Mike Rohde, in his A List Apart article, Sketching: the Visual Thinking Power Tool, starts off his article with a paragraph that might as well have been pulled right from my mind, memory, and imagination:
[As a kid] I used drawing as a primary language for capturing thoughts, exploring ideas, and then sharing those ideas. Teachers and mentors encouraged me, helping to sustain sketching as a key skill throughout school and into my professional career. Good fortune has ignited my passion to become a sketch advocate, helping others rediscover sketching as a powerful problem-solving and communication tool.
Not that I’m much of a sketch advocate – I don’t travel around preaching the gospel of sketching, but I know deep down that it’s the best way to start any creative project. In his article, Mike rhetorically asks, why bother sketching, and offers up three great points:
- [To produce] a variety of ideas, quickly
- [To easily] explore the alternatives
- To Foster Better Discussions
The insight that backs up and elaborates upon each of those points is concise but so on point! Especially now when we commercial artists are so tied to our electronic tools of creation, it’s helpful to be frequently reminded that a plastic and inquisitive mind is the actual thing that needs to be booted up first.
This article made me think of a book I’m currently reading: Dan Roam’s The Back of the Napkin – Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures. Let me put that more accurately; this article reminded me that I need to finish reading that book.