Innovate: Sketch out your ideas
We’ve all done it. We rush right to the computer. We don’t even think, we just blindly move shapes around hoping to come up with something creative. We do eventually, but what if that first “warm-up” period could be faster. What if we could get right to the good designs? You can.
Freedom
Sketching will always be faster than using a computer. Even if you have a tablet, it’s still easier and faster to sketch out your thoughts instead of moving shapes on a computer. David Airey illustrates that by showing that you can switch between styles very easily. He make square B’s, organic b’s, geometrical b’s and everything in-between.
Berthier – David Airey
Original Creative
If you are on a computer you are tempted to peruse your favorite inspiration outlets. This is fine provided the timing is right but, you are starting something new and it’s not the time to look. It’s the time to think. Looking at the crucial ideation stage will make you regurgitate previous designs that someone else has already thought through. Marc Hemeon sketches concepts that would’ve taken him a while to achieve on a computer. The best part is he experiments with different marks, swirls, and type BEFORE hitting the computer.
How To Design a Logo, Creating the TeeFury Bird – Marc Hemeon
Rapid Thinking
The beautiful thing about pencil & paper (or pen) or whatever you medium you choose is that it gives you the distinct ability to jump around from one idea to the next. The best apart about this is: rapid exploration. On a computer you have to spend 10 minutes connecting a few letters that could’ve taken you a few seconds on paper. This is vital because you can play out “the bad ideas” that cloud your creative judgement and then you get into the real groundbreaking creative. Alex Cornell sketches out the movement of a penguin. This movement is easily captured on paper. Through his sketches he notices the most important parts of the figure are its wings, beak and eyes.
Plancast Logo – Alex Cornell
Location
Sketching also gives you the ability to be creative anywhere, anytime, anyplace. Paula Scher from Pentagram designed the Citi logo on a napkin in a board meeting. We as creative beings are not always sure when we will be inspired so carrying a sketchbook or having access to a napkin is always good idea. Creatives have also been known to have a sketchbook in every room. It’s a good practice that sometimes comes in handy.
Paula Scher – Citi bank Logo
Rough Mock-up
Many illustrators sketch out a general shape and then take it into photoshop or illustrator to color it or sometimes finish drawing. This gives you the added benefit of using a sketch but also the clean lines (if you choose) of a digital version. Soft Facade shows how the designs were thought out before being finalized into beautiful icons.
SimpleGeo Icons – Soft Facade
Comments
Do you sketch or do you just go straight into the design. Has this changed your thoughts on sketching or are you still going to do it the way you did it before?
Resources
To Sketch or Not To Sketch
Here is another great article on Design Informer that illustrates the same principles. Thanks to @paddydonnelly for the tip.
Chad Engle is currently slaying pixels @BoomtownROI. He abides in coastal Charleston, SC and enjoys living on an island. You should follow, harass or chat to him on twitter @chadengle and @fuelcreativity .
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Great article Chad. I’ve really been getting back to basics but sketching out ideas when I think of them instead of waiting to try to design it on the computer first. I just bought a new moleskin the other day and have about a third of it sketched up already!
It’s a simple idea, but sometimes difficult to do if you’re not accustom to doing to regularly.
It’s amazing how many people decide to skip this step in the design process. I sure hope more people value this. Great post Chad.
This is very true, to me it feels more real if I sketch it out first.
I started out at the age of three, drawing my stuffed animals. And yeah, it was all on paper. As a kid I never had a problem passing the time by drawing, and I could use any media: pen, pencil, chalk, paper, clay. Even my first experiences on a computer always came easily. Now, however, at times I just sit there staring at the screen. I think I need to get back to the basics and enjoy what I’m doing once again! Btw, great post!
Sketching and mindmapping helps a lot to crystalize that very idea that gives birth to a new logo… And it’s really helpful if some of the initial ideas don’t work, you don’t start from scratch but just go back and review your ideas flow. Do skething. Do mindmapping. Do good logos.
Great post, a lot of visual design work these days gets shaped by what Photoshop or Illustrator can do quickly rather than pure creativity and creative development.
Excellent Post!
I have always been a fan of the ol’ pencil and paper. I am always sketching or writing or jotting down ideas in order to just get them out of my head. Lately I have been tempted to take things straight to the computer, but thanks for reminding me that the pencil and paper method is still the best workflow.
When I first started designing logos, I used to jump straight into Illustrator and mock up a few concepts there. Over the last few years though, I’ve started all of my designs with a pencil and sketchbook – even flyers and the like – and have found that it gives me a lot more room to be creative.
I’ve always written ideas down on a notepad beside my desk (alongside a to-do-list) – simply because its easier to reference it than a to-do-app and it doesn’t require window switching…
The problem I have with sketching ideas is that I’m most definitely not a natural freehand artist… – Are there any tips / articles people would recommend on this?
Good one
Previously i had also the temptation of hitting the computer first
The sketches on rough or smooth papers gives a lot of boost to creativity as well
and specially the sound of pencil on the rough paper..also works for me ..i think we need to enjoy whole of the process and also keep our other sense engaged on other side activities (sketching sound) that playing along with the main process (sketching)
More needs to be discovered
Good article, I learned something new about creating orgainic shapes of letters. I do sketch out before I go to the computer…it helps alot and like you said, the ideas flow quicker.
Good article, I have Wacom tablet and use it for sketch my idea…This is the same think like pencil and paper even better….Save the tree, save the planet..
I don’t think it’s always necessary to go to the sketching stage, or spend “x” amount of time there. Sometimes I do a lot of sketching, sometimes just a little, and sometimes none at all. It depends how concrete the idea is in my mind. Sometimes the ideas flow to me all at once and sometimes it’s a while coming, so I like to use sketching to brainstorm rather than developing the actual logo, with the possible exception of non-geometric shapes, such as, characters. I might sketch out the entire character out and then trace it in Illustrator.
Probably what I use pencil and paper for the most is writing my thoughts down and ideas about a logo. This practice supplies me with actual quantifiable terms about the logo so when it comes time to present them to my client, I can tell him the process and meaning in the logo.
With that said, I could probably afford to “go back to the drawing board” more than I currently do.
Good article. Thanks, Chad. *Re-Tweet* ;)
Excellent. I think this is the best way to build up your design idea.
I am old school, We did everything with pencil and pen. You can take a sketching pad anywhere and brain storm ideas. It is amazing how inspiration comes about when going outside of your working environment (the typical office). I tend to use a blue pencil and then define it further with a black pencil. From there either create it on the computer or scan and trace it and work further on it.
Great article, i think by sketching out ideas especially for logo designs you can develop them and progress your ideas, and show your work in progress, in case you decide to take a few steps back.
Having studied over 20yrs ago pre computer design, sketching was the start of designing so that habit has stayed with me but I can see how current day designers don’t have this skill…maybe educators could revisit the design curriculum and introduce this technique?
Thanks for this blog Chad. One of the obstacles to sketching is the idea or belief that drawing or sketching requires artistic talent. To be sure there are visually talented people, just as there are poets and novelists for verbal expression; but the impulse to sketch is UNIVERSAL in children (therefore ALL of us). Were education to nurture this drawing impulse (as it does reading and writing), virtually everyone would draw!
I am a fairly new designer, having been out of college and working professionally for 4 years now. I was fortunate enough to have print and graphics classes in high school, and my teacher taught us all the traditional methods, including sketching our ideas out first. In fact, our sketches accounted for a percentage of every project we worked on!
In college I found the teaching to be different. Concept, Design, and Craftsmanship were the keystones drilled into our minds and projects. Part of the degree did included taking fine art classes, however the idea of using pen and paper to begin designing was not stressed. For me it depends, if I am truly stumped on a creative idea, sketching definitely helps. Most of the time if I have a general idea of what I want, I go straight to the computer.
same to me lol… ill always do this ..one… its actually easy to create some basic shapes lines and design on paper.. and the when ur done… u can easily mock up ur designs’ into photoshop or illustrator….
An initial draft on a sheet of paper is always a good start for a new project.