so you've taken a brief you've done your
research and now you're thinking about
creating designs to answer the brief
unless you're sketching to work
something out or record an idea for
yourself everything you do is to
communicate your ideas to someone else
to tell a story so in this episode we're
looking at design sketching and how to
improve your presentation sheets
first off I'm going to show you my
sketchbooks the pages I'm showing you
and not that good are they my
sketchbooks for recording ideas when
they happen on a bus or a train late at
night when I've just closed my eyes and
I get a good idea they're a design diary
but they're not meant to be precious the
reason I'm showing them to you first is
because often thinking around ideas in a
messy way is the first stage in the
concept design process people look
through design sites like Cora flawed
and BND's and they see beautiful
sketchbook pages of lots of super sharp
designs and then they get worried when
their efforts don't even get close but
the thing is your first sketches
probably won't be all that good because
you're working things out and a lot of
the time it's impossible to work things
out by being tidy so relax don't get
obsessed with trying to make things look
all design only straight away do you
think those guys show you their worth
stuff of course they don't sketchbooks
are important but they are not how you
present ideas the clients for that you
put together a design presentation
everything when working towards the
first presentation is about refinement
you start off with a wealth of ideas to
answer the brief exploring lots of
different avenues some get combined some
discarded some improved but gradually
they get narrowed down not to one final
design that's not necessarily your job
straight away based on the brief you're
presenting options to the client and
empowering them to choose the best one
for their business helping to guide them
through the process so you arrive at the
best solution
together unless agreed you're never
presenting just one solution this isn't
any different in college just remember
for everything I'm about to show you
your teacher is the client one of the
greatest problems people have when
sketching when they first start out is
that they don't draw with confidence and
so they're drawing looks messy because
they don't know what they're going to
draw they try finding their way on the
page and rather than draw a single curve
they draw a series of curves their mark
making isn't purposeful so rather than
finding your way on the page try to
visualize what you're going to draw in
your head first then draw what you're
thinking not thinking by drawing you can
rough out your drawing first which I
often do but try to make all your
outlines and the lines most visible as
smooth as possible make sure this part
of your drawing hand is clean and dry
because if it isn't if your hand gets a
bit sweaty it can drag rather than glide
across the paper upsetting the quality
of your line if this doesn't work or you
make a mistake that you can't recover
you can use your drawing as an underlay
if your paper is a bit thick to make
tracing easy try holding your sheet up
against the window
you
it's easy to give up too quickly on a
schedule it isn't going well but it can
pay to persevere a black outline not
only makes your design stand out but it
can be used to hide a multitude of sins
here the line is a bit wobbly but a
black outline hides it and then it's a
mistake here but an arrow and no cleans
it up as can an editing package like
Photoshop also watch how you join lines
if your joins are messy
try leaving a gap although be careful
when filling in color and Photoshop as
it can flood out if you go over an edge
try to balance it out so that it looks
purposeful if you're putting in a 3d
view make sure it's in perspective as
people can instantly tell when something
isn't right a great way to convey form
before shading is by adding describing
lines if this cube sides were belied for
example adding a shadow as a sense of
realism you can do this by drawing the
shadow area first and hatching it in or
by using a hard shadow or using
Photoshop an airbrush or blur tools make
sure you decide the main light source
direction and make all your shadows
follow that and adjust the darkness of
the shadow for the area's most hidden
from the light adding a background
square or circle or triangle or
graduated tone makes your design stand
out badly written note can really drag a
presentation down so learn to write
neatly in capital letters if you want to
show texture on a grip area for example
then sometimes a simple rubbing on a bit
of sandpaper can work well all this can
be done in drawing apps but all the
principles are the same
as long as it looks good and
communicates the design intent well
there are no rules so this episode is
just a guide to what works well for me
draw slowly there are loads of sketching
tutorials on YouTube but the vast
majority of videos speed the footage up
as I've done for most of this video
because watching someone's real real
time can mean your video is over an hour
long but with the speeded up footage you
can be tricked into thinking that you
need to sketch fast your sketching will
improve if you slow down and take your
time
don't press too hard with many drawing
tools you can vary the pressure to make
your lines more interesting by going
from thin to thick lines it's known as
line weight but with many pens pressing
hard damages the tip of the pen which
doesn't improve the drawing your
drawings will look better and the life
of your pens will be extended if you go
lightly so to make your drawings more
interesting use a variety of pens thin
tip pens for detail and thicker pens for
outlines draw big paper is cheap if
you're scanning things into Photoshop
they'll look good
scale down but bad if scaled up so it's
far better to draw big fill the page
with one design don't squash it in but
don't be mean with it either I think we
all start out drawing small squeezing
lots of designs onto one page which in
your portfolio is great because it
allows you to show lots of ideas without
having to flip through lots of pages and
makes your portfolio visually enticing
when presenting to a client you would
never present more than one design on
one page because if you did it would be
really confusing you want everyone's
focus on one design you don't want a
client asking hey are we talking about
1:30 and from left what this one no fool
my left not your left the great thing
about working on one idea per page is
that in a design consultancy at any
point one of your colleagues can come in
and take your sketch and use it as an
underlay to generate more presentation
concepts then another colleague can do
the same and in no time at all as a team
you've generated a whole series of
presentation sheets
another advantage is that you or anyone
else can take a sketch to an engineer
discuss its feasibility all the focus is
always on the relevant concept and all
your sketches can be presentations so it
speeds things up with this method of one
idea of a page if you want to then
produce good-looking portfolio pieces of
the sketchbook style groups of sketches
you can scan and combine them in an
editing package and adjust their
positions to make a better composition
this is far more efficient than trying
to draw everything perfectly on one page
people have asked me about arrows there
are lots of different styles but really
I only use two types thin ones for
making a note and thick 3d ones to show
action like push move rotate many people
want to jump straight into CAD because
it's where they're most comfortable CAD
is brilliant but it's a tool like
anything else for clients not familiar
with the design process CAD makes your
first presentation look too finished and
so the client thinks you are further
along than you really are
but a good sketch it's still viewed as a
fluid thing it's not yet concrete people
can still allow their imagination to
fill in the gaps do not underestimate
the power of a drawing
so back to telling stories you always
have to consider what to communicate and
who you are communicating to remember
you're trying to communicate your idea
to someone because designers are
storytellers your tutor your employer or
prospective employer and engineer most
importantly the client each person will
be looking for your designs to answer
their own specific questions the
engineer will it work well and can it be
manufactured the market here can I sell
this does it have good USPS a
prospective employer can this person do
the job but by far the most important
question of all by the most important
person in the process the client is does
this design answer the brief and your
drawing has to communicate this to them
cleanly clearly and concisely a simple
series of side views of the design tells
a basic story adding color and shadow
and texture has this story out more a
perspective view a few bullet points
pointing out the best features a view
that shows use or a cartoon tells a
bigger story but you also want to tell
the story in the best most concise way
the least confusing way you don't want
to fill the entire page with with
explanations and cartoon usage diagrams
and distracting backgrounds and fluff
because of my language I read left to
right and in terms of composition and
storytelling I try to make my
presentation do the same putting what I
want to say first on the left the
introduction this is usually a couple of
planned views especially aside view and
then I'm concluding my story on the
right often with a perspective view
every presentation sheet should stand on
its own because not only do you have to
present it but they get left behind and
the client may have to take it and
present it to their superiors so it
still has to do its job after you've
gone so really consider your target
audience and the information you're
putting
page-width presentation sheets sometimes
less is more
and sometimes less is less people our
score pens and pencils I use and I've
noted what materials I've used
throughout the video I do have a few
favorites I really like this pen which I
use for air lighting and I love a blue
pencil but I use anything I can get my
hands on what I love about creating
presentation sheets is that you can do
so much with the simplest of materials
that many of us already have in our
homes you don't need special pens and
pencils and markers some people think
that having the most expensive materials
will make them a better artist and good
artist materials are nice to use but you
can get children's art materials that
are really high-quality and a fraction
of the price here I'm using a set of
crayons some felt-tip pens and a biro
you can't get much cheaper than that I
have no problem presenting this to a
client so remember good presentations
are not about the quality of materials
you use they're about the quality of
communication about the strength of your
ideas and how well you tell the story
and answer the brief there is no
substitute for practice thanks for
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you