Comments on: Innovate: Sketch out your ideas

By: The Steps of Creative Communication | Fuel Your Creativity

The Steps of Creative Communication | Fuel Your Creativity — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 17:06:39 +0000

[...] interior designers, industrial designers or anyone in the creative realm. It has been said that sketching helps free the mind and open up concepts. Don’t think of it as “This has to be done now or I will hurt my [...]

By: chris

chris — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 04:25:31 +0000

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….

By: Victoria

Victoria — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 01:40:20 +0000

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.

By: Lyn

Lyn — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:49:15 +0000

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!

By: Rosa

Rosa — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 01:09:14 +0000

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?

By: Victoria Blount

Victoria Blount — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:20:56 +0000

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.

By: Behzad

Behzad — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 10:41:55 +0000

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.

By: Sharif khan

Sharif khan — Tue, 18 May 2010 07:02:25 +0000

Excellent. I think this is the best way to build up your design idea.

By: Travis Ulrich

Travis Ulrich — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:58:02 +0000

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* ;)

By: dansteto

dansteto — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 05:06:04 +0000

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..

By: sharon

sharon — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:14:08 +0000

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.

By: Gaurav Mishra

Gaurav Mishra — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 05:40:57 +0000

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

By: Paul Millar

Paul Millar — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 13:30:37 +0000

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?

By: Marnie B

Marnie B — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:42:49 +0000

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.

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:04:07 +0000

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.