Sketching as Design Thinking

Alma R. Hoffmann

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780429668609
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Théorie et critique de l'art

This book argues for the importance of sketching as a mode of thinking, and the relevance of sketching in the design process, design education, and design practice.

Through a wide range of analysis and discussion, the book looks at the history of sketching as a resource throughout the design process and asks questions such as: where does sketching come from? When did sketching become something different to drawing and how did that happen? What does sketching look like in the present day? Alongside an in-depth case study of students, teachers, and practitioners, this book includes a fascinating range of interviews with designers from a wide variety of backgrounds, including fashion, user experience, and architecture.

Sketching as Design Thinking explains how drawing and sketching remain a prominent aspect in our learning and creative process, and provides a rich resource for students of visual art and design.

1
Sketching

A short history

To understand the development of sketching as design thinking and how it is used today, we need to look back to the beginnings of graphic history, art, and design. Researching how sketching surfaced and became an idea generation tool is complex. In part because sketching has often been linked to doodling and other modes of record making such as writing, calligraphy, lettering, and scribbling. Thus, differentiating when sketching became distinct from drawing can be difficult. The definition of each term presents both advantages and disadvantages as some focus on the outcome of each mode instead of the process of making a mark and its source. Peter Medway, however, offers a definition that I find most helpful. He states:

Drawing covers a range of practices and products. The latter range from impressionistic sketches to finished pictorial renderings, used particularly for persuasive presentations to clients or competition judges; and from diagrams showing, for instance, the mechanics of a seal between a window and wall, to working drawings.

(Medway 1996: 35)

The beginning

The history of sketching is intrinsically linked to the history of drawing. Sketching, as a form of drawing, can be simple, detailed, and layered in order to explore, communicate, study, notate, record, think, and reflect on a subject. The designer’s and/or artist’s intentions would determine the style, purpose, and function of said drawings. These forms of drawings are known among designers and artists as a preliminary step in a design and/or construction of visual and physical artifacts that aim to communicate, provide, improve, and facilitate the manner in which we, as a society, live. Humankind, however, has been drawing since the beginning of civilization: on caves, surfaces, tools for their daily life, etc., in order to communicate, connect, or record events. Before we, as a civilization, learned to write, we were drawing to communicate. Thus, we can suggest that sketching and/or drawing, as a visual representation of thought, is to art and design what writing is to language. If drawing has been a mode of language and representation of thought, how did these drawings become sketching, a preliminary step before a composition, a problem-solving tool, or a tool through which we designers think? Archeologist and paleoanthropologist Louis Leaky asks similar questions when he states the following:

How and why did it first occur to man to make images of parts of his world? Did plastic or graphic arts come first? The answers to these and kindred questions can, at best, be no more than guesses. Nevertheless, it is certain that the mere making of an image proclaims its maker human. Such an achievement is even farther from the powers of a pre-human animal than it’s the shaping of a tool or articulate and purposeful speech.

(Leaky 1956: 144)

To borrow from the words of John Heskett (2005), the history of sketching is, like the history of design, a heavily layered process in which each step forward borrows from the previous one, adapts old tools, and invents new tools as needed. He defines design as an act that, “stripped to its essence, can be defined as the human capacity to shape and make our environment in ways without precedent in nature, to serve our needs and give meaning to our lives” (Heskett 2005: 5). And an inherent part of the design process is the act of sketching in order to think about the designs that will shape and make our environment, serve our needs, and give meaning to our lives. Henderson states that sketching is ”the real heart of visual communication” and “essential to getting ideas across” (Henderson 1998: 27).

In early civilizations, as Heskett indicates, the most “crucial instrument was the human hand” and any tool (clam shell, claw, sticks, etc.) was simply an extension of the functions of the hand (Heskett 2005: 9). Eventually, in a process of trial and error, humans would improve on these simple tools. These tools would in time improve, or new ones would be created. Back then, this process probably relied on word of mouth as opposed to written and visual representations. In our day and age, new products, techniques, and improvements of an artifact rely on documentation—notes, drawings, sketches, etc.—to support the ideation and record of development. We are, after all, according to Heskett, not much different from our ancestors, facing similar human dilemmas: how to sustain our creative and thinking processes in order to improve our lives?

The terms “drawing” and “sketching”

The terms “drawing” and “sketching” have been used and continue to be used interchangeably in the literature of the history of art and design. However, sketching is a more recent term. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first use of the term drawing dates back to the 7th century while the term sketching came later, in the 17th century. These two instances, however, do not refer to the meanings we are familiar with: to make marks, to trace, to outline, etc. The first time the term drawing is used to refer to a “trace (a line or figure) by drawing a pencil, pen, or the like, across a surface” dates back to the 14th century. Conversely, the first time the term sketching is used in reference to draw or as “the outline or prominent features of” (a picture, figure, etc.), as preliminary or preparatory drawing to develop further, dates back to the 18th century. Furthermore, even when the terms drawing and sketching are used to differentiate the type of marks and functions of each, there is still a tendency among scholars to use them interchangeably. Thus, when researching the history of sketching, the resulting entries are more limited than if researching the history of drawing. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. It is an advantage because drawing and sketching, as well as other forms of mark making can be grouped together. In general, it means that we acknowledge similarities between these graphic marks produced when either drawing, sketching, and doodling. In contrast, the interchangeable use of the terms is also a disadvantage when researching the origins of sketching as a thinking tool. The history of sketching is a linear progression but within that line, there are many overlaps and directions to follow.

A short history

Cave paintings and marks

How did man decide to paint [draw] on caves and what to paint [draw] on caves? And how did he/she decide the subject matter of said visual expressions? A common hypothesis that is often proposed is that man/woman was captivated by their shadows (Leaky 1956: 144). Thus, a painting or drawing might have been the result of an inquisitive desire to lock his/her shadow or an animal’s shadow in place (Leaky 1956: 144). Leaky suggests that these marks were done by using his/her finger on the ground to trace the contour lines of the shadow or the form of the animal. Another known reference to drawing from shadows reflected on the ground is discussed by Alan Pipes in his book Drawing for Designers. Pipes relates the Greek legend where “Dibutades traced around the shadow (a projection) of her lover, which her father then cut out into a sculpture” (Pipes 2007: 28).

Whether early paintings [drawings] were executed with the intention of understanding the shapes to help with the recognition of animals while hunting, to establish a record of their lives, to teach younger ones about nature, or to reproduce a two-dimensional representation into a three-dimensional structure, the fact remains that our ancestors needed to create visual marks. As an act of externalization, an act of reflection, an act of daily problem solving, or simply an act of journaling, these marks would help someone else make decisions that impacted their survival. For instance, the design of the spear and other tools needed for survival is the first evidence of a design process taking place:

Prehistoric man was the first ‘designer’: to kill an animal, he needed a branch of a tree. In this operation, the abovementioned prehistoric man searched for a branch with a form useful for the necessary function (in the modern ‘methodic design’ such an operation is called ‘design for function’, i.e. to realize a given object with a configuration suitable to perform the wanted function.

(Rovida 2013: 19)

When we study cave paintings, reliefs, and others, we come across some common themes. For instance, hunting, rituals, religious and spiritual events, storytelling, and conquest. These were depicted with varying degrees of detail and/or depth. Cave paintings and reliefs not only tell us of our ancestors’ lives and needs but also exemplify visual communication modalities that evince how man/woman perceived and dealt with their reality and solved problems even while being unaware of this thought process. We can mention two examples where we can infer that there was an effort to communicate. For instance, the drawing of a spear to use for fishing was—“form useful for the necessary function” (Rovida 2013: 19). A second example that allows us to see the use of marks to represent abstract thought is the Ishango Bone found in the Congo dated to be 22,000 years old. Dr. Terence Love, Director and Founder of Design Out Crime, observed in an email conversation that this is the earliest record of mark making “to make abstract representations.” The image shows a “column of marks on the bone that contains the sequence of number 3, 6, 4, 8, 10, 5, 5, 7.” The numerical sequence translated to graphic marks demonstrates one of the vital reasons for the use of visual marks to explain concepts: the need to keep track of complicated or lengthy strings of data and recording abstract thought.

Byzantine period and the Middle Ages

During the Byzantine period, we see two important developments in the evolution of sketching as an idea generation tool: drawings that resembled diagrams to illustrate a process, such as the details of a machine, and the development of templates, also known as anthibolas, that would permit an artist to replicate a particular painting.

The interest in machinery allowed for the development of drawings that were popular among members of society interested in warfare, or an improvement in supplying basic needs, such as water, weaponry, or even plans of defense and attack. For instance, “scientist, artist, [and] architect Villard the Honnecourt’s drawing of a machine resembles modern day diagrams” (Rovida 2013: 27). However, it was evident that some of the technical drawings of this time were not precise in terms of measurements and proportions. These drawings were done for the purpose of describing (Pipes 2007: 31) rather than being used as scale drawings. Though in the current practice of design we have come to believe and expect sketches to be proportional and to scale with a degree of exactitude, this was not the case during the Middle Ages and part of the Renaissance. The interest in and development of machine drawing continued as the development of weaponry for wars and ship building needs increased. It is easier to transport a piece of paper with a diagram than carry large pieces of metal, weaponry, or even a ship.

Anthibolas, or templates, were done to replicate work and fulfill the demands for religious iconography. During the Byzantine period and the Middle Ages, there was a growing demand at the time for paper and a surge in the interest in religious iconography. To accommodate these demands and make it possible for artists to replicate paintings, a system was developed. It consisted of puncturing the contour of a drawing on paper, or as Marr explains, the paper was “pounced” (2013: 86). This punctured paper would allow the artist to replicate a particular icon for many patrons. Anthibola is a Greek word for “working sketches” according to The Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens. The Byzantine and Christian Musuem Virtual Museum’s website offers the following explanation:

Working sketches, [or anthibola, were]designed to help reproduce iconographic subject matter … . They are the working drawings of mainly post-Byzantine painters … . The increasing demand for icons and the spread of paper as a drawing medium gradually led to their becoming commonplace in the wider Greek region … . They were a precious resource, handed on (sold, bartered or bequeathed) from one painter to another, transferring a particular iconographic tradition (iconographic types and characteristics) from one workshop to another. The use of the term ‘anthibolon’ or ‘athibolon’ became widely established in the 18th c. thanks to Dionysios of Phourna and his ‘Hermeneia’ (Painters’ Manual), which also provided the basic guide to the technicalities of making and using ‘anthibola’.

As a method of reproduction, the anthibola grew in popularity and was continued until the 19th century. Below is an image from the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens, Greece.

Figure 1.1 Alma Hoffmann, “Perforated pattern and anthibola in ink and watercolor with a depiction of The Lamentation from Carfu, 18th c.” 2012.

Renaissance

Ann Bermingham, in her book Learning to Draw, states that during the Renaissance drawing was often thought to be analogous to handwriting. The teaching of drawing borrowed from handwriting manuals in which the forms were separated to allow the student to progress in the construction of letters and words. The comparison stems from the belief that both drawing and writing depended on the manipulation of the line (Bermingham 2000: 42). We also see the beginning of the sketch becoming a problem solving and thinking tool, or, as Rovida puts it, it is during this time period when “the first technical drawings” appeared (Rovida 2013: 62).

Several advancements established sketching as a thinking and problem-solving tool: the study of science, the development of measuring tools that allowed for better scientific observations, the rapid adoption of the use of drawing and illustration as a communication and documentation tool, the printing press, and the development of treatises (which needed images to explain concepts to a still largely illiterate population). As travel expanded commerce with other countries and markets, drawings and models were necessary in order to communicate concepts of artifacts and ornaments before production (Heskett 2005: 16) between those who spoke different languages. The use of sketches to explain concepts became an important factor during the Renaissance. Andrew Marr states in his book A Short Book About Drawing: “Drawing had always been important for architects as science began to advance, it became an important skill for mathematicians, anatomists, collectors of botanical rarities, designers of military fortresses, astronomer” (Marr 2013: 87).

The Renaissance was, as the word implies, a rebirth. It was a type of cultural and intellectual revolution that allowed for the arts and sciences to thrive together. Drawing became a very important tool and component that allowed those interested in science to annotate and record their learning. In addition, the printing press liberated knowledge by making it accessible to all in smaller books. Thus, many classics were printed, which included works fe...