Drawing Conclusions

Animated graphic from my title screen of my talk.

Later this month I’ll be giving a talk at the HOW Design Conference titled “Drawing Conclusions.” Over the past six months I’ve been doing passive research, interviews and a lot of thinking producing my presentation. I’ve been writing and just finished building the actual keynote file over the last two weeks and have spent many hours drawing out a lot of it’s graphic content since it’s a talk about drawing.

In this post I’m going to share four simple points pulled from my talk and the drawings I created for each of the slides associated with them.

“Load Your Mind” graphic.

I think every designer should be a drawer regardless if they ever want to become a full-blown illustrator or not. Before you can adequately draw out an idea for a project you need to be fully immersed in all the relevant information regarding the genre or topic you’re creating for. You can’t design in a vacuum.

So even though my talk is about drawing I put it in context of the design process it would be utilized in and the foundation starts with a thorough understanding of what you’re creating for and this visual represents that action of taking in information and loading your mind with it before you draw.

“Flex it” graphic.

Drawing is a skill that improves the more you do it. So you just have to flex your creative muscle when ever you can in order to improve it. Every skill can benefit to a certain degree by learning methodology, but when it comes to drawing there really is no short cut, it’s an investment of time to grow and improve your abilities.

“Enjoy the Struggle” graphic.

If you’re not use to making drawing a creative habit you do on a regular basis than more then likely you’ll struggle to stay consistent with it or struggle just because you don’t think your very good at it. Both are normal and both diminish over time and you will see improvement, you just have to stick with it and not give up. Enjoy the struggle.

“Shine” graphic.

One of the most enjoyable aspects with drawing is discovering your own style. Over time the more you draw the more your own unique style will naturally come out and float to the surface of your paper. This isn’t to say you won’t be influenced at times by other artists and styles because that too is all part of the natural morphing every drawer goes through as well. (I’ve created a t-shirt of this “Shine” design. View/Order it here.)

So grab a pencil or pen and start drawing, it’ll improve your design and you’ll have a new creative asset you can add to your arsenal.

Keywords: Commentary, Drawing, PaperMate, Creativity, Doodles