Why research drawing? I started tutoring Visual Communication, Design students at Western Sydney University (Australia) after working as an illustrator, animator and graphic designer in several design studios in Sydney. When I started teaching at the University, the classroom environment was a foreign, yet challenging, environment.
In my early teaching days, many of the undergraduate assessment tasks were group assignments. Students generally hated group assignments as they needed to meet and communicate outside the classroom. To define their group brief, brainstorm ideas and generally get each design team literally on the same page early in the process, I devised in-class collaboration and creative thinking activities like mind mapping and sketching thumbnails and storyboards. Students didn’t like committing themselves to paper in front of others, so I often found myself drawing students’ ideas as they talked it through with the other people in their group. They often asked to keep these drawings to remind themselves of what was discussed. Many of MY drawings made their way into their process submissions. Why weren’t they doing their own rough sketches! For me, it was natural to talk through an idea while sketching. Drawing was a handy tool. I wondered if this was just a by-product of my pre-computer education?
I then discovered the research of Pam Schenk, who conducted several longitudinal studies investigating the role of drawing in the graphic design process of both professional and novice designers in the UK. Her research began in the mid 80’s and spanned a 25-year period that coincided with my career as a graphic designer. Like many of Schenk’s professional participants in her studies, I was exposed to the constant and profound changes that technology brought to the industry, and to the design process in particular.
Like some of the industry participants, many of the hand-drawn elements in my design process were quickly replaced by computer-assisted techniques. Just as AI is replacing much of the grunt work now. I didn’t go out of my way to become an early digital adopter, but I did try and use the most efficient means available, at the time, to conceptualise and communicate to clients and production teams. This was necessary to remain competitive and fulfil client expectations. Eventually, like many of my colleagues and new recruits, my use of drawing was reduced to ideation sketches and thumbnails, which I still found essential.
Research confirms the many benefits of sketching as part of the design thinking process, but many students find drawing quite challenging and therefore, restricting. So if students aren’t sketching as part of their process, what are they doing? In my thesis, Back to the drawing board? I use a series of questionnaires and interviews to built a picture of creative thinking techniques used by high achieving students at Western Sydney University. Could their creative processes be improved or enhanced by the inclusion of more hand-eye thinking through drawing? How can all students be encouraged to give sketching a go?
Narrowing down my thesis research topic was difficult. Initially I was interested in developing improvisational drawing activities, like ‘squiggling’ and ‘doodling’ to promote drawing participation. I had discovered improvements in my own creative thinking skills using similar projection techniques, but I soon discovered that for many students there was a disconnect when it came to any type of drawing. Many of the assessment criteria at that time focused on outcomes only.
I then explored using the iPad and various sketch apps as a possible ‘gateway’ into drawing for students. All first year students were given an iPad on entry, so this warranted investigation. Whilst I found I was able to draw ‘well enough’ using an iPad, non-drawers found drawing on a slippery surface a difficult and discouraging experience. In the last few years iPads and stylus technology has improved, however many students at WSU can’t afford a tablet as well as a computer. For the novice designer, the value of using a tablet is to create a hand drawn digital image is that it can be easily exported into another program. For me the real value of sketching on an iPad is to record the creative process and evaluate my iterations. For me, digital sketching is “handy”. AI generative software also has a place, but the key to finding human centred visual solutions is to start the creative thinking process using the brain, hand, eye connection and feel your way from what is needed (the problem or issue or desire) and then compile possibilities tailored to the desired outcome and the audience (that is ever changing and nuanced) – THEN use what ever tools will make it easy to communicate and efficient to produce.
My thesis, Back to the Drawing board? explores the value of the rough sketch or ‘process drawing’ in the ideation stage of the creative process. Through my own design and visual arts practice, and through the development of improvisational drawing activities for Visual Communication, Design students, I continue to find a way with, and through, drawing.
Understanding student’s needs and limitations is key to the development of successful creative thinking practices taught in design schools. The question is not ‘should drawing be taught in design schools?’, but rather ‘How should drawing be taught in design schools’?
Improdraw 
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