master. But we can’t become a master if we don’t give ourselves the permission to do a rough, to fail. To do a less than perfect a version of something, before we arrive at, at the final product. Alma: When did you start doodling in classes or keeping a sketchbook with you at all times? David: That’s not something that I ever really did a lot of. I … I do remember in college finally giving myself the permission to keep a sketchbook or journal thanks to seeing a talk by Michael Brailey, who’s a great designer. I keep a notebook with me, but depending on how you define sketching and whether writing is sketching. Now, I’m actually exploring keeping even tinier little books in my pocket. It’s not for sketching but for an inbox for tasks or things that I’m thinking about and being able to quickly capture them. Then I’d triage them later and put them in different places. Alma: Did you ever stop sketching? If so, explain. And why did you start again? David: Yeah, that would be because I stopped doing design work. When I wrote design for hackers [Design for Hackers], there was a point where I took my conceptualization of how I understood design working, because for me it was very formulaic.

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It doesn’t have to be that way for everybody, but my understanding of design was very formulaic. I reached the end of my curiosity for design and recorded that conceptualization in the book. Sometime around that time I lost interest in design. And then, lost the necessity to sketch very much.

David Kadavy’s sketches  

FIGURE 3.55 David

Kadavy, “Sketch.” Unknown date.

Interviews: Designers on sketching  107

Denys Mishunov Senior front-end engineer at GitLab  

FIGURE 3.56 Denys

Mishunov, front-end developer and illustrator.

Denys Mishunov is an independent front-end developer, writer, and as I like to call him, an “accidental illustrator” living in Norway. He has worked at a dozen of international companies involved in projects that allowed him to hone his skills as a developer. His illustrations and drawings are often used on his talks and articles. I met Denys through my job as a design editor at Smashing Magazine. One of the perks of working at Smashing is meeting great and creative people like Denys. Sometimes the conversation we start as editor and author continues on other channels, like Twitter. Denys and I have been supporting each other

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online for some time now. When I asked Denys if he would like to be part of the interviews for the book, he was more than happy to oblige. Our conversation was very casual, with lots of laughter, and even dogs barking in the background. Below is our conversation about sketching, his views, and practice. Alma: How did you become a front-end developer? Denys: Well, once upon a time … the university in Ukraine—where I happened to get my education—desperately tried to make an engineer out of me. I enjoyed a lot of things about studying at the university, but it was late in the process when I realized that the prospect of becoming an engineer was not one of those enjoyable things. Simply because engineering in Ukraine back then was in a very poor state. At some point during my third year at the university I decided to work on plan B for my future. I saw a computer for the first time at my mother’s work in the early 90s. It was a huge monster produced in the USSR, taking the whole room for its processor while having computing power lower than the phone in my pocket. Yet, I thought that working with computers must be cool. My choice of major at the university was more or less connected to this idea. My diploma still says something to the effect of “Computer Engineer” and theoretically I had to produce computers. However, this is only in theory. My plan B for the future involved working with computers, not producing them. After waiting tables for several months in my hometown Yalta, I managed to buy my first computer. It was a set of spare parts with which I had to assemble the actual computer (that one time when my education helped me). After a while, I started learning programming, believing that it would be a much more useful skill compared to engineering in Ukraine. I did my best programming, but I started looking at this emerging thing called “the Web.” Now it might seem ridiculous, but in 2003 it was impossible to get licensed books in English in Ukraine. But I was able to acquire a copy of Jeffrey Zeldman’s Designing with Web Standards. After I started reading, I was captured by this front-end and web standards ideas. I realized that this was what I wanted to do. I realized that programming has to do with the back end, and it is something that sits under the hood. Nobody really sees it, and nobody really cares about it as long as the surface, the front-end side of a project, works. I wanted to do something that people see and can actually interact with. I started learning the front-end technologies. Front-end development and design were attractive to me because even before entering the university, I had graduated from art school. The company I started to work at after graduation had a web development department. Their web developer quit, and they asked me if I would be willing to try it. I jumped at the opportunity. I found print design boring and

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limiting. I got started with web design for a content management system called Plone that was used by that company. Ever since then I became involved in the front-end development, working with different areas of front-end toolset: from web design, converting it to HTML, CSS development, and developing complex JS applications. Alma: How did you start doing the storytelling with your drawings? Denys: After I graduated from art school in 1996, I didn’t do any drawing for a while. When I met my now-wife, I wanted to do some beautiful things and I got back to aquarelle and oil painting. It was rewarding and I felt like it was probably one of the things that I was missing in my life. I wanted to express what I felt in visuals. But using oils on canvas and doing illustrations when you are a front-end developer are two different things. I needed to figure out where to apply my interest to create visuals. I started sketching some things in a notebook doing some illustrations and logos here and there. Things came together for me in 2015. I had this idea for an article, and you happened to be the editor for it. I thought if I populate my article with a lot of code snippets or something like that it will be boring for people to read. It is usually very boring to read code of others. I started to think about how can I give the article more strength using the visuals instead? Is it possible at all to add visuals that won’t make a technical article look silly or childish? In order to control the message I had to send with the article, I decided that I would employ my own illustrations. Naturally enough, I was very stressed because I felt that they looked very amateur. I had a conversation with my wife about drawing and painting, and she expressed her concern that she didn’t know how to draw. I’m biased, but I personally really like her drawings very much. And it struck me: drawing is not about whether you know how to do it or not. It’s about expressing our ideas in a visual form. It’s like whatever you think is good, whatever you think has to be expressed right now, it is already good. I felt that this is exactly the approach that I have to take with the illustrations for the article. I started drawing the way I thought was right. At some point in the process, the drawings transformed into deliberately low-fi illustrations done in a fast pace. It gave a personal touch to the article after all. Eventually, the illustrations have migrated to all my talks and all my articles. The cartoonish style I use is intended to provide a sense of humor in life. I think that whatever information you give to the users, the readers, and the audience, it will always come better with a bit of humor and a personal touch: this way the information you provide sticks better in the minds of your readers. Alma: I remember the illustrations in the article. I thought they were awesome.

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Denys: Oh, thank you. I had a lot of doubts, however. But I’m really happy that I got so responsive an editor in you back then! I’m glad that we actually did this even though it was quite unusual. It was a really great feeling and the feedback and response I got on the article, in particular about the illustrations, proved to me that yes, it doesn’t really matter how perfect those illustrations are as long as they support what you’re communicating and as long as they give some personal touch. They’re already good enough and no one knows whether they could be better or not. Alma: Are you creating your own illustrations for every talk that you give or any article that you are writing now? Denys: Yes, for every article, for every talk, I do all my own illustrations. Alma: Your illustrations do add a very personal touch. Do you sketch? How do you keep your sketching practice alive? Denys: These days I don’t have the chance to stop illustrating: I write new articles and I prepare new talks. All of these require me to visualize my ideas. Recently there was a rather big project where I was involved as an illustrator, and I was spending nearly all my free time on it (I still have to do my main job) during some months. For a variety of reasons, the illustrations won’t make it into the printed book. Nevertheless, being involved in projects like these push your boundaries and give you some tasks that pull you out of your comfort zone; it is a really nice way to keep up with the skills and improve. Obviously, sometimes I get tired and just want to take some time off from illustrations. [But] I just cannot stop doing illustrations even though I have lots of work, family, and all of these require time. Doing illustrations really helps me relax my mind. It is something very different from surrounding life. It is like a sandbox where you can be whoever you want, wherever you want, and do whatever you want. Alma: You mentioned in the emails that you don’t sketch in notebooks. Do you sketch on the iPad? Denys: I have some from before when I was doing it just for fun. I also have some sketches that I keep in the form of photos just for history. Nowadays I do not have time to just sketch on paper, so I always do it right away on the iPad. Previously I used a Wacom tablet. But I like that I can take my iPad anywhere I want. There is also one more reason I like illustrating on the iPad. I used to own an iPad Air. It was old and slow. It wouldn’t allow me to dive into details due to the very small screen. I could produce only rough sketches on it. And this is one of the reasons that sometimes my illustrations might look too harsh or not detailed. This is intentional: diving into details might actually get you further from just visually supporting your ideas. Diving into details transforms the sketch or illustration into a standalone piece of art.

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But no matter what hardware I use, I like to have all my sketches and illustrations in one place in digital form. It makes a lot of things simpler: since doing illustrations is not my main job, when I do it, I want to preserve them for as long as possible and have access to them whenever I want/need. Alma: Where do you keep the sketches that you create on the iPad? Do you share your sketches online? Denys: Yesterday when I was preparing for this interview, I was reading about Paul Gauguin. The article said that Gauguin was dreaming about a moment when some journalists would ask him to show his sketchbook. Gauguin vividly imagined how he would pretend being offended and would reply “no” to that. Because for Gauguin, the sketches were something internal to the artist and very personal. I’m not Gauguin. Not even close. But I, too, don’t share sketches usually. As I mentioned, illustration is not my main job. Whenever I do them, they are usually connected to a certain project and context. I think, without these, my sketches would require some explanations. I don’t share my sketches mainly because there would be nothing really interesting in my particular sketchbook. The digital world spoils us. I can make a sketch and if I’m not satisfied with it, I create a new layer in the digital document, and I make a new sketch. It just ends being a stacked document with different sketches on layers. This is the ideal scenario, though. In reality most of these sketches are just tossed away to save memory and hard disk space on my device. This process loses its creative side a bit, unfortunately, but for what I do, there is very little sense in sharing my sketches. In 2012 or 2013, I was working on a logo for local rock band here in Norway. The band is called Diesel Gorilla. I was constantly asking myself, “What should this gorilla look like? Should it be more a gorilla or a diesel?” Back then I was sketching more on paper. I posted the different stages of these illustrations as a photo. It nicely showed the evolution stages of how I ended up from regular gorilla to a real diesel-looking one.     Alma: I’m interested in rough sketches. It’s when the sketch is rough and unfinished that I am interested. I was just reading an article or journal article published in 2003. The author was talking about scientists and how their notes look like scribbles. These scribbles reside in the intermediary space between gaining knowledge and something that you already know. The scribbles fill that gap. I found that fascinating. It gave me another insight into what sketches are. They’re not to attain beauty, but they’re to attain knowledge and to learn even if it is to learn about yourself.

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Denys: That’s an interesting view. I’m not sure I could claim that I’m gaining a lot of knowledge, while I’m sketching though. But illustrating might just be my ritual. Illustrating for me is the matter of expressing my thoughts at that particular moment. Alma: But even when you’re doing that, you’re still trying to solve something. You’re looking for that one thing that you want to look better than before. My sketch process in a project is about how to get to that particular solution. That is the knowledge I am gaining. You do illustrations but each one of them didn’t exist before. They’re a new thing and something you didn’t have before in your arsenal. I think your sketches are probably more interesting than you give yourself credit for. Denys: Well, I hope so. I never thought about my illustrations as standalone works. It’s always in the context of something, something more, something larger like an article, a blog, a book, a deck of slides. Alma: I remember when you did the article, there was this one illustration of this couple in bed. In the context of the article it just blended so well together that it became super funny. Denys: This is exactly what I try to achieve with the illustrations: support the context and be funny where possible. I like when people smile looking at my illustrations. But that illustration in particular was just one of those that might look weird and even insulting without context. I don’t want people to really spend their time thinking about any of my illustrations. I don’t want people to analyze the illustrations: they simply support the context they are in. Alma: So, you’re a front-end developer officially, but you are, shall we say, an “accidental illustrator?” Denys: We could say that. I always try to function on the crossroad between being a developer and somebody who makes interesting things like art and has some creative process. I can take from one side, then take from the other side, and I combine these areas. It is the perfect spot for me. I have passion for illustration. It gives me relief. It allows me to get out of all the problems and all the noise that might bother me in my main job as a developer. Doing illustrations feels like taking a short vacation. Alma: Is there anything that you feel is important for me to know about your process? Denys: Whenever I need to illustrate anything, I go to my terrace with a glass of excellent wine, then spend time with my family, play with the dog, then take a very good sleep, and all my creative ideas come to me naturally while I’m dreaming. Kidding. That would be close to the perfect process, I guess. Unfortunately, I don’t experience anything even close to this. I know there are people for whom things come more natural to them. For me, the creative process is a bit harder usually. To be honest,

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I never thought about what the real process for me is. Whenever I need to do some illustration, I just want to do it and dive right into it. I can’t start analyzing what I want to illustrate because it blocks me right there. If I turn on my brain and go into analytical mode, I will never agree with myself. It’s much easier for me to just do something, feel the f low, follow my feelings, and then I decide whether I hit the heart of it with the illustration or not. It might sound weird and inefficient but that’s how I work. Because it’s very hard for me to turn off my analytical way of thinking. And when it is “ON,” I can spend hours and days just sitting and thinking what to illustrate, and it’s a real disaster. So, for me, it’s much easier to just start doing something. That way I’m already in this process. I can start the illustration and, at some point, realize that I’m going in the right direction or the wrong one. It comes at a gut-feeling level. When I have no idea where to go, I just put the illustration aside and do another one. Or don’t do illustrations at all. The main point is to stop working on that illustration: I usually get better ideas by not thinking about the illustration at all and just do some other stuff. Then, after getting yet another crazy idea, I go back to this illustration. So, if the absence of a process is a process, then this is definitely it: for me, it’s absolutely not defined. I also had some interesting cases where I was illustrating something and already after I was half-way into the work, I was thinking, “Why did I draw that?” But again, I don’t allow myself to analyze too much: if I don’t use it for the current work, I might use such illustration for another project. And usually this is exactly what happens. I have one thing in my approach though. In order to bring the illustrations to life, when I need to draw something, and I have an idea, I simply search for images. Like real photos. For example, right now I’m drawing a panda that has to play an accordion. I don’t have a lot of experience with accordions. So, I just searched for an image of an accordion. I see the picture, I look at the image, and I try to get the ideas of what are the most distinctive features of this object and how they can be used in the illustration in order to support this illustration. I always start with searching for images to get the ideas. Especially if I’m going to illustrate something that I have very little experience with, I do a search for either the real object or the photos of it. Alma: To get the basic shapes down. Denys: Exactly. So that’s probably the only thing that I have well-defined in my process. Alma: Do you need the inspiration or do you need the reference? Denys: Both I guess. Sometimes photos might inspire you and take you in another direction for illustration.

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Denys Mishunov’s sketches   

FIGURE 3.57 Denys

Mishunov, “Gorilla sketches.” c. 2012–2013.

FIGURE 3.58 Denys

Mishunov, “Gorilla sketches.” c. 2012–2013.

FIGURE 3.59 Denys

Mishunov, “Gorilla sketches.” c. 2012–2013.

FIGURE 3.60 Denys

Mishunov, “Gorilla sketches.” c. 2012–2013.

FIGURE 3.61 Denys

Mishunov, “Sketches.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.62 Denys

Mishunov, “Sketches.” Unknown date.

FIGURE 3.63 Denys

Mishunov, “Sketches.” Unknown date.

4 SKETCHING Purpose, attributes, and types of sketches

The act of sketching means slightly different things for different types of ­designers. For some, it is an essential tool to communicate with their team and/ or clients while for others, sketching is ubiquitous and disposable. In this chapter, I will discuss the purpose of sketches, the types of sketches, and their attributes.

The purpose of sketching A common question I hear from students is, “Why do we need to sketch?” Sketching is part of the education of an art and design student and it could be described as an “acquired taste.” For many, sketching for ourselves is a pleasant and enjoyable experience. But, for some students, once the sketches are assigned, they can be a burden. I propose that this is the case because sketching within given parameters is the act of thinking and solving a puzzle, a problem. Thinking is sometimes difficult. Sketching is thinking; visual thinking on paper or similar surfaces. Those marks are both an answer and a question looking for the optimal solution within the parameters we have. It is a type of journey with a defined destination, but the journey does not prescribe exactly what it looks like to arrive at the final result. Every designer will come up with their unique mode to arrive. In the process of making these sketches, there will also be an experimentation with line, shape, and space. This process feeds on itself. Every line begets another, and it grows organically from there. A common piece of advice given to someone who feels stuck is “start with one line” and see where it takes you. Nigel Cross, in his book Design Thinking, describes design thinking as an ability inherent to our humanity. He states, “everyone can—and does—design” (1982: 3). Cross calls this ability “abductive thinking” (1982: 10). In defining abductive thinking, Cross refers to philosopher C.S. Peirce, who states that, “abduction suggests that something may be” (1982: 27). Thus, design thinking,

Purpose, attributes, and types of sketches  119

and by extension sketching, is prescriptive. It creates or envisions a physical example of what was only a thought before. Or it expands on what was there before in order to elevate it. As a prescriptive process, design relies on sketches to guide the final solution. Without a tangible and simple sketch of ideas, the ideas will be transformed differently in everyone’s mind. For instance, a simple concept of a ball will elicit different types of balls in a group of people: a baseball, a basketball, a beach ball, a tennis ball, and so on.   If that concept is expanded upon, the thoughts of the designer are visual, and there is clarity in the communication in that group. Sketching then becomes a facilitator in communication and group discussions. Thus, sketching is a mode of communication between people. I was artistically inclined since childhood and spent a vast amount of time drawing on the back of the pages of my notebooks, and later on became an artist, designer, and design educator. I did not realize I could draw the key concepts or points during a class or lecture. Moreover, there was a certain discouragement in creating these “doodles” while in class. I would draw on my school desk only to erase it before the class was over. Drawing while in class was considered a waste of time, as we are probably familiar with. Worse, if you were drawing you were not “paying attention.” But, something, or rather someone changed my mind. I had a confrontation with a student in a class that I was teaching in Chicago.

FIGURE 4.1 Alma

Hoffmann, “Which ball?” 2019.

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There was this student drawing an intensely detailed monster in the first row, across from me, while I was going over a lecture. I asked him to stop because he wasn’t “paying attention” and he challenged me. He was in disbelief of what I was asking. It was tense enough that the teaching assistant was getting ready to come to my aid. Thankfully, the student put the pencil down and waited until after class to talk to me. When he came to talk to me, he explained that he needed to draw to keep his mind attentive in class. He asked me to quiz him on anything I had lectured. I did not. But I confess on these pages that I had doubts. This exchange intrigued me enough to find out more about this possibility. The experience was tense and left me feeling like a failure as an educator. When the class was over, I walked to the train station and interestingly, a tweet on my feed had a link to a presentation by Eva-Lotta Lamm (2010), who I interviewed in Chapter 3. I clicked and what I found astounded me. I realized how ignorant I had been. Next week in class, I showed the presentation and asked my students to please feel free to use what we do best, sketch, draw, and illustrate, as long as it was content-driven. This student with this detailed little monster drawings changed my agenda. In recent years, sketchnoting has become popular among designers and nondesigners. Sketchnoting is a term coined by Mike Rohde, a user experience designer and author of the bestselling books The Sketchnote Handbook and The Sketchnote Workbook, who I also interviewed in Chapter 3. Sketchnoting is based on the premise that drawing is an effective tool to retain, recall, and record information. Jackie Andrade, Professor of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, conducted a study titled “What does Doodling Do?” In the study Andrade reported that doodling, while listening to information we needed to remember, would help in recalling 29% more information even if the content of the doodling had nothing to do with the information (2009: 100). Thus, sketching can be a means of record keeping and memory facilitation. However, sketching isn’t only to arrive at a solution or destination, or for notetaking or as a memory tool. Sketching also has psychological benefits. Robin Landa is a distinguished professor at Michael Graves College at Kean University. In an article she wrote titled “Draw Yourself Happy: Drawing, Creativity + Your Brain,” Landa reported on several studies about the effects of drawing on the brain. In explaining that when we draw, our brain releases dopamine, which is “associated with increasing creativity and lowering inhibitions,” she quotes Dr. James E. Zull, author of The Art of Changing the Brain: Dopamine is produced in the brainstem, which is the oldest part of the brain evolutionarily speaking, but the dopamine is released in the newest region of cortex, the part that we use to create ideas, make decisions, and plan our actions. Thus, we feel rewarded when we create new objects or actions. And since creativity is based on the decisions made by the creator, the reward system kicks in when we are in control and inventing things that we have thought of ourselves. Freedom and ownership are part and parcel of the neurochemistry of the arts.

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It is interesting to note that sketching, drawing, and/or art journaling is a recommended practice among counselors for victims of trauma and/or abuse. In these cases, the quality of the drawing or sketch is not as important as the act itself. The act of visualizing thoughts, emotions, and feelings in a rough drawing and/or sketch provides an outlet for the person via a stream of consciousness expression. Sketching is a simple, inexpensive, and versatile activity that not only facilitates the creative process, but it also functions as a stress and anxiety relief. But, like any other skill, it needs to be nurtured and practiced. We are inclined to create, but to master something, we need to practice it. As we become more versed in the language of sketching, we will be more f luent and be able to improve our performance.

The design and/or creative process What makes a sketch a sketch? Before discussing the attributes and types of sketches, it would be useful to review the steps in the design and/or creative process. The design and/or creative process can be outlined in steps though it does not necessarily mean it is a linear process. Rather, it is a complex process with many overlaps, zig zags, and a web of connections and ideas. Dr. Karl Aspelund (2015: 6–9) describes the design process as a seven-step process and explains that sketching occurs during the stage of Exploration and Refinement. Steps as listed in his book are: 1. Inspiration 2. Identification 3. Conceptualization 4. Exploration and Refinement 5. Definition and Modeling 6. Communication 7. Production Once the designer has gathered visual inspiration; researched the idea, concept, or problem to solve; researched the context, parameters, and others regarding the problem; the designer then is ready to start an internal and external dialogue with the data he/she has gathered. Sketching is this dialogue between pen and paper and self and data. While the design process is not linear, the seven stages help us to understand the process from point A to point B.   At any given point, we find ourselves going back to the drawing board, the sketchbook, revisiting the data collected, the mood boards, the research, and other sources to either readjust, clarify, establish a better communication with a client or clients or the production team, etc. But what this list allows us to see is that sketching is anchored somewhere in the middle. The act of sketching is the visual expression of gathered knowledge about something. In other words, sketching does not exist in a vacuum or come out of nowhere.

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FIGURE 4.2 Alma

Hoffmann, “Sketch of the design process.” 2018.

There is a continuous, conscious or unconscious gathering of data, information, and divergent ideas or inf luences that somehow coalesce in the designer and/ or artist’s mind to produce a visual. Denys Mishunov, front-end developer and illustrator, states that he needs to find images to help him accurately convey an object, especially when he is not familiar with it. Thus, it is crucial to the process of sketching, regardless of its purpose, to learn and feed the mind in order to give that gathered knowledge a visual and physical reality.

Attributes of sketches Several designers have developed lists of attributes for sketches. These lists are useful for practicing designers, who have had several years of experience in the field. Younger designers, however, need more guidance. Questions such as: how do I sketch type? Do I have to write out every letter on the sketch? What size do I sketch? Do I use color? What paper should I use for my sketches? Because sketching is a process of abstraction, the students need to be guided not only in translating their thoughts to shapes, but also, they need to be guided in finding some of these answers. As an educator, I assign sketches to students because in order to reach a level of eloquence and tightness in the sketch, many sketches will need to be done.  

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FIGURE 4.3 Alma

Hoffmann, “Sketches made while explaining how to sketch type in class.” 2018.

The sketching process is a journey in which a gradual reconciliation between what the designer sees in his/her mind, the desired outcome, and how the hand works out what the mind sees occurs. The ability to skillfully give a thought a visual and physical presence requires practice. This practice is important because it improves the students’ acumen and confidence when solving a problem for a client. Below is the set of attributes that I discuss in class. Note that sketches may fit in more than one attribute and type of sketch. ••

••

Draft (also known as low resolution or low-fi): a low-resolution sketch is a rough and quick drawing of an idea. This could be done with a pencil or marker on a personal sketchbook or journal. Or it can be a quick drawing done to understand a concept, subject, or topic to be studied. For example, if I am explaining to a student how to achieve an effect or where to place things, it is easier to quickly show it on a piece of paper or the board. Detailed: these sketches will offer a guide of what to do when they are transferred to the computer. There will be more detail than in a draft. For example, a large letter will be drawn to understand its relation to the rest of the composition. These sketches will also be useful for anyone else to follow.

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••

•• ••

••

Proportionate to the end result or topic: sketches designed based on the size of the final outcome. For example, if it is a poster in portrait form, the sketch will have a portrait orientation. Monochromatic: sketches with no color. These types of sketches are about studying relationships of space, proportions, and shapes. Geometric abstractions of use of space and text: these sketches will often use visual alignment or an underlying structure to distribute the elements that are being considered (titles, text, logos, photos, shapes, etc.). They need to be clean in their internal organization or maintain structural integrity that can be read by others. Similar to very tight layout designs and to wireframes for website and/or app design. Doodles and scribbles: drawing, doodling, and scribbling are the marks through which the sketch is created but these are not used in a way that looks completed, done, and finished. The sketches are done as a type of

FIGURE 4.4 Alma

Hoffmann, “Sketches done while in a faculty meeting.” 2017.

Purpose, attributes, and types of sketches  125

••

•• •• ••

••

••

conversation between the designer and/or artist when trying to achieve the desired outcome. Small: sketches that are related to the end result, but the sketches are always significantly smaller. Perhaps they are done on a napkin or a very small notebook when traveling or in meetings. Simple: sketches done with any available tools and limited (see monochromatic) color. Can be done in any setting. Prescriptive: sketches that point to something that was not there before: a product, a package, a structure, an illustration, a book design, a logo, etc. Relational: sketches related to a topic or theme. The sketches are related because they share a common prompt or question. Or sketches done during a lecture, class, or meeting. For example, sketchnotes are relational because each graphic mark is responding to the content being presented.  Studies: sketches done with the purpose of comparing different versions of one subject and/or detail. Also, done while trying to establish relationships among the elements of a composition.   Memorization: sketches done to aid in memorizing concepts.  

When the designer decides to further develop a sketch, it is usually refined in the computer. Or, if needed, a new sketch is developed over the selected one on tracing paper to expand and clarify the designer’s intentions. Sometimes an area in

FIGURE 4.5 Karl

Jahnke, “Character studies.” 2017.

FIGURE 4.6 Benjamin

Shamback, “Learning Dutch.” 2018.

FIGURE 4.7 Benjamin

Shamback, “Learning Dutch.” 2018.

Beuys (1921–1986); Energie Plan for the Westman, 1974. Chalk on slate; Overall: 48 × 95 in. (121.9 × 241.3 cm.) © Des Moines Art Center Permanent Collections; purchased with funds from the Gardner and Florence Call Cowles Foundation, 1974. Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines. © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.

FIGURE 4.8 Joseph

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the sketch was not as clear but the sketch had overall potential. Or sometimes the sketch, which is monochromatic, needs to go through quick color studies before moving to production. This list gives the students and I a parameter to help us determine, during in-class feedback, which sketches are the best and which ones do not move forward in the process. The attributes are foundational identifiers of what a sketch is and looks like. Sketching is a visual language. These attributes become the components of that language. As the student becomes more confident in sketching, his/her visual language will improve, and it will provide them with a powerful tool to assert their proposed solutions in the context in which they will be working.

Types of sketches If there are attributes, we will also have types of sketches. It was mentioned earlier in this chapter that a sketch’s purpose is not limited to problem solving. The types of sketches that are created are often related to their purpose. Graphically, they may still look very similar in style, finish, and color, but their purpose sets them apart. In class, these sketches are discussed to help students understand that their mind will work in different ways. Sometimes what seems to be an unrelated doodle or scribble will end up being the solution to a problem or the springboard to another concept. An idea, concept, or a problem may elicit several avenues of thought. This will translate itself to informal marks, or diagrams, or more intentional studies of a certain aspect of a composition. Below are the types of sketches, in no particular order, as I have identified them. Please note that, in

FIGURE 4.9 Karl

Jahnke, “Annotated sketches and studies.” 2017.

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some cases, sketches can be more than one, and be both an attribute and a type of sketch. •• ••

••

••

•• ••

Doodles: doodles are sketches of shapes and shades done in order to keep the mind focused or as a way to meditate. Scribbles: these include annotations and thoughts usually accompanying another sketch or composition. Usually representative of thoughts and ideas after reading or taking some distance from prolonged focused work. Studies: studies are sketches intended to isolate an element in order to gain expertise. They may be a letter, as in the case of a typeface designer, letterer, calligrapher; or a face; a hand; a foot for the painter and illustrator; or a particular type of structure for the architect and engineer, etc. Diagrams: these are the type of sketches usually done in classes, meetings, conferences, and group settings to illustrate a point or concept. Joseph Beuys’ diagram is a great example.  Annotated: sketches that are more based on language than on arrangement of shapes.  Blueprints: these are the type of sketches done by architects, engineers, and interior designers. These tend to feature technical drawing, which needs to conform to standards established by their respective professional organizations and/or governmental regulations. 

FIGURE 4.10 Alma

Hoffmann, “Photo of Harley Davidson blueprint.” 2017.

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FIGURE 4.11 Benjamin

••

••

••

••

••

Shamback, “Thumbnail studies.” 2018.

Wireframes: usually done by web, user experience, and user interface designers to communicate how an app or website will function in several devices and browsers. Or to explain how a site performs when a user clicks on a button, or link. Or to show the range of linked pages and journey through a site, and to assess if the navigation of a site and/or app is clear to users. Thumbnails: these sketches are usually done by artists to gain a general overview of a larger painting or structure. Also done by designers to test out an idea or ideas.  Illustrative: these sketches may have more detail than usual as it performs as a way to allow the designer and/or artist to see what the arrangement and color of each element will perform. Live notes or sketchnoting: these are visual notes that rely on a combination of drawing small icons and graphics and text to capture the essential parts of a lecture, class, meeting, and experience.  Focused or deliberate: these sketches are done as practice to gain expertise on a particular skill. Often done in lettering and calligraphy to gain mastery on how each letter or letters are created, written, and drawn. 

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FIGURE 4.12 Alma Hoffmann, “Live notes during a talk by guest speakers Johnny Gwin

and Stacy Welborne in class.” 2018. ••

••

••

•• ••

••

Problem solving: sketches done with the intent to find a solution to a problem. For instance, a better seat on a bicycle, a friendlier user interface that caters to an international audience, a logo that is fresh and original and responds to the client’s unique business model, etc.  Diary/Journal: done as a way to keep a record of memories, experiences, situations. Similar to a journal. Can be done while traveling to keep a more personal record of the experiences than what photography alone can provide.  Prototypes: finished and polished sketches intended to convey a feeling to a client of what a product or application will look like in a cost-effective manner. Usually done in color. Color: sketches intended to study color relationships before committing to a color palette. Collages: some designers tend to need a tactile experience when thinking about design, an idea, a concept, etc. Their sketches or preliminary work— as we could also call it—tend to be in three dimensions. They create either small collages of cut paper and marks, or they create a three-dimensional small artifact where they layout the elements they need to use.     Watercolor/Ink: in order to block shapes or areas, get an understanding of a composition’s positive and negative spaces, and understand values.

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FIGURE 4.13 Alma

Hoffmann, “Practicing calligraphic strokes creatively.” 2017.

All of these types of sketches are intended to help in distinguishing aspects of the design process. Sometimes we may see the sketching process as a simple and singular path: draw marks on paper, do these thumbnails, and the solution will come. However, a designer may find him/herself exploring several of these types of sketches while trying to come up with the optimal solution for a problem. There are times when the process is easier than others and therefore, the journey between the idea and solution will be short and direct. However, other times, the path is undulated and filled with tangents because the solution seems elusive. Or sometimes the designer may need to intentionally try a new media or method to help in the developing of his/her idea.

FIGURE 4.14 Eva-Lotta

Lam, “Problem solving interaction photo scrolling.” 2017.

FIGURE 4.15 Eva-Lotta

Lam, “Travel diary.” 2017.

FIGURE 4.16 Danielle

Sack, “Study with cut letters.” 2018.

FIGURE 4.17 Danielle

Sack, “Study with cut letters.” 2018.

FIGURE 4.18 Diane

Burk, “Collage sketches.” 2017.

5 SKETCHING Exercises and tools

At the core of the sketching process is seeing the world in shapes and manipulating the line to communicate or to evoke something. Sketching is, therefore, a process of abstraction. Seeing the world in lines and shapes allows the sketcher to construct their own version of the world on the pages of a sketchbook, a notebook, and/or a pad. Every line and shape will inherit a distinctive f lair, style, and personalized meaning. Moreover, as we have seen in previous chapters, the purpose of sketching goes beyond problem solving. For instance, if sketching is integrated in the process of notetaking to create visual notes—currently known as sketchnoting—with shapes drawn to represent a concept, lines used as connectors, bubbles used to enclose quotes, and shading to create hierarchy and dimension, these notes would certainly be more memorable and serve as mnemonic devices for the notetaker (sketcher). In a paper presented at the Annual Eastern Educational Research Association Conference in 1994, titled Personalized Meanings: The Cognitive Potentials of Visual Notetaking, R. Neal Shambaug stated that “self-constructed frameworks are more meaningful than external representations” and “is a metalearning construction made by the learner” (1994: 19). Since 2010, I have embraced visual notetaking (sketchnoting) as my method of taking notes in meetings, classes, sermons even, and I continue to encourage my students to do it. However, questions still bombard us in the process: what to draw, how to draw it, when to shade it, what to enclose in circles or bubbles, and many other similar questions abound. The answer to this is practice, even unrelated practice.   This chapter will discuss basic exercises to help with the sketching process and explain some of the tools we can use. The tools will be covered last because any tool is better than no tool. Though we often feel like we need to have this one tool or that tool to create, that is not correct or true. Eva-Lotta Lamm is known for her belief that any pen is better than no pen (www.evalotta.net/blog/2013/2/19/

Sketching: Exercises and tools  137

FIGURE 5.1 Alma

Hoffmann, “Sketchnotes, Moleskine sketchbook, and pens.” 2019.

f7jvg6pebvlzb433lho8uplf8z5e3i). Make that pencil, marker, pen, paper, notebook, etc. The exercises in this chapter are based on the following sources: •• •• •• •• ••

Draw! A Visual Approach to Thinking, Learning and Communicating. Kurt Hanks, 1990. William Kaufman, Inc. Drawing for Graphic Design. Timothy Samara, 2012. Rockport Publishers. Rapid Viz: A New Method of the Rapid Visualization of Ideas. Kurt Hanks and Larry Belliston, 2008. Course Technology, Cengage Learning. Piccadilly Sketching Made Easy Notebooks. Point and Line to Plane. Wassily Kandinsky, 1979. New York: Dover Publications.

Exercises These exercises are intended to help us see the world around us in basic shapes. They will train our eyes to think in lines and shapes. This is a fundamental skill to sketching. These exercises will also help us create our personalized set of marks

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for future reference when sketching for thinking and analyzing concepts. Some exercises do not need images since they are self-explanatory. I have included images as visual aids in those exercises that are harder to visualize. However, keep in mind that there is no right or wrong answer in the execution of these exercises. Their purpose is to help us be creatively nimble and practice the ability to visualize or imagine what something could look like by trying it out.

Lines Objectives •• ••

Experiment with a variety of lines. Identify and differentiate emotional meaning of each line type.

Grabbing any pencil or pen, make a series of random points on the page. Some far and some close. You will need several pages. As you start connecting these random points, don’t erase them. Work with the mistakes when you make one. Aim to fill each page by following these prompts: •• •• •• •• •• •• ••

Straight lines Curved lines (no hard corners): try to make them as f lowing as possible. Use very light pressure on the tool Diagonal lines Overlapping diagonal lines Segmented lines Thick and thin lines A single line (curved or straight) changing the pressure to create thin and thicker lines

Point, line, and plane Objectives •• ••

Sketch over a photo by identifying the points, lines, and shapes of the image on the photo. Compose a series of compositions using basic elements (points, lines, and shapes).

This exercise is about abstraction. The goal is to reduce and, if needed, alter the photo of the space or building, into the most basic elements: points, lines, and planes. Whether the final composition looks like the photo or not is not important. What is important is to train the eye and the mind to observe the basics: points, lines, and planes, and create something out of that. Find a tracing paper pad for this exercise. Find a photo (no larger than 5 × 7) of a landscape or architecture. Place the tracing paper over it. Mark the boundaries

Sketching: Exercises and tools  139

of the photo. These marks will serve as registration marks. Make the following on separate sheets of tracing paper: ••

••

••

••

Find all the points (every corner or point where implied lines seem to disappear or converge). Mark the points. Some might be smaller or larger than others or thicker. On a separate sheet of tracing paper, find all the lines. Try to make them as clean as you can. The lines can be thicker or thinner, pressure might change on a single line, some may be curved, segmented, etc. On a separate sheet of paper, find all the shapes. Find the solid areas of shapes. These can be geometric and sharp-angled, or they can be organic and loose in their form. Collect all the tracings you have made so far. Leave the photo aside. Remember the registration marks you made? Place all the tracing paper sheets aligned with the registration marks. Once you have them all together, look at what is in front of you. Think of the points, lines, and shapes you made. On the new sheet of paper, allow yourself to select that which looks more interesting to you. What did you get? Feel free to do it over. Each time you will find something different. Below is an example of what this process may look like. The images will be in order of abstraction. The last one is the composition I came up with when combining all of the elements. It is not necessary to keep all the lines, points, or planes previously identified.       

FIGURE 5.2 Alma

Hoffmann, “HART. Haywood Arts Regional Theater, Waynesville, North Carolina. Designed by architect Joe Sam Queen.” 2018.

FIGURE 5.3 Alma

Hoffmann, “Abstracting the composition as points.” 2019.

FIGURE 5.4 Alma

Hoffmann, “Abstracting the composition as lines.” 2019.

FIGURE 5.5 Alma

Hoffmann, “Abstracting the composition as planes.” 2019.

FIGURE 5.6 Alma

Hoffmann, “Abstracting the composition using different lines.” 2019.

142  Sketching: Exercises and tools

FIGURE 5.7 Alma

Hoffmann, “Combining points, lines, and planes.” 2019.

Positive and negative Objectives •• ••

Translate an object into its essential shape by balancing the negative and positive spaces. Identify and differentiate emotional meaning of each line type.

Find an object, like a hammer, scissors, curling iron, or any interesting object you can place on a copier or scanner. Alternatively, you can also take a picture of it and print it. This exercise will be done in two ways: you will use tracing paper over it to block the shapes, and the second time, you will do it from observation. Using a black marker (not fine point), block the spaces around the object as well as within the object. Once you are done with ttracing over the print out or photo, try doing it from observation. This is a fun exercise that you can do anytime there is something intriguing and interesting around you.

Mark-making Objectives •• ••

Experiment with different tools to examine the effects of each tool on the line. Compare and contrast the lines created with each tool.

Sketching: Exercises and tools  143

For this exercise we will experiment with a variety of tools. You will need black ink, a space where you can move around, and larger pieces of paper. You can use your sketchbook for some of these as well. Or you can try large butcher paper that comes in rolls. Collect the following: •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• ••

Sponges in several sizes Dry, old brushes (small, medium, large) Round brush (small, medium, large) Square brush (small, medium, large) Dull pointed pencil Fine, sharpened pencil Crayon or hard charcoal stick Branch stick An old mop (not too large) Straw tied together

The tool will need to be dipped in ink or paint. Practice using each tool to create a series of marks: straight, curved, diagonal, segmented, apply pressure, release pressure, make large movements, make smaller movements, etc. Consider the f low of the lines, the patterns, and the composition you are creating.

Contours Objectives •• ••

Draw a subject by both looking and not looking at the paper. Compare and contrast the quality of the lines and shapes based on our looking versus memory and interpretation.

For this exercise, you will find an object or a person. Or you can use a mirror and draw yourself. This exercise will be done in two ways: first, while looking at the object or person and making sure your lines are following the contour of the subject. Now, the second time, you will not look at the paper at all and will not lift the pencil or pen from the paper. Which one is more dynamic, energetic, and full of life? Did you find yourself trying too hard on the first exercise? Make several until you feel confident in your abstractions.

Music Objectives •• ••

Respond to a classical music composition by creating lines and shapes that you feel are the most appropriate to the composition. Create a visual representation based on sounds.

FIGURE 5.8 Alma

Hoffmann, “Watercolor to music 1.” 2019.

FIGURE 5.9 Alma

Hoffmann, “Watercolor to music 2.” 2019.

Sketching: Exercises and tools  145

Pick your favorite classical music composer or your favorite classical composition. Gather paper, crayons, pencils, markers, assorted tools, etc. Listen to the composition once without drawing. Listen to the composition a second time and while listening, let your mind guide your hand on the paper. Think of the sounds. What do they suggest? Contours, blocking shapes, texture, f lowing lines, planes, etc.? Create the composition. Listen to it again. Go over the composition again. Should it be larger, or should it be cropped? Feel free to write words and draw letters that come to your mind. Will these letters be large or small? Thick or thin? Below are two images I created using watercolors and ink for this exercise while listening to “Mazurka in D major” by Frederick Chopin, performed by İdil Biret in The Very Best of Chopin Classical. Use whatever is nearest and easiest for you. Don’t overthink it.   

Shapes Objectives •• ••

Interpret common objects based on their main shapes. Draw the object by identifying its basic shape(s).

Every object or living creature is framed by an outside shape. This can be a rectangle, a triangle, a polygon, a circle, etc. This exercise will help you gain an appreciation of the shapes that live outside and inside a subject. For example, a bycicle tire can be seen as being defined by each spoke but it can also be appreciated by the shapes created inside each of the spokes. You will only need a pen or pencil and paper. Find an object or a picture of an object or animal. Instead of focusing on the contour, think of the shapes that give this object or animal its form. Or pick a Christmas tree. Think of the outside shape. What is it? Draw it and then think of the shapes inside the larger shape that give the tree its personality. Or if a car, what overall shape is it? What are the shapes inside of it as well? Or pick a leaf. Think of the shape outlining it and think of the shape that contains the leaf.

Letters and adjectives Objectives •• ••

Interpret adjectives visually, based on their meaning. Draw the adjective’s letters with the intent of communicating the meaning of the word.

This will be easy and fun. Pick a series of adjectives. Find their definition. Once you understand their meaning, start by writing the word using a style that fits

146  Sketching: Exercises and tools

the definition. For instance, sad. We know what sad is. What comes to your mind when you think of sadness? What forms are suggested by the definition: big, small, thin, thick, round, hard-edged, broken up, cut-like, chunky, elongated, etc.? Draw the letters several times and experiment with tools as well.

Drawing with closed eyes Objectives ••

After looking at and studying a subject, draw its essential lines and shapes from memory.

One interesting exercise is to grab an object or have a model in front of you. Observe and study all its sides, shapes, contours, volume, while trying to grasp the essential shapes and particularities as well as its surroundings. After the object or figure is committed to memory, take your pencil or pen, and with your eyes closed, draw what you remember. As an alternative, you can try to do it while not lifting the tool from the paper. This is a great exercise to commit to memory essential shapes of subjects.

Drawing with the non-dominant hand Objectives •• ••

Observe and identify the differences in line quality from drawing with the non-dominant hand versus the dominant hand. Record the impressions and reactions in a journal for analysis.

Whether we are left- or right-handed, the experience and practice of doing something with the dominant hand affords a certain level of comfort and expectation. We know how the tool we favor will act in our hand, on the paper, and there is a certain expertise due to the constant use of the dominant hand. But, for this exercise, we will use the non-dominant hand and develop muscle memory in regard to the tool and the subject we desire to draw. Grab a pencil, pen, or marker, paper (perhaps larger than usual), and find an object or figure to draw. You may want to practice this in small sizes as well as larger sizes.

Shapes for sketchnoting Objectives ••

Develop a visual vocabulary to use in note taking.

The basis for nearly every subject or letter is simple geometry—for instance, lines, circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, and ovals make up the majority of

Sketching: Exercises and tools  147

the living and man-made things we encounter daily. For this exercise, using shapes and lines (which can be curved, straight, or diagonal), sketch out familiar objects. Start with a house, a car, a ball, an ice cream cone and scoop, a vase, a table, a chair, etc. The challenge here is to keep it simple and at the same time provide just enough detail to make the sketch communicate an emotion, tone, feel, and/or style.

Easy perspective Objectives •• •• ••

Identify how one-line perspective occurs in our interpretation of the world. Identify and trace the lines that are receding in space on tracing paper. Create a grid based on the receding lines and accommodate objects within these lines.

Sometimes thinking of how to draw something in perspective can be intimidating. But perspective is created by lines receding in space. Remember the point, line, and plane exercise? In it, you found perspective and were not really thinking of it. Go back to that exercise for a moment and take a look at

FIGURE 5.10 Alma

Hoffmann, “Example of one-point perspective in landscape.” 2019.

148  Sketching: Exercises and tools

the lines. Are there any lines converging in some points? That is perspective. There is one-point perspective and multiple-point perspective. We will only practice with one-point perspective on this exercise. For this exercise, take or find a picture of an urban environment, a building, a landscape, and/or a train that faces you. Like with the point, line, and plane exercise, use your tracing paper to place on top of the photo and register the size of the image. You may want to tape the tracing paper on the page or photo. Start by drawing the lines and find the points in which those lines disappear in the space. Is it to the side? To the center? Top? Bottom? Then, look at the rest of the objects on the photo. You will see that each object fits within the spaces the lines create. That is perspective. Everything that is close to you will be larger and everything that is farthest, will look smaller. Visit the museum and find landscape paintings from the Renaissance. If you are allowed, take pictures to study. Or simply take a sketchbook with you to try to replicate the structure or skeleton of the painting. Below is an example of how to find a one-point perspective. The photo is the same one that I used for the exercise, “Point, line, and plane.” On the photo I circled the lines’ vanishing point.  

Paper-cut figure drawing Objectives •• •• •• ••

Translate the human figure to basic shapes. Assemble and integrate the shapes in ways that communicate movement, energy, quietness, calm, action, etc. Organize and reorganize the shapes to achieve different body contortions. Trace over the silhouette shape and identify the meaning each tracing evokes.

I learned this exercise from Betina Morgan’s drawing class at Haywood Arts Council in North Carolina. A picture of a human figure in shapes is provided here for reference. For this exercise you will need a glue stick and paper. Cut pieces of paper as they relate to the head, torso, arms, and legs. These pieces when assembled, create the silhouette of the human figure. Make several copies. Cut each piece and start thinking what you would like your figure to be portrayed doing: extending itself, sitting, bending over, etc. While this exercise can be done by drawing stick figures, when I tried this with cut pieces, I felt freer as I could move them around and create any figure movement I wanted. After the figure is completed, use a pencil or crayon and trace around the contours. Try this several times. You will feel less limited when thinking of drawing people in action.  

Sketching: Exercises and tools  149

FIGURE 5.11 Alma

Hoffmann, “Example of disjointed human figure shapes.” 2019.

Watercolor or ink Objectives •• ••

Experiment with the texture of watercolor after choosing any of these exercises. Identify, compare, and contrast the differences based on the amount of water in the line and shape quality.

Repeat some of the exercises in this chapter using only ink and/or watercolor. Use just one color if you choose to use watercolor. This will help you learn when to control the medium and when to let go. Experiment with more water, less water, etc.

Tools and supplies Any art and/or drawing class will provide the student with an extensive list of supplies to purchase. Including pencils, pens, inks, sticks, sketchbooks, papers, and cases, there is no shortage of supplies to choose. However, for the purposes

150  Sketching: Exercises and tools

of this book, which is about sketching, we will keep it minimal. Because we are trying to establish the foundation for a practice that would be as natural as speaking and writing, it is important to have tools that are portable and light. Here are some of my favorite tools, which can be found at major online stores and art stores.

Sketchbooks 

FIGURE 5.12 Alma

Hoffmann, “Sketchbooks.” 2018-2019.

Moleskine As far as travel size sketchbooks go, Moleskines are considered by many as the top of the line. They come in an assortment of sizes and types of paper: grid, dots, plain, and lined. Some are hardcover, and others are softcover. Moleskine.com is the official store. One small problem is that if ink or marker is used, ghosting occurs. Ghosting is the term used to describe the visible marks on the back of the page. Some artists and designers take time to use Gesso on its pages to prepare them for heavier ink use.

Leuchtturm A favorite among designers is the German line Leuchtturm. Like the Moleskines, they come in a diverse assortment of sizes and paper types (lined, grid, dots,

Sketching: Exercises and tools  151

and plain). The paper quality is smooth and soft. The notebooks come in hard and soft cover, which can also be found in different colors. As with Moleskines, there will be a tad of ghosting.

Piccadilly Very similar to Moleskines, Piccadilly offers sketchbooks in different sizes, colors, and types of paper. However, the type of portable pads similar to Moleskines are hardcover. Plus, the color ones only come in lined paper. The sizes are not as versatile as Moleskines’, but these are a good alternative because of the lower price point. The paper quality is slightly thicker than its competitor, but there is still a bit of ghosting.

Baron Fig These notebooks have really nice paper texture and weight. The ghosting that can occur on the back side of a page is significantly less than in the brands mentioned above. Their price point is not too high either and they have a good size variety to pick from.

Rhodia The paper on these notebooks is of great quality. Very smooth and soft yet thick enough to not show ghosting. They also have a great size selection as well as types of paper (ruled, grid, dots, and plain).

Shinola Shinola notebooks and journals are of amazing quality. The paper is buttery and rich. They come in different sizes and are gaining ground among artists and designers. They are based in Detroit, Michigan but ship internationally as well. They also offer different types of papers (grid, plain, and ruled) as well as a nice selection of covers.

Fabriano These notebooks are one of my favorites and from the list and are the least expensive ones. They are slightly taller and wider than a Cashier-sized Moleskine. They are very thin and fit anywhere. The paper is very nice as well, although you can see a little bit of ghosting.

Paper Even copy paper would be good for practice and exercises. Any drawing store will offer a diverse range of paper pads to try. Good quality printer paper is also a

152  Sketching: Exercises and tools

very good alternative, especially when trying markers. A favorite of mine is HP Printer Paper Premium 24lb. It holds wet media such as ink and markers very well and it is soft enough to not damage brush pens. There are of course more options if stand-alone paper is desired. However, the advantages of travel sketchbooks are that everything is contained in one place, keeping things organized, and minimizing the loss of any creations. If a range of wet media will be explored, a good paper to consider is mixed media paper. It usually comes in pads that can be purchased in different sizes. Though even the smallest one can feel a tad bulky to be carried on a shoulder bag or backpack for daily use.

Tools to sketch Keeping in mind that our purpose is to be able to sketch anywhere, our tools should therefore be minimal, portable, and cost-effective.  

Pencils The simplest and most cost-effective is a 2B pencil, which can be bought at almost any physical or online store. Having more than a 2B pencil would depend

FIGURE 5.13 Alma

Hoffmann, “Tools and pens.” 2019.

Sketching: Exercises and tools  153

on the type of sketching. If the pencil is used to create elaborate shading and values, then other categories, such as HB, 2H, and 4B, would be needed. I use the pencil mostly for construction lines and to help me arrange things on the page. My favorite pencil to use for this purpose is Staedler’s blue pencil. Other brands that offer an erasable blue pencil are Caran d’Ache and Prismacolor. A good pencil selection is from the brand Palomino. These are a favorite among letterers and designers.

Erasers Though the majority of pencils come with an eraser, these are usually too abrasive on the page. My favorite erasers are the black erasers. They are gentler on the page than the plastic white ones. There are several available with different price points on Amazon. A favorite is the brand Tombow, but there are others such as Muji, Faber Castell, Pentel, Blackwing, and Staedler.

Pens These are some of my favorite pens that I keep with me at all times. I have tried many pens for sketching, but in my experience the Pilot PIL11020 V Razor Point Pen (extra fine point) is one of the best. Not easily found at the stores. I order mine on Amazon by the dozen. The ink is rich, and the tip is neither too thin nor too broad. It feels really nice on the paper. Another favorite is the Sharpie Art Pen Fine Point. These are waterproof, which is really nice if watercolor is used. The tip is really fine, which is good for really small lettering and/or writing. I also like to use fountain pens and among my favorites is the Lamy Safari. These come in a variety of styles and nib sizes. Ink can be bought in cartridges or an adaptor can be used with any fountain ink. The Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pen doubles as a pen and a marker. It is a very popular pen or marker among designers. From this list, these are the least expensive, but they offer good mileage for the cost.

Brush pens Brush pens give sketches a beautiful f lare, not to mention a sense of contrast in the lines. There are many to choose from, but the choice of paper will determine how long they last. The tip on the brush pens is made out of either felt or nylon. The felt fibers will fray over time with use. But, if the paper is smooth like the HP printer paper or the Rhodia pads mentioned earlier, they will last longer. Many letterers and designers favor the Tombow brush pens. Other favorites are Faber Castell, which are waterproof, Arts Loft, Sharpie, Winsor and Newton, Koi Sakura, MozArt, Kuretake, and Sakura Pigma.

154  Sketching: Exercises and tools

Nylon tips are mostly seen in water brush pens. These are really nice since they have a barrel that can be filled with ink or water. Or they can be simply dipped on water, ink, watercolor, etc. There are several brands to choose from. Among them the Pentel Aquash Water Brush, MozArt, Arteza, and Kuretake, to name a few. These need to be stored vertically with the tip facing up. Otherwise, the brush nib holder will start to break due to the ink or water pressure. The brush nib will last a very long time because it is made out of nylon. The Pentel Fude Brush Pen comes prepacked with a color barrel that can be changed when it runs out of ink. It is a very nice pen with a nylon tip. It comes in different nib sizes, colors, and some are waterproof inks.

Markers There are of course many choices in the market: from Crayola markers to more sophisticated ones such as Prismacolor, Winsor and Newton, Faber Castell, Sharpie, and Copic. Usually, sketches are mostly monochromatic. However, a touch of gray and/or light color adds contrast and depth to the sketches. The most important tool, however, is the willingness to play with some of these tools and supplies and see which ones feel best for your purposes. Simple is better. Sometimes less is more, and remember that the best pen is the one you have in your hand.

6 EXPLORING BELIEFS AND PRACTICES ABOUT SKETCHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND IN THE DESIGN PROFESSION

The survey discussed in this chapter was developed in the fall of 2017 and ­d istributed online through Google Forms. Three hundred and twenty responses from different parts of the world were collected. It was posted on several social media platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn. Several colleagues also shared the survey among their peers and students. Some of the universities represented in the survey are: Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, The University of West London, Elon University, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, East Carolina University, UCLA, University of Tampa, Free University of BozenBolzano, and University of Port Harcourt, among many others. In this chapter, I will report and discuss the results of the survey, offer the demographic breakdown, and include the responses to open answer questions. The full survey has been included in Appendix 1. The survey was developed out of a desire to understand what are the current beliefs and practices of design educators, design students, and design practitioners when it comes to sketching? Is it a required part of the education of a designer? If so, how? Are sketches assigned, and if so, how many? Or are they optional? Do practicing designers believe sketching is important? During my years teaching design, I have observed an increasing lack of enthusiasm from students when sketches are assigned. This is not a unique experience. The article “Engineering Sketching, Gesture Drawing and ‘How-to’ Videos to Improve Visualization” by Eggermont, Plessix, and McDonald (2008, 688) discusses how first year students “do not expect to be drawing with pencil and paper. … Instead they expect to be given a software program that will do everything for them: idea generation, visualization, and construction.” Sketching is, compared to a new laptop, computer, or device, a very humble, simple, and inexpensive endeavor. To sketch we only need a piece of paper, a sketchbook, or a notebook, a pencil, and an eraser. The computer holds many surprises

156  Sketching in higher education and design 

under its hood, making the overall design process significantly more efficient compared to the pre-computer time. However, sketching with pencil and paper holds significant benefits for the student learning to become a designer. It is part of highly efficient mental processes that help in storing and recalling information. The survey was divided into three categories: design educators, design students, and design practitioners. The questions were similar for each, except for making the appropriate edits for each category. For example, in the design educators section, the questions would focus on how they teach sketching and how many sketches they would assign to their students. Those same questions would be edited for design students, to focus on how they perceived sketching as something assigned and how many sketches they would be required to do for a project. Similarly, these questions were tailored for the design practitioners section to assess how those respondents would integrate a sketching practice in their profession. Questions about demographics (age, graduation date, degree earned) remained the same. The open-ended questions focused on each person’s definitions of sketching. Other questions were particular for the category. This is the case for the design practitioners’ section. Below is a breakdown of the demographics.

Demographics The breakdown of the 320 participants is as follows: •• •• ••

40% were design educators 33% were design students 27% were design practitioners

Design educators (reporting on the highest numbers) •• ••

33% were between 40–55 years old 32% were between 36–45 years old

Highest degree earned •• ••

58% received an MFA (master’s in fine arts) 20% received a doctoral degree

Design students (reporting on the highest numbers) ••

55% were between 20–23 years old

Class status •• ••

40% were in the junior year of their program of study 32% were seniors in their program of study

Sketching in higher education and design  157

Design practitioners (reporting on the highest numbers) ••

36% were between 25–35 years old

Highest degree earned •• ••

37% received a BFA (bachelor’s in fine arts) 29% received an MFA (master’s in fine arts)

All survey participants were asked the following questions, which were of particular interest to me as a former design student, present educator, and freelance practitioner. These are: •• •• •• •• •• ••

What do you believe is the purpose of sketching in the design process? Select all that apply. Whether or not sketching was required during their education and whether or not they were required by hand, on the computer, both, or not required at all. Quantity of sketches required or assigned per project. Importance of sketching in the design process. Was a sketchbook required in class, per project, or per semester? Open-ended question: Please state your definition of sketching.

The answers to the questions above will be reported in Table 6.1, Table 6.2, and Table 6.3. I will arrange the answers of the multiple-choice questions per category (educator, student, and practitioner) and per frequency. TABLE 6.1  A nswer distribution of questions that were the same for each category

Questions Purpose of sketching To understand and think about possible solutions for a project/problem To work out spatial relationships in a composition or a product To teach students the discipline of thinking visually

Design educators

Design students

Design practitioners

95%

99%

96%

82%

78%

81%

89%

75% 69% In this section, the In this section, the question was phrased question was as: To develop the phrased as: To discipline of thinking develop the visually. discipline of thinking visually.

158  Sketching in higher education and design  TABLE 6.2  Requirement of sketches for educators while attending art and design school

Sketches required while in school By hand optional or required By hand and computer No specifications Did not go to design school

66% 17% 8% 9%

Quantity of sketches required while in school per project 0–25 26–50 51–100 More than 100 No specific amount was required

24% 13% 9% 5% 49%

TABLE 6.3  Requirement of sketches for students and practitioners

Sketches required while in school Required by hand Required on the computer Optional by hand Optional on the computer

Students 60% 6% 28% 6%

Practitioners 68% 3% 20% 9%

Quantity of sketches required while in school per project 0–25 26–50 51–100 More than 100 No specific amount was required

27% 11% 22% 7% 33%

27% 11% 11% 3% 48%

Some questions were exclusive to a category. For instance, a question such as whether or not sketches should be graded were exclusive to the student category. The answers to these questions will be reported in separate tables. For instance, the following statement was asked to design educators: ••

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: There are mental processes that connect sketching, doodling, drawing, and handwriting as part of how the mind works out short- and long-term memory.

On the tables above, the results to the question titled Purpose of sketching tell us that educators, students, and practitioners believe that: •• ••

Sketching is a tool through which we find solutions for a project. Sketching is a method through which compositional relationships in a design are worked out.

Sketching in higher education and design  159

••

Sketching is a method through which we develop a discipline to help us think visually.

However, among the students, there is a slight drop in the belief that sketching helps us develop the ability of thinking visually. Only 69% of the students agreed to this question as opposed to educators (89%) and practitioners (75%). Both educators and practitioners scored higher on this question than the students. There could be two possible reasons for the discrepancy in the answers: ••

••

The question was phrased slightly different for students and practitioners. The reason for that is that educators teach. Therefore, the emphasis for educators was on performing the action to teach something whereas for the students and practitioners, the emphasis was placed on the developing of the skill of thinking visually. The second reason could be that students may need time to grow in the belief that the practice of sketching contributes to the ability to think visually. Acquiring this belief, however, is accomplished through the practice of sketching. Thus, this belief may be acquired through the wisdom that the experience of being a design practitioner provides.

Table 6.2 asks educators if sketches were assigned while attending school and, if so, whether they were required by hand, by hand and computer, or optional by hand, or if there were no specifications; or if they did not attend design school. Sixty-six percent of the educators reported that sketches were done by hand, either required or optional. It is interesting to notice that 8% were given no specifications and 9% did not attend design school. It is a small percentage, but it would be of interest to learn if the instructors in both of these categories assign sketches or if the sketches are optional. Table 6.3 asks similar questions to the students and practitioners, and 60% of the students reported that sketches are required by hand, as well as 68% of the design practitioners reporting that they were required to sketch by hand. These are fairly consistent results across the different groups. The second question on both Table 6.2 and 6.3 asks about the quantity of sketches required while attending school. The responses were more distributed, but the majority of the responses on each category focused on no specific amount. I found it interesting, however, that although the number is not high (24% of educators, 27% of students, and 27% of practitioners), there seems to be an agreement that if sketches are required and a quantity is given, somewhere between 0–25 would be the ideal range. This is a significant detail that requires more study. Some questions to consider are: •• ••

Are students more amenable to do 25 sketches whether they are able to achieve a solution or not? Is it better to break down the stages of sketching?

160  Sketching in higher education and design 

••

Are 25 sketches less intimidating or less ominous for students, especially younger students?

These questions deserve more consideration that would certainly affect how design is taught and even practiced.

Questions for design educators Two specific questions were asked of this group that pertain to teaching and the educators’ belief in the connection of sketching with similar modes of expression. Table 6.4 shows the results. The first question is a statement asking the level of agreement as to whether there is a relationship between sketching, doodling, drawing, and handwriting in mental processes related to short- and long-term memory. The results showed that almost 80% of the educators agree or strongly agree with the statement. The second question asks about the time spent teaching sketching in the classroom: 35% responded stating that 5 hours are spent teaching sketching, 16% reported to spend 2 hours, and 14% reported spending 1 hour and 3 hours, respectively. Finally, 14% reported to not spend any time teaching sketching. This presents us with a picture of what we can expect from future designers in the industry and how that, in turn, will shape design education. Sketching in the practice of a design is not only an effective skill to develop and practice, but also, “a way to mediate and negotiate new information that comes to us in the process of observation” (Hoffmann, 2016, 6). TABLE 6.4  Questions asked to design educators

To what extent do you agree with this statement: There are mental processes that connect sketching, doodling, drawing, and handwriting as part of how the mind works out short and longterm memory. Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

9% 0% 11% 32% 48%

Time spent teaching new design students how to sketch in a long semester class? 1 hour 2 hours 3 hours 4 hours 5 hours Don’t spend any time

14% 16% 14% 7% 35% 14%

Sketching in higher education and design  161

Questions for students There were four questions asked of the design students that related to their perception of how many sketchings should be assigned and whether or not they should be graded. Table 6.3 shows us the results. In Table 6.5 we the students in roughly equal numbers (27–28%) believe that 25–50 sketches should be assigned. We see similar numbers (23–27%) when asked about the ideal quantity of sketches when required in the computer: 25–50 sketches should be assigned. However, notice that if the sketches are going to be graded, 44% believe that 25 sketches should be the assigned number. Once again, this seems to confirm that 25, at least based on the results of this survey, seems to be the ideal number, but it would also seem that the students are willing to go a bit farther. This is also a matter to be studied deeper because it would definitely impact how we teach design. The last question has to do with whether or not sketches should be graded according to the students. 41% of the students stated that sketches should not

TABLE 6.5  Questions for students

If sketches are required by hand, how many do you believe are necessary to solve a design problem? 100 50 25 20 Less than 15

14% 27% 28% 15% 17%

If sketches are required on the computer, how many do you believe are necessary to solve a design problem? 100 50 25 20 Less than 15

6% 23% 27% 13% 31%

How many sketches do you believe should be assigned when introducing a project? 100 75 50 25 Sketches should be optional

3% 10% 26% 44% 17%

Do you believe sketches should be graded? Yes No Maybe Optional

12% 41% 33% 14%

162  Sketching in higher education and design 

be graded while 33% said that maybe sketches should be graded. This question presents an interesting pedagogical and assessment concern. Since the process of sketching is about searching and exploring ideas, if sketches are graded, should they be graded on their quality and clarity of expression, on the quantity to ensure the options were exhausted, or on both quantity and quality? If sketching is similar to writing in the sense that it gives ideas a physical form, should we grade similarly to how we grade a draft for an essay: grammar and spelling, sentence construction, f low of argument, etc.? If so, what would be variables that would need to be implemented?

Questions for design educators and students In this section, we will discuss questions designed for both educators and students. These questions discuss the importance of sketching and the role of a sketchbook in design education.  The responses to this set of questions are more straightforward than the previous responses. Seventy-seven percent of design educators agree that sketching is extremely important in the design process. Conversely, 21% responded that sketching is important in the design process. The students seemed to be somewhat aligned with the educators. Fifty-seven percent responded that sketching was extremely important. On the role of a sketchbook in education, 36% responded that a sketchbook is required per project and 32% of students reported that a sketchbook is required per project. These responses seem to be in accordance with how design classes are frequently taught. While some classes require a sketchbook for the entire semester, sometimes keeping a sketchbook is optional, according to the students surveyed.

TABLE 6.6  Questions for design educators and students

Importance of sketching in the design process

Design educators

Design students

1 Extremely important 2 3 4 5 A waste of time

77% 21% 1% 1% 1%

57% 25% 9% 8% 3%

Role of sketchbook in education Required per project Required per semester Required per class Optional per project Optional per semester Optional per class

36% 21% 15% 12% 10% 6%

32% 10% 26% 17% 15% 0%

Sketching in higher education and design  163

Answers by design practitioners In this section we will discuss the answers by design practitioners regarding their beliefs about how many sketches are necessary by hand and by computer, and how many should be taught at schools.  In this set of questions for practitioners, we find an interesting twist. For both questions about how many sketches are needed to solve a problem either by hand or on the computer, the results suggested doing less than 15 sketches in both instances. If done by hand, 38% stated less than 15, and if on the computer, 41% stated less than 15. There is a significant difference between these two answers and those given by educators and students. What factors would contribute to this difference? Perhaps the time allotted for design thinking through sketching is restricted by deadlines and clients. The faster pace in a design studio and/or

TABLE 6.7  Questions for design practitioners

If done [sketches] by hand, how many sketches do you believe are necessary to solve a design problem? 100 50 25 20 Less than 15

4% 12% 29% 17% 38%

If done [sketches] on the computer, how many sketches do you believe are necessary to solve a design problem? 100 50 25 20 Less than 15

9% 18% 17% 16% 41%

To what extent do you agree with the following statement: Sketching is a skill that should be taught in design schools. Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

3% 1% 10% 23% 63%

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: A designer must be able to sketch/draw his/her thoughts. Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

6% 11% 14% 34% 35%

164  Sketching in higher education and design  TABLE 6.8  Questions for design students and design practitioners

What do you think is the role of a sketchbook in Design practitioners your career?

Design students

Essential tool to record ideas, process, thoughts, client meetings Optional tool to record ideas, process, thoughts, client meetings Something to use occasionally to record ideas, process, thoughts, and client meetings Unnecessary

82%

73%

23%

20%

Approx. 6%

Approx. 6%

0

0

agency would certainly affect the expectation of quantity of sketches done for a project. But, wouldn’t the lower number of sketches imply that a certain level of efficiency has been acquired? If less sketches are expected in the practice of design, less ideas are explored, but these ideas might be of higher quality than those sketches while still at school? Or perhaps there is an expectation from design practitioners that sketching is a skill honed while taking design classes? The numbers do ref lect the difference between the practice of design and design education, at least among the designers who participated in the survey. The next two questions in the table for design practitioners do discuss these issues. For the question of whether sketching is a skill that should be taught in design schools, 63% of the design practitioners strongly agreed with this statement. The next statement asked to what extent the practitioners agree with whether or not a designer should be able to sketch/draw his/her thoughts; 35% strongly agreed and 34% agreed with this statement. The answers to these two last statements do indeed confirm that: 1. Design practitioners expect a new designer to have been taught to sketch. 2. Design practitioners expect a new designer to efficiently sketch when solving a problem. 3. Design practitioners expect a new designer to not need to be taught to sketch. Next, we will discuss the questions for design practitioners and design students.

Questions for design practitioners and students The question asked both practitioners and students to address the role of a sketchbook in their careers.  Sketches need to be done somewhere, and the role of a sketchbook can be both overestimated and underestimated. Some designers would rather use loose paper instead of a sketchbook because it is easier to show other designers, clients, photocopy, and discuss among their teams. Thus, I wondered how practicing

Sketching in higher education and design  165 TABLE 6.9  List of keywords and use frequency on open-ended question defining sketch-

ing (words that were used less than three times in a category were not included)

Keyword Brainstorm (brainstorming) Concepts (conceptualization, concepts) Creating (create, creative) Design Doodle Drawing (draw, drawings) Freehand Idea (ideation) Intent Paper Pencil Planning Process Quick (rapid, quickly) Rough Solutions (problem solving, problem solve) Thinking (thoughts) Visual representation (representation, visual thinking) Workout (ideas, working out)

Design educators

Design students

Design practitioners

Total

2 16

12 7

3 13

17 36

8 24

5 14 3 47

5 7 35

43

55

19 11 7 7 16 7

21 17 1 6 20 13

18 45 3 110 3 169 7 52 35 9 26 54 36 4

38 3 71 7 12 7 1 13 18 16 4 12 14

1

12 15

9

9

Note: Words with higher frequency have been bolded.

designers think about sketchbooks. Based on the responses, 82% of practicing designers view sketchbooks as essential but 23% don’t. Of students, however, 73% view the sketchbook as an essential tool, while 20% see it as optional. These two low numbers seem to account for designers who prefer to sketch on loose paper. In Chapter 3, after interviewing 13 designers, there were 3 designers who preferred to not have a sketchbook with them because of two reasons: 1. Some of them viewed the sketches as disposable. If they are not working, not communicating, or not efficient, they would trash them. 2. A sketchbook may be portable but not practical. Having loose paper in a folder seemed to be both easier to carry and handle during the day to day. See Chapter 3 for the interviews. Next, we will discuss the open-ended question that asked each group to define sketching.

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Sketching definition This section discusses the following question: “Please state brief ly your definition of sketching.” This question elicited a significant number of answers—open-ended answers. After going through these answers, I noticed how often some words were repeated across design educators, design students, and design practitioners. For instance, “quick,” “ideas,” “rough,” “drawing,” and others were frequently used. Therefore, a list of key words was developed to tally up the frequency of their use. Words needed to be used more than three times in any of the groups in order to be considered a keyword. Table 6.9 presents these findings.  From this table, we can see the high frequency of use of two keywords: •• ••

“drawing,” “draw,” “drawings” (total of 110 times) “idea,” “ideation” (169 times)

The rest of the words were used more or less with the same frequency. There are some words used more often than others. For instance, “quick” and “quickly” were used a total of 54 times total, “paper” was used 52 times total, “design” was used a total of 45 times, “pencil” was used 35 times, and “rough” and “concepts” tied in being used a total of 36 times. If a definition was going to be composed from the frequency of use of these terms, sketching could be defined as follows: •• •• ••

Sketching is a rough drawing done with pencil on paper to explore ideas quickly, to design, and to explore concepts. Sketching is a quick drawing of an idea or concept. Sketching is quick pencil drawing of an idea, concept, and/or design.

Several things are worth noting. First, designers see sketching as a form of drawing. It seems that for designers drawing and sketching are similar ways to express an idea. A sketch, for designers, is a quick and rough drawing with enough details to communicate an idea or a concept. Second, it is particularly interesting to observe that neither group used the terms problem solving or problem solve to define sketching. The emphasis seemed to be on words that would suggest that sketching is a quick drawing that explores ideas.

Concluding thoughts on the survey Conducting the survey provided me with a general idea of where and how sketching fits in the practice of design, among educators, and among students. In addition to a general idea, it also provided me with more questions and future areas of exploration. From this survey, the following conclusions can be made: ••

There seems to be an agreement between design educators, students, and practitioners that sketching is a quick drawing with a certain purpose.

Sketching in higher education and design  167

••

••

••

Among design educators and students, assigning and being assigned 25 sketches seemed to be the ideal number. But it also seemed that students were willing to do more since there was an instance of stating that over 25 sketches would be acceptable sometimes. Practitioners stated, however, that 15 sketches was the ideal number. Responses to other questions indicated that practitioners expect students to be taught how to sketch so that a new hire can sketch quickly and efficiently. Sketching is considered an essential skill among design educators, students, and practitioners.

Along with these conclusions, several questions surfaced that deserve to be explored in a future study: •• •• •• ••

Should the process of sketching be quantified? Or should it be left open? If expedience is expected from practitioners, should we teach sketching using a timer in order to help students build and hone their skills? How to know for certain that 25 sketches is the right number? Should a test be conducted to assess it? If no sketches are assigned or graded, how to ensure that students learn to draw an idea quickly and efficiently?

In conclusion, sketching as a method of exploration deserves more study consideration. For now, these results provided me with a good and overall picture of the present situation regarding sketching.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

This book is the result of my fascination with sketching. It is also an expression of my curiosity and need to understand sketching as a visual language, its definition, its relationship to drawing, and its history. Researching about the relationship of sketching and how the mind processes visual data, and how it helps with memory and retention, allowed me to understand the purposes, attributes, and types of sketches. The interviews exposed me to a diversity of philosophical variations and expression in the work of several designers. The survey I conducted in 2017 provided me with rich insights about the state of sketching in higher education and the profession. The book is titled Sketching as Design Thinking because to me, sketching is the visible and physical expression of thinking … of design thinking. In an email to my editor I wrote that “sketching is an integral part of design thinking that involves an iterative process from brainstorming to intense collaboration, of which sketching is one aspect.” Writing this book helped gain a deeper insight of what it means to be a visual thinker. Sketching as design thinking, or as Nigel Cross names it, “designerly thinking ” implies that there is more to sketching than simply the ability to execute good and beautiful marks on a page (6). Sketching is a part, a vital part, of that thinking. Lately, design thinking has become a type of buzzword or jargon among those interested in the outcomes its implementation encourages and facilitates. Design thinking is nothing new, however. The beginning of the ideas encapsulated in the words “design thinking” can be traced to the 1960s. The term evolved to become a title for the book Design Thinking published in 1987 by Peter Rowe, but it was the work of David M. Kelly, designer, engineer, professor, and founder of IDEO at Stanford University, that further popularized the term. At the core, design thinking is an iterative process, in which every iteration teaches something, and it is intended to facilitate innovative solutions that may not yet exist or, if they do, they need to be improved. According to Tim Brown, design

Concluding thoughts 

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thinking is “a methodology that imbues the full spectrum of innovation activities with a human-centered design ethos.” Furthermore, he adds that: innovation is powered by thorough understanding, through direct observation, of what people want and need in their lives and what they like or dislike about the way particular products are made, packaged, marketed, sold, and supported. (Brown 2008: 86) Design thinking is a collaborative endeavor characterized by the ability of designers to see the world from various points of view. In other words, design thinking imagines solutions from the intended audiences’ perspectives. It is also a process that encourages divergent and integrative thinking. It searches for novel solutions and attempts to see the contradictions of difficult and multilayered problems. Ultimately it is a process marked by optimism. The designers believe that ,however difficult a problem may be, there is always one solution “better than existing alternatives” (Brown 2008: 87). The act of sketching is a vital component of design thinking. It is in the process of sketching where ideas manifest in the physical world, and can be tested, improved, or discarded. These sketches of ideas are the language of symbols, lines, and shapes. It is a live laboratory of ideas through interactions of shapes taking place simultaneously in the mind of the designer as well as paper or tablet. This process is organic and feeds on itself. Because of this, design thinking as a methodology, though it can be described, can’t be replicated exactly each time. There is an element of ambiguity in which designers find themselves very comfortable. Since the introduction of the computer in the visual arts and design field, we have seen the impact of design thinking in artifacts that have become ubiquitous to us, for instance, the invention of the iPhone and its siblings thereafter. These devices have not only changed how we interact with each other, but they also enhance our lives in meaningful ways beyond merely creating a new device. But, these devices, before they became a tangible and physical artifact to consume, were once a simple and perhaps rudimentary prototype, which in turn were simple and humble sketches on paper. Therein lies the power of the sketch: in its ability to provide superlative value to a session of speculative ideas on paper or on a tablet. Each physical object we interact with was once a simple and humble sketch. This is true for computers, cars, tables, chairs, TVs … the list goes on. Our man-made world is comprised of the results of a world that was once only imagined in the pages of a designer’s notebook or loose paper kept in folders. This is design thinking at its best: the ability to prescribe and create novel and innovative artifacts that enhance our lives. While it is true that a good number, if not most, of these sketches will not come to life, the process is as, or maybe even more, vital than the final outcome. It is that process of sketching ideas that informs and sharpens the designer’s eye and mind to continue solving and improving our lives.

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Concluding thoughts

I wrote this book because I wanted to provide students and educators with a resource that could help them understand the importance that drawing and/ or sketching has in the life of a designer. Pablo Lovato, an Argentinian designer and illustrator states that “Dibujar tiene mas que ver con el ojo y con la cabeza que con las manos” (Domestika.org). Translated it means: “Drawing has much more to do with the eye and the mind than with the hands.” Goldschmidt agrees, offering the following opinion: “generic sketching evolves into a professional design activity … sketching skills may enhance design-like invention, whereas the lack of such skills may actually restrict design problem-solving” (Goldschmidt 2003, 80). The very nature of design thinking is that of iterations, testing, exploring, morphing, analyzing, and synthetizing. The imagery created in these processes not only helps to sharpen the skills, but it also increases the designers’ perception and ability to see, think, and interact with the world in shapes. The inability to draw and/or sketch the ideas poses a significant obstacle for the designer not only because sketching is the currency of the design field, but also because it limits the designer’s ability, leaving him/her to depend on found imagery. In other words, not being able to draw and/or sketch leaves the designer with fewer options and it leads to unoriginal ideas. The nature of interacting with a marking tool and a surface provides a much-needed space for unexpected relationships to happen due to the spontaneity of the process. Sketching, as writing is, should be taught to students. Visual thinking is a critical aspect of the development of mental processes. As Hoffmann says, “Sketching is to design what writing is to language” (Hoffmann 2016, 7).

APPENDIX Exploring beliefs and practices about sketching in higher education and in the design profession: Survey questions

Invitation to participate on the survey Dear design practitioners, educators, and students, You are invited to voluntarily participate in a research project to explore the r­elevance of sketching in design education, design practice, and in the design process. The purpose of the study is to learn about the current sketching practices and beliefs in higher education and in the design practice. The results will be used to inform design curriculum practices and may be disseminated through scholarly works such as presentations, articles, and book chapters. In addition, the results will be included in the book I am currently writing titled Sketching.   The survey will take no longer than 20 minutes to complete. Participation will remain anonymous and no identifying data will be collected. After collecting basic demographic information, there will be 10–12 questions on the survey; ten or eleven questions are multiple choice and one or two questions are open ended.   You have the right to refuse to answer any questions that you do not wish to complete and/or answer.   Benefits from participating in this survey: Your participation will provide insight into the current practices and beliefs in design education and in the design profession about sketching.   There are no known risks from participating in the study.   No incentives will be provided for completing the survey. All answers will be kept for three years after completion of the research and/or after the book is completed.   References: 45 CFR 46.117(c) (2)   Thank you for participating! If you have any questions please feel free to contact Alma Hoffmann at [email protected].

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Questions for educators Design educators If you are a design educator and/or teach part time, please proceed with the following questions. 1. For demographic purposes, please state your age: Mark only one oval. 25–35 36–45 46–55 56–65 66 and above Prefer not to answer 2. Highest degree earned: Mark only one oval. BFA MFA Doctorate Other: 3. Graduation year: Mark only one oval. 1960–1969 1970–1979 1980–1989 1990–1999 2000–2009 2010–2016 Other: 4. If teaching assistant, please state the projected graduation date: 5. Please state briefly your definition of sketching: 6. What do you believe is the purpose of sketching in the design process? Select all that apply: To understand and think about possible solutions for a project/problem To work out spatial relationships in a composition or a product To pass the time when we are bored To teach students the discipline of thinking visually To make aimless marks None of these

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7. When you went to design school Mark only one oval. You were required to sketch by hand You were required to sketch on the computer You were required to sketch by hand and on the computer You were given no specifications Did not go to design school 8. How many sketches were you required to complete per class project? Mark only one oval. 0–25 26–50 51–100 More than 100 No specific amount was required 9. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: There are mental processes that connect sketching, doodling, drawing, and handwriting as part of how the mind works out short and long-term memory. Mark only one oval. Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree 10. How much time would you say you spend teaching new design student how to sketch in a semester long class? Mark only one oval. 1 hour 2 hours 3 hours 4 hours 5 hours Don’t spend any time 11. How many sketches do you assign the students when introducing a project? Mark only one oval. 0–25 26–50 51–100 More than 100 No specific amount

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12. What role do you think the Wacom tablet and/or the iPad play in the sketching process? Mark only one oval. Complementary Substitute Both No role 13. Students are required to keep and maintain a sketchbook for your class: Mark only one oval. Required per project Required per semester Required per class Optional per project Optional per semester Optional per class

14. How important do you think sketching is in the design process?Mark only one oval. 1 Extremely important 2 4 5 A waste of time

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Questions for students Design students If you are a design student, whether online or on a university campus, please proceed with these questions. 15. For demographic purposes, please state your age: Mark only one oval. 19–20 20–23 23–26 26–30 30–35 Other: 16. Class Mark only one oval. Undergraduate freshman Undergraduate sophomore Undergraduate junior Undergraduate senior Graduate student Other: 17. Will graduate in 18. Program/Institution 19. Please state briefly your definition of sketching: 20. What do you believe is the purpose of sketching in the design process? Select all that apply: To understand and think about possible solutions for a project/problem To work out spatial relationships in a composition or a product To pass the time when we are bored To develop the discipline of thinking visually To make aimless marks None of these 21. At your program, school or institution, sketches are: Mark only one oval. Required by hand Required on the computer Optional by hand Optional on the computer

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22. How many sketches are you required to complete per class project? Mark only one oval. 0–25 26–50 51–100 More than 100 No specific amount is required 23. If the sketches are required by hand, how many do you believe are necessary to solve a design problem? Mark only one oval. 100 50 25 20 Less than 15 24. If the sketches are required on the computer, how many do you believe are necessary to solve a design problem? Mark only one oval. 100 50 25 20 Less than 15 25. How important do you think sketching is in the design process? Mark only one oval. 1 Extremely important 2 3 4 5 A waste of time 26. How many sketches do you believe should be assigned when introducing a project? Mark only one oval. 100 75 50 25 Sketches should be optional

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27. Do you believe sketches should be graded? Mark only one oval. Yes No Maybe Optional 28. What role do you think the Wacom tablet and/or the iPad play in the sketching process? Mark only one oval. Complementary Substitute Both No role 29. What is the role of a sketchbook in your design class/program/ institution? Mark only one oval. Required per project Required per semester Required per class Optional per project Optional per semester 30. What do you think is the role of a sketchbook in your career? Mark only one oval. Essential tool to record ideas, process, thoughts, client meetings Optional tool to record ideas, process, thoughts, client meetings Something to use occasionally to record ideas, process, thoughts, client meetings Unnecessary

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Questions for practitioners Design practitioner If you are a freelancer, work in an agency, studio, and/or an in-house design department, please proceed with these questions. 31. For demographic purposes, please state your age group: Mark only one oval. 25–35 36–45 46–55 56–65 66 and above Other: 32. Highest degree earned: Mark only one oval. BFA MFA Doctorate Other: 33. Program/Institution: 34. Graduation year: Mark only one oval. 1960–1969 1970–1979 1980–1989 1990–1999 2000–2009 2010–2016 Other: 35. Please state briefly your definition of sketching: 36. What do you believe is the purpose of sketching in the design process? Select all that apply: To understand and think about possible solutions for a project/problem To work out spatial relationships in a composition or a product To pass the time when we are bored To develop the discipline of thinking visually To make aimless marks None of these

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37. At your school or institution, sketches were: Mark only one oval. Required by hand Required on the computer Optional by hand Optional on the computer 38. How many sketches were you required to complete per class project? Mark only one oval. 0–25 26–50 51–100 More than 100 No specific amount is required 39. If done by hand, how many sketches do you believe are necessary to solve a design problem? Mark only one oval. 100 50 25 20 Less than 15 40. If done on the computer, how many do you believe are necessary to solve a design problem? Mark only one oval. 100 50 25 20 Less than 15 41. To what extent do you agree with the following statement: Sketching is a skill that should be taught in design schools. Mark only one oval. Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

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42. What role do you think the Wacom tablet and/or the iPad play in the sketching process? Mark only one oval. Complementary Substitute Both No role 43. What do you think is the role of a sketchbook in your career? Mark only one oval. Essential tool to record ideas, process, thoughts, client meetings Optional tool to record ideas, process, thoughts, client meetings Something to use occasionally to record ideas, process, thoughts, client meetings Unnecessary 44. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: There are mental processes that connect sketching, doodling, drawing, and handwriting as part of how the mind works out short and long term memory. Mark only one oval. Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree 45. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: A designer must be able to sketch/draw his/her thoughts. Mark only one oval. Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree.

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INDEX

Italic page numbers indicate figures, while page numbers in bold indicate tables. 18th–20th century 12–15 abductive thinking 118–119 Adobe Photoshop 74, 88 Andrade, Jackie 21–22, 120 annotated sketches 128 anthibolas 8–9, 10 architects 58 architecture: and sketching 32, 97 art models 97 The Art of Changing the Brain (Zull) 120 Aspelund, Dr. Karl 121 Berman, Craighton 15 Bermingham, Ann 9, 12 Beuys, Joseph 127 blueprints 128, 129 Brailey, Michael 105 Brown, Tim 167–168 bullet journaling 65 Burk, Diane 46, 47–51, 52–53, 134 Byzantine era 8–9 calligraphy 15, 67, 129, 131 car design 71–72, 77–78; and sketching 72–74; studies in 73–74 Carter, Rita 20 cave paintings 7–8, 17 Civetti, Laura 35, 36–39, 40–42 client models 97 closed eyes sketching exercise 145 clothing 36; see also textiles

“Cognitive Analysis: Sketches for Time-lagged Brain” (Fish) 22 collaboration processes 32–33 collaging 47, 50, 87, 131, 134; Diane’s 52–53; as sketching 49, 51 color sketches 130 coloring books 65 communication: car design as 72; and drawing 14, 17; and sketching 119 computers 14–15; and drafting 55; problems with 66; and sketching 56–57, 74, 88, 110–111, 123, 154–155; vs. hand drawing 2, 51; see also digital revolution concept sketches 48 Conway Morris, Roderick 11 creative process 112–113, 121 creativity 58 Cross, Nigel 118, 167 deliberate sketches 129, 132 design aspects 79–80 design educators 158; defining sketching 164; demographics 155; importance of sketching 161; memory and sketching 159; participating in survey 154; purpose of sketching 156; quantity of sketches 157, 158–159; on sketchbooks 161; sketching instruction 159; sketching requirements 157 design fields: and shared vocabularies 2

Index  187

Design to Go blog 46–47, 49 design practitioners: defining sketching 164, 165; demographics 156; participating in survey 154; purpose of sketching 156; quantity of sketches 157, 158–159, 162; on sketchbooks 163, 164; sketching instruction 162, 163; sketching requirements 157 design problem solving 48 design processes 121, 122 design students 158; defining sketching 164; demographics 155; grading sketches 160, 161; importance of sketching 161; participating in survey 154; purpose of sketching 156; quantity of sketches 157, 158–159; on sketchbooks 161, 163; sketching quantities 160; sketching requirements 157 design thinking 118–119, 167–168; and sketching 3 Design Thinking (Cross) 118 Design Thinking (Rowe) 167 Designing with Web Standards (Zeldman) 108 detailed sketches 123 diagrams 128 diary/journal sketches 130, 133 Diesel Gorilla 111, 114–115 digital revolution 15; see also computers digital tools 31, 110–111 distractions: sketching perceived as 17 doodling 26–27, 39, 124–125, 128, 164; connected with drawing 89; connected with sketching 27, 45, 57, 66, 104; defined 18, 83–84, 89; and memory 22 dopamine 120 draft sketches 123 drafting: and computers 55 “Draw Yourself Happy” (Landa) 120 drawing 50, 58, 164; and communication 14, 17; compared with handwriting 9; connected to doodling 89; connected to sketching 50–51, 66; and counseling 121; defined 18; early history of 5–6; and education 13, 15; and learning 45, 58; and storytelling 109; term 6–7; as umbrella term 75, 105; vs. photography 13, 56; vs. sketching 27, 37, 67, 83, 98 Drawing for Designers (Pipes) 7 “The Drawing Effect” (Wammes et al.) 22 dual coding theory 21, 66–67 Duffy, Joe 18 education: and drawing 13, 15 encyclopedias 13–14

“Engineering Sketching, Gesture Drawing and ‘How-to’ Videos to Improve Visualization” (Eggermont, Plessix, McDonald) 154 erasers/erasing 37 Exploratorium 46 Exploring Beliefs and Practices about Sketching survey 3, 154; defining sketching 164, 165; demographics 155–156; grading sketches 160, 161; importance of sketching 161; memory 159; purpose of sketching 156, 157–158; quantity of sketches 157, 158–159, 162; questions asked 156, 171–179; sketch quantities 160; sketchbooks 161, 163; sketching instruction 159, 162, 163 Fab Labs 30, 34–37 FabTextiles 30, 34 fashion design: sketching process 88 fine motor skills: and sketching 23, 89 Fish, Jonathan 21–22 f lat sketches 88, 90 f loat sketches 88 f luff sketches 88 focused sketches 129, 132 front-end development 108–109 Gauguin, Paul 111 geometric abstractions 124 geometric principles 12–13 Gershenfeld, Neil 34 ghosting: and sketchbooks 38 Gibbs, Brandon 96, 97, 98–102 Glaser, Milton 18 Goldschmidt, Gabriela 169 gouache paint 87 graphic design: and sketching 48–49 hand drawing, vs. computers 2, 88 handwriting: compared with drawing 9, 66–67 Hart Theater, Waynesville 54, 56, 59–60, 138 Heller, Steven 18 Henderson, Kathryn 6 Heskett, John 6 Hill, Edward 3 human brain 18, 19, 20–21, 120 The Human Brain (Carter) 20 human eye 18, 19, 20 ideas: and the creative process 33–34; expressing 109; recording 2, 44 illustration 109–110

188 Index

illustrative sketches 129 images: and memory 22 improvisation: design as 80 interior design 36 international commerce 13 iPads 65, 110–111 Ishango Bone 8

non-dominant hand sketching exercise 37, 145 note-taking 61–63, 67, 135 notebook projects 88 Noumena 35

Jafari, Sahim 71, 72–76, 77–78 Jahnke, Karl 25, 26–27, 28–29, 125, 128

paper 149, 150–151; qualities/types 87 paper-cut figures sketching exercise 147, 148 pens/pencils 151, 152–153 perfectionism 105 Personalized Meanings (Shambaugh) 135 perspective 13, 146, 147 photography, vs. drawing 13, 56 Pictorial Superiority Effect (PSE) 21 Pipes, Alan 7, 14 Pistofidou, Anastasia 30, 31–35 point, line, and plane sketching exercise 137, 138–141 positive and negative sketching exercise 141 prescriptive sketches 125 printing press 11 problem solving sketches 129, 132 process books 102 proportionate sketches 124 prototype sketches 130

Kadavy, David 102–105, 106 Kelly, David M. 167 Lair, Kevin 24 Lamm, Eva-Lotta 3, 15, 79–83, 84–86, 120, 132–133, 135 Landa, Robin 120 Language of Drawing (Hill) 3 Leaky, Louis 6–7 Learning to Draw (Bermingham) 9 Leonardo da Vinci 11–12 letters and adjectives sketching exercise 144–145 lines sketching exercise 137 live notes see sketchnoting Livingstone, Margaret 18 location sketching 56 Lovato, Pablo 169 Love, Dr. Terrence 8 McGee, David 12 machinery: drawings of 8–9 makers: separate from designers 14 Marfy 36 mark-making sketching exercise 141–142 marker rendering 65 Marr, Andrew 9–10 Medina, John 19, 21–22 Medway, Peter 5 memorization sketches 125 memory: and doodling 22, 105, 159; and images 22; oral information 21; and sketching 3, 17, 21, 23, 120, 155, 159; typists vs. longhand 67 Middle Ages 9 Mishunov, Denys 107, 108–113, 114–117, 122 Monge, Gaspard 13 monochromatic sketches 124 music: and sketching 38–39; sketching exercise 142, 143, 144

orthographic drawings 13

Queen, Joe Sam 54, 55–58, 59–60 Redtenbacher, Ferdinand 14 relational sketches 125 Renaissance era 9–13 Rohde, Mike 3, 15, 16, 61, 62–68, 69–70, 81, 120 Rovida, Edorardo 8, 10, 12 Rowe, Peter 167 Sack, Danielle 133–134 scholars: artist collaboration with 12 scribbles 27, 67, 105, 111, 124, 127–128 self-confidence: and sketching 39, 76 Shamback, Benjamin 126, 130 shapes sketching exercise 144 shared vocabularies: and design fields 2 A Short Book About Drawing (Marr) 10 sketchbooks 82–83, 97–98; 19th century 14; publishing 18; in the survey 161; Taccola’s 12; types 149, 150; use of 38 sketches: assigning 89; attributes of 122–125; fashion design process 88; in other fields 15; personal vs.

Index  189

communicative 14; purpose of 39, 111; and self-knowledge 111–112 sketching 15–16, 57, 73, 76, 83, 97, 154–155; author’s experiences with 1, 167; connected with doodling 27, 45, 57, 66, 104; connected with drawing 27, 37, 45, 50–51, 66; connected with writing 27, 45, 66–67, 104–105; in the creative process 121, 122; defined 18, 26, 37, 49, 55, 75, 104, 164, 165; as drawing 5; importance of 161; instruction in 26, 37, 47, 55, 64–65, 73, 76, 80–81, 87–89, 96, 102, 159, 162, 163; as a language 66, 127, 168; and learning 45; outside of work 75; perceptions of 17, 81, 105, 119–120; purpose 3, 118–121, 127, 156, 157–158; resurgence in 65–66; term 6–7; as thinking process 38; as umbrella term 27; as visual process 24; vs. drawing 27, 67, 83, 98; vs. photography 56 Sketching for Engineers and Architects (Slade) 15 sketching exercises 135; closed eyes 145; contours 142; letters and adjectives 144–145; lines 137; mark-making 141–142; music 142, 143, 144; nondominant hand 37, 145; paper-cut figures 147, 148; perspective 146, 147; point, line, and plane 137, 138–141, 146, 147; positive and negative 141; shapes 144–146; sources 136; watercolor 148 sketching tools 148, 149, 150, 151, 152–153; mark-making exercise 142; portability of 12 Sketchnote Army website 64 Sketchnote Handbook (Rohde) 3, 61, 64 Sketchnote Workbook (Rohde) 61, 64 sketchnotes 16, 69–70, 84–86, 124, 129, 131 sketchnoting 3, 61, 63, 66, 68, 81–83, 120, 135, 136, 145–146

Slade, Ron 15 Smashing Magazine 30, 107 stress-relief 121 studies 90–94, 125, 127, 128, 130, 133–134 style 24, 71; developing 14, 74, 89 Taccola, Mariano di Jacobi detto 11–12 technical drawings: Medieval/Byzantine 8–9 Tesla 71–72 textiles: work with 31; see also clothing thumbnail sketches 129, 130 Tippin, Mark 43, 44–45 tools 34; and ancient history 6; digital 31; for sketching 148, 149, 150, 151, 152–153 Trippeer, Barbara 87–89, 90–95 typography 80 Ukraine 108 verbal information 21 Villard the Honnecourt 8 vision: types of 20 Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing (Livingstone) 18 visual capture effect 21 visual hierarchies 82 visual information: processing 18, 19, 20–21, 65 visual thinking 49, 51, 68, 156, 158, 169 Wammes, Jeffrey D. 22–23 watercolor/ink sketches 131, 146, 148 “What Does Doodling do?” study 22, 120 wireframe sketches 128–129 workf low designs 34 writing 67, 103; connected with sketching 45, 66, 104–105 Zeldman, Jeffrey 108 Zull, James 120