Henry - Drawing for Product Designers

DRAWING FOR

PRODUCT DESIGNERS

KEVIN HENRY

Laurence King Publishing

Drawing for Product Designers

Published in 2012 by

Laurence King Publishing Ltd

361373 City Road

London EC1V 1LR

Tel: +44 20 7841 6900

Fax: +44 20 7841 6910

email: enquiries@laurenceking.com

www.laurenceking.com

Design 2012 Laurence King Publishing Limited
Text 2012 Kevin Henry

Kevin Henry has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs, and Patent Act 1988, to be identified as the Author of this Work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978 1 85669 743 9

Series and book design: Unlimited
Project editor: Gaynor Sermon

Printed in China

Authors dedication:

To my wife Doro for such long and unbending love and to my daughter Klara for the joys that only children can bring.

Related study material is available on the Laurence King
website at www.laurenceking.com

CONTENTS

Fig. 1

This sketch from HLBs Boston office is an early iteration of a design diagram intended to visualize complex research data in a way that will make it clearer to both the design teams and the client.

Why read this book?

Sketching remains the fastest and most direct method for designers to get ideas out on paper, whether they work in a collaborative setting or solve problems alone. It can be differentiated from drawing by its level of refinement: drawing tends to be more deliberate and accurate, following on from the initial sketching process. Sketching should not, however, be thought of as simply giving form to objects and spaces; it should be seen more universally as a tool for thinking, planning, and exploring. It is used by a wide range of people including scientists, mathematicians, engineers, economists, and coaches to help explain, provide instruction, or simply think aloud on paper. In a world of increasingly complex and instantaneous information, quickly sketched visualizations can help simplify and compress data far more efficiently than language. Sketching can also help visualize interactions or scenarios for smart devices such as mobile phones or services more generally.

Sketching, like writing, works in two waysit can be active (like writing) or receptive (like reading)but it is different to writing primarily because of its immediacy: sketched marks often correspond one-to-one with what they represent. And while some technical knowledge might be required to understand technical drawings, most sketches can be read by anyone, anywhere, with seemingly little effort.

Drawings real power lies in its immediacy and speed; its capacity to materialize thoughts and ideas quickly so that they can be expanded upon or shared before they disappear. The designer uses lines and marks to shepherd ideas into existence while they are still only partially formed in his or her mind.

This processa cumulative rather than linear oneallows the designer to go back to a sketch and add to, or subtract from, it or simply revisit ideas on paper and continue the thinking process begun earlier. Such sketch ideation is not simply a matter of documentation or observation; instead it is a highly creative and dynamic act where the power and poetry of line can capture character and begin defining form or clarifying connections thereby enhancing communication. Sketching can be used to show cause and effect, time-based interactions, or form factors.

Fig. 2

The design process is extremely varied. It relies on many different ways of recording, organizing, and refining ideas including: Post-it notes, quick sketched doodles or handwritten notes, color coding or spatial organization, diagramming, and flowcharting. Sketching is vital to every one of these methods because of its speed and provisional nature.

Fig. 3

The many ways in which sketching can assist in the design process include general diagrams, cause and effect sketches, quick ideation sketches, scenario-based sketches, and concept renderings. While all these forms are different they also have a great deal in common.

Fig. 4

These storyboard sketches from Gravity Tank are used as a preliminary tool to flesh out a particular problem or set of issues. The simple cartoonish sketches provide a quick and approximate method for getting the details of potential stories out, and are a refined way to envision potentially larger and more detailed stories. The final deliverable presented to the client is often a high-fidelity video presentation with sound and minimal animation, to create an engaging and captivating story.

Over time these skills evolve into a singular, consolidated method as the designer matures and gains the confidence required to push and pull unrealized ideas on paper or a computer screen. Understanding the ways in which these skills can work separately, as well as how they can be leveraged and merged for stronger visualizations, is critical to any design practice. Sketching, drawing, and visualization in general become inseparable from design thinking.

In order to create a bridge between freehand sketching skills and digitalbased visualization tools, I have devised a unique system that utilizes the language and techniques of both approaches: analog and digital. The method is grounded in the long and rich history of perspective, which informs contemporary computer software, as well as current and past theories of the cognition and vision so critical to understanding how humans see and think. The explanations and tutorials in this book clearly demonstrate how to visualize ideas quickly and effectively. Applying the logic and processes of computer-aided design to analog sketching helps to amplify and clarify many drawing techniques while allowing for a smoother transition between paper and computer.

For this book, hundreds of hand-drawn sketches have been scanned or re-traced in the computer and line art from computer models has been created specifically to demonstrate the connection between the analog and digital. The reader will learn to think fluidly in a three-dimensional world and, through practice, be capable of building complex design ideas that are structurally sound and visually clear. Central to the book is the idea that many design disciplines are blurring their boundaries. Skills that have been important to architects and industrial designers are becoming equally important to illustrators and information designers, and vice versa. This is reflected in the reality that designers (of every discipline) are using similar digital tools (vector-based graphics, raster-based photo manipulation software tools, computer-aided design, and time-based animation software).