Hasta La Ideas

This is the third post in a 6-part series from Ziba’s Industrial Design Director, Paul Backett, on rethinking design education. Read the Introduction to the series, Teach Less, Integrate More here.

Every design school teaches the mechanics of sketching: line, volume, perspective, shading and so on. But when it comes to project work, most fail to teach students to sketch with purpose. This makes all the other exercise pointless. All too often I see sketches that look fine, but when I ask, “Why did you choose that form?” I get a shrug. As with research, students often see sketching as a step to complete, rather than a tool to be used throughout the design process.

Design has never been a linear series of tasks to be checked off. Experienced designers know that it’s more like a loop. It begins with research and problem framing, then falls rapidly into an iterative loop of exploration and refinement exercises, where ideas come to life and grow, gradually solidifying until they’re ready for the more linear finalization phase. As designers, we have to ride this loop repeatedly to find the right solution, and sketching is there at every turn. From an early thumbnail sketch at a brainstorm to refined detail sketches to final presentation renderings, it’s our best friend throughout the ride.

One of the things I ask my students to do before sketching is to build a design theme: a set of carefully curated products, attributes, materials and details that tell a clear story. It explains, for example, whether the product should be engaging and approachable or refined and technical; bold and powerful or so subtle it blends with the environment. Properly constructed, it becomes a designer’s ‘go to’ when sketching, setting up a brainstorm session, exploring form and refining details. From early on, design students should be in the habit of having one or more of these themes in front of them while they sketch, to reinforce the idea that sketching is only useful when it’s helping to realize an idea.

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