Hasta La Ideas

After reviewing Sketchbooks: The Hidden Art of Designers, Illustrators and Creatives just a few weeks ago, it seemed premature to cover another one so soon, but any drawing teacher would concur: you can never do enough sketching. Sketchbook: Conceptual Drawings from the World’s Most Influential Designers by Timothy O’Donnell covers similar material in a slightly different manner. While Brereton’s book caught artists and ad execs at their most candid, O’Donnell documents primarily illustrators and designers doing real projects. Thus the art throughout is more precise, a little tighter and far less kooky. While this bodes well for the pencil chops of designers as a whole, it also means that looking at some of these sketchbooks is totally demoralizing.

Looking at the book as a whole, however, is beyond lovely. Laid out on a grid with four unrelated serif and sans fonts (no superfamilies here!) it coheres harmoniously … and that’s even with Johnny Hardstaff’s frenetic sketches on the page. Hardstaff, however, is the only artist that appears in both O’Donnell and Brereton’s books, probably because his skills with a felt tip are so damn tight. Lots of other talent abounds too. Ayse Birsel of Birsel+Seck says of her partner, “Bibi draws like a god,” and although I don’t know what god draws like, he (that would be Bibi) is as good as Mr. Hardstaff. Birsel+Seck are product designers to boot … plus Yahweh might find Johnny Hardstaff’s sketches a little risque. What Sketchbook: Conceptual Drawings from the World’s Most Influential Designers does far better than The Hidden Art of Designers is illustrate the creative process. Each serves a different master. While Brereton’s book was about love, O’Donnell’s book is about results. Fortunately for the reader, viewing these conceptual sketches doesn’t feel like work at all.

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