11 creative professions that use sketching as a tool in their design process and why

From UX designers to movie directors, great ideas start with simple sketches

Hayden Mills
Jul 25, 2017 · 7 min read

Being a UX designer, I often wonder what other creators do during their design process. I’m obsessed with refining my own process in order design faster, smarter, and work better on teams. I talked to a few friends from different creative professions and read some articles online. One thing many of us share in common is the simplicity of sketching.

Here are a few professions that use sketching to help them brainstorm new ideas and better communicate with one another…

Architects

“Y House” sketch by Steven Holl

“You can get a lot of buy in from clients on a project if you are able to express quickly and clearly what you want on a piece of paper.”

Cedric Burgers, Architect

Animators and Storyboard Artists

Pixar artists drawing a new world for a movie

“(Sketching out) a storyboard is a way to write a story using pictures instead of words. The goal is to find actions, presented visually, that provide clues to what the character is thinking, feeling or wants.”

Designing a Pixar Film

Character Designers

Character design iterations at Pixar

“Pixar’s artists use traditional media to draw the initial design of their characters. An artist typically does hundreds, sometimes thousands, of sketches before they are satisfied with the design of their character. A major character goes through a much longer design process and often includes a number of artists and the director working to create the look, feel and personality of the character.”

Pixar, Character Design

Industrial Designers

Gaming mouse sketches

“A good sketch conveys the designer’s ideas without being overly worked. Drawings don’t have to be crisp and sharp. It’s better to get several good ideas down quickly and relay multiple thoughts and ideas at a glance. The main focus at this point is to convey imagination and fresh thinking and not focus on or ‘noodle’ one idea.”

Adam Fairless, Industrial Designer

Footwear Designers

Listen to Tinker Hatfield talk about sketching until 2am in the morning

“I’ve adopted (sketching) as a primary tool for moving through the early phases of a project. I’ll make notes all around the sketches. One sketch leads to another. I’m having a conversation with myself.”

— Tinker Hatfield, Nike Footwear Designer

Engineers

Bridge design by Mark Whitby

“Some engineers cannot communicate without sketching, and it may seem odd, but hand sketching is a means to clarify thinking, just like writing. Ideas can be tested, relationships explored, and details developed. Without the ability to hand sketch, a structural engineer may be at a loss to perform critical structural engineering thinking. The ability to think critically saves money and time for consumers of structural engineering services. As a profession, we cannot afford to let this skill die because of a perceived lack of technological sophistication.”

Peter Carrato, Civil Engineer

UX/Product/Interaction Designers

Paper sketch prototype by Cam Macbeth

“Words are powerful, but sometimes they don’t cut it. We can try to describe what we’re imagining, but a diagram often gets us to a common ground quicker.”

Jared Spool, UX Designer

Carpenters

Custom cabinet sketch

“My sketch book is where I begin. Here, I work out design and proportion. Here, I ask questions and solve problems. I’ll even make notes about fabrication constraints or generate a bill of materials. A sketch book isn’t just drawings, but notes and reminders too!”

Mike, Woodworker and Carpenter

Interior Designers

Source

“In a recent meeting, the client was able to sketch on my sketch, which had a level of interactivity and excitement that bonded us even closer and led to better mutual understanding.”

John Abbate, Interior Designer

Graphic Designers

Aaron Draplin designing a logo

“Sketching is meant to be fast, fun, and free. Your hand is more free than it would be with using Illustrator.”

Aaron Draplin, Graphic Designer

Movie Directors

Storyboard sketches done by Tim Burton

“It helps me to hone in on my thought process, which tends to be all over the place… Plus, sometimes a doodle will remain with me and I’ll draw it over and over. In a weird way that’s how I know something has meaning.”

Tim Burton, Movie Director

Why all the sketching?

Sketching gives you a place to start

Sketching helps you document the process

Sketching is fast and easy

“The real value of sketching is that it allows you to explore and refine ideas in a quick, iterative and visual manner with little overhead or learning curve. Rapid ideation around flow and interaction, layout and hierarchy, can be quickly established, rearranged or discarded wholesale — all without ever touching a computer.”

Sketching is a common language that can bring clarity to an idea

Sketching breeds collaboration

Sketching is a tool accessible to the whole team

Sketches only need to communicate intent — they do not need to communicate detail. So time spent prettying them up, or getting them just perfect is wasted time. — Jason Fried

In summary, sketching is a simple tool used by many creative professionals across industries. A sketch helps you communicate visually whats in your head. It’s a tried and true method to help you move from one idea to the next while keeping everyone on the team on the same page.

Here are some other great resources on sketching!


Thanks for reading!

I’m on the world wide web at haydmills 👋

Hayden Mills

Written by

UX @highalpha. Building @fontpair. IU HCI/design alumni. Follow me @haydmills.

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