Many years ago, when I first arrived on my graphic design course at university I was really surprised to discover how many of the students didn’t draw and didn’t seem interested in drawing at all. I think that it seemed so strange to me because they had enrolled on a course where ideas and creativity were so paramount, I couldn’t understand how anyone could be creative or have ideas without using drawing.
I still don’t.
No matter who you are or what you do, most of us want to generate ideas and be creative-that’s what makes us feel fulfilled as human beings. Drawing for me and many others is a fundamental part of this idea-generation process.
So why is it so useful?
Well I wouldn’t say that I’m the best draughtsperson in the world but for me drawing is about communication.
A recent example of how I’ve used drawing in my everyday life is the sketch below:
My friend had asked me to help her dismantle her Ikea bed, which she had just sold. We had a short amount of time to take it apart and find the instructions. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the instructions. So, as we were wasting valuable dismantling time, I decided instead to draw out a couple of diagrams of the bed showing how it fitted together with the various different screws. It’s a crude (not like that) sketch but it did the job, because it clearly communicated all of the information necessary to put the bed back together.
Drawing can be used for so many purposes including planning, clarifying, modelling and observing. Even the most ancient of civilisations have used drawings to communicate and express their ideas, which is why I’m baffled as to why it is ignored by individuals and institutions as an important tool for creativity today.
Aurochs on a cave painting in Lascaux, France.
Drawing for business
I’ve worked in many design agencies/departments during the course of my career and with many designers and I’ve hardly seen any of them even do a small sketch before progressing to designing something on their machines. I think that this is due to time constrains and pressure placed on them by clients and bosses more than anything else. But still it is worrying that even design departments don’t seem utilise drawing as a tool.
Drawing can be used in so many different areas of a business. Ideas are constantly needed for a business to be successful and that’s exactly what drawing can help you to do- generate original ideas.
How does it do this?
Well I think that the answer to is that it helps us to make connections. We can’t hold many thoughts at the forefront of our minds for very long, so drawing allows us to sketch these thoughts out and make connections between them on paper. If a picture is worth a thousand words and we are trying to make connections between different things to generate something new, then we have a much better chance of doing that through drawing. It’s also playful and fun, and play is a proven idea generation technique.
Jason Santa-Maria has written an excellent article on why drawing and keeping sketchbooks are so important to help you to become a better thinker. He has also set up a flickr group for sketchbook pages which are incredibly inspirational.
Drawing is useful for everything and anything. It isn’t just a tool for artists and designers. It can be used to communicate and generate ideas, whatever you do in life. Drawing is a tried and tested technique to help you to think differently. So pick up a pencil, and lend a hand in stopping the neglect of this ancient and invaluable method of expression and communication.
