Sketching for Prototyping Training

Essential insights and tips

Why do designers sketch?

-To get down ideas easy

-To communicate ideas

-Record ideas

What is a good sketch?

Different purposes

To think.

Sketching as a method of thinking.

To capture and communicate details

Way to iterate, test, and evolve ideas

To show

As a communication tool

To help visualize

A way to communicate a feeling

When thinking

The quality of that sketch is judged by the value of the idea captured by the sketch

When showing

Aesthetically pleasing

How well it can convey feeling and vision

Expectations while sketching

Do hundreds of sketches to lead to one main body

Case study: Marc Newton

Madonna chair

Though his sketch wasn't good, the idea he wanted to capture was represented in his sketch

It's about capturing an idea and communicating it through your sketches

Takeaways from Hans

1) Aim to make mistakes.

-Let your next mistakes inform your next sketch

-Get it wrong and do it again

2) Be efficient with your sketching

-Know exactly what you're trying to communicate

3) Develop your own style

4) Sketch constantly

Tips

-No erasers, ever. If you make a mistake, draw another one

-No fuzzy/hairy lines (The back and forth technique thing)

-Use annotations to supplement drawings (Labels, etc)

-Draw in both 2D and 3D

-Use hatching to indicate material/texture/color

In the first exercise, we had to iterate different sketches surrounding a bottle following the instructions given i.e. sizing, add attributes, refine curves/shape, open lid function etc. in 7-8 minutes.

The second exercise was similar and also done in 7-8 minutes but instead focused on sketches around a lamp and then putting the lamp into different contexts i.e. changing its size in relation to the environment.

We were then given another similar exercise but it was to be done independently in a larger time frame i.e. 30 minutes to one hour, where we explore and iterate different sketches based on the chair image given to us by Hans.