thinking through drawing: sketchbook #02
Sketching when designing is very different from sketching buildings from life. When in the midst of the process of designing the sketch drawing is a tool for exploring ideas - a vital part of design that I like to refer to as ‘thinking through drawing’. The brilliant product designer Cas Holman who specialises in design for play said :
“I think of sketching as an extension of my brain, like I have an idea and I can’t really figure it out until my hand is helping. So, sometimes I have an idea of what it is in my head but it’s usually not finished until I get it on paper”.
This sense of the physical action of drawing being a symbiotic process between brain, hand and eye is experienced by many designers - whether designing buildings, landscapes, products or cars. Frank Stephenson, designer of the Ferrari F430, Fiat 500 (new), Mini Hatch and McLaren P1 says about drawing that:
“your hand is linked with your mind, but your hand is doing all this drawing so its almost like I am sitting here as an observer watching what’s coming out on the paper. Like there’s two us here in front of this drawing, one doing the drawing, the other one sort of criticising or critiquing it as it appears in front of us.”
The sketches I have included here are from an A5 size sketchbook of 2003 whilst I was working at DEGW. In them I was exploring the design of various projects for university buildings plus thoughts for a competition entry for extension of The Royal Museum, Edinburgh. At the time I was travelling for work a great deal and quite often found the best place and time to sketch was when travelling. Back then I didn’t have a smart phone to distract me.
If you are interested in the design process I recommend the Netflix documentaries on Cas Holman (“Abstract” Episode 3) and Frank Stephenson (“Chasing Perfect”) - both designers are pretty inspiring and the documentaries are well made.
