We’re offering up a new crew of artists here who were brave enough to crack open their project diaries, giving us a peak at where it all begins. And while these three firms may have different focuses and structures they play off of, authenticity is the common thread that runs through them all. They achieve it by always building off of one of the most basic forms of expression: hand drawing. Read on to see how their sketchbooks and notepads become a part of their process…
Bruce Mau Design
Whether they’re working on a branding campaign or an interior environment, the first move for the designers working at the multidisciplinary design firm, Bruce Mau Design, is to break out the sketchbook. While the initial reasoning is the speed in which they can mock up preliminary ideas, President and CEO Hunter Tura said, “Even though [sketching has been] faster, an interesting thing began to happen: clients began to really fall in love with the authenticity and energy that is expressed in the sketches as opposed to more polished computer renderings.”
Amanda Happé, director of strategic design, takes that idea one step further by explaining that sketching opens the mind to more creative solutions. “Creating the opportunity to sketch during workshops changes the nature of the conversation,” she explained. “It’s almost impossible to deliver overly-familiar responses when your medium has changed. Encouraging our clients to collaborate with us in such a loose, experimental, and visual way as sketching brings out not only new answers, but new ways of thinking about the question itself. The outcomes don’t have to be great; it’s more important that they’re different.”
While many stick to sketching as a means of conveying ideas about physical space, Bruce Mau Design puts the practice to use in all aspects of the planning process, from typography design to sketching out a work-flow plan. “A big part of what I do in my role is put the conditions in place for a successful project: that can be anything from formulating a scope of work, to figuring out the right organizational model, to developing narrative sequences for presentations,” said Tura. “For me, sketching is the ideal way to work through these different aspects of design management quickly and efficiently.”
Virginia Langley Design
For designer and artist Virginia Langley, a pattern always starts at home base: her pencil and paper. “I like to say all I need is my sketchbook, camera, and passport to initiate designing,” Langley explained.
She has developed beautiful carpet collections for Brintons, Mohawk, and beyond in her studio that holds a range of design equipment, such as the easel and brushes that sit next to a CAD design system. She’ll typically scan a drawing or painting into her iPad or computer and many a time it can serve as the basis for her textile designs. Drawing keeps her work natural and gives a personal touch that she believes holds value for the client. Furthermore, it maintains a higher standard of quality, allowing her to properly develop a pattern to perfection.
“I think practicing drawing actually keeps your artist ability on a much higher level. If you keep short cutting with only digital methods, it will start to reflect in your work. I refer to drawing as the exercise to develop the artist’s muscle,” she said.
She will always be most inspired by nature, truly coming alive as a designer when she is surrounded by it, drawing out her ideas. However she maintains it’s important to achieve a balance between more traditional methods like hand-sketching and the more contemporary technological advances we all have access to.
“I want to take full advantage of every means to design, from conventional to digital, from Art Shoppe to Photoshop!”
NicholsBooth Architects
In an era ripe with 3D printing, and virtual simulations, NicholsBooth Architects in San Francisco holds tight to the tradition of hand sketching in the early stages of the design process. “Hand sketching is critical to getting some ideas across in the process manner,” said CEO Gary Nichols. “It’s that first tear of a fresh piece of trace paper where design collaboration among colleagues begins to happen and ideas become a dialogue.”
While he admits that digital modeling excels in giving the client a more thorough view of the space, a project’s birth is in the lines and shading that pencil provides.
“Hand sketching gives the advantage of getting those initial ideas and concepts out in the real world for dialogue and discussion, without having to rely too much on material constraints,” Nichols explained. “[It] also imparts a sense of looseness and organic quality, which clients appreciate in an ever-increasing Photoshopped world.”
Designer Candace Chan put this ideology into practice with her design iterations for Zoosk’s collaborative space. While the BIM rendering provides the viewer a better idea of how the booths would fit into the 3D space, Chan’s pen and marker sketches quickly translates the design team’s ideas and exude the intended warmth of the finished space.
But Nichols also points out that hand sketching does not go head-to-head with digital rendering—instead it works to marry the two: “Sketching and digital technologies go hand-in-hand nowadays. They both offer great advantages and complement each other through iteration and process-making. It’s great to be able to sketch something out, scan it, digitally model it, print it, overlay another sketch on it, and then repeat.”
