The best advice I’ve ever had regarding drawing skills is to simply practice every day, every chance you get, and draw everything. Like anything worth achieving, it takes time, so don’t get discouraged.

I grew up in the pre-computer era and drew a lot as a child, so I’m comfortable with a pencil and paper. But as a designer, I don’t do a lot of detailed sketches — it’s usually just a quick way to see how to distribute things on a page, or how a multi-story page will flow, or a way of quickly comparing two approaches. The sketches themselves rarely need to look attractive or polished. They’re just a scribbly shorthand for your ideas.

Mate, only you will be able to find out what is a waste of time. But I wouls suggest definately draw as much as possible, keep a diary or someting. It is much easier to think outside the glowing monitor!!! Chesk this guy’s stuff—pretty ok for a kiwi!! http://www.klim.co.nz/content/notebook/notebook.html

Muzz

A pencil is like a computer or a piano or a telescope in that it is an instrument that you might employ to give voice and range to your imagination. And one ought to worry less about performace or quality at the outset and more about simply establishing a healthy relationship with drawing in which you find it purely enjoyable. It may not seem like it, but going to life drawing sessions is a great introduction to the orchestrations of seeing, thinking and sketching. I know with certainty that drawing all the time enriches my own approach to design, but that is very, very far down on the list of reasons why I do it.

“What are some things I might avoid that can prevent me from being productive? Are there any well known situations that could cause me to slow down?”

Spending too much time reading typophile threads! (just kidding)

PS. Nice link Muzzer.

At the art school I’m attending, I’m also told many times I need to draw and make more sketches. The concept is the most important thing, they say. Which is of course the truth. However, when I look around at some of my fellow students; some of them can draw their ideas quite nicely, but afterwards, they do not have the skills to finalize their ideas on the computer. Which renders their ideas useless to them.

I’m not saying the drawing part is obsolete, but it is not everything.
But of course, it is good to at least be able to make quick and comprehensive sketches, even if it’s just to communicate your idea to someone else in a quick way. Before you spend alot of time making something on the computer, finding out the person you are making it for, doesn’t even like the basic idea to begin with.

For about a year I would rarely sketch concepts before going to the computer. Since I started sketching again recently, I’ve had greater success in my designs. I think sketching allows me to play and also rid my mind of all the bad ideas more quickly.

the students who are creating fully rendered sketches are doing it all wrong. Make a mess! Loosen up. The sketching part of the process should be playful and the sketches should be very rough.

I learned design pre-computer when we had to sketch and (as much as possible) realize our ideas before committing to type. Type was very expensive and we did not have the luxury of fiddling around until it looked right. So we had to try to “see” the concept before we put our ideas into type. My boss, from those days, could spec every element of the design on a piece of vellum and when we ordered the type he was rarely, if ever, off in his measurements and specs.

I would never go back to those days - and in fact don’t do a lot of drawing anymore - but consider this period of my design development/education extremely valuable. I encourage you to try sketching now, while you’re in school. Even now, I think my brain is still programmed to try to visualize what I want to do before I open up a page and start designing.

The conflict between design methods based on drawing/visualization and the new methods was brought up in Communication Arts 347, September/October 2006, pp. 22-27. For me the key paragraph was:

“Christoper Vice, designer and teacher at Indiana University Herron School of Art and Design, says, in spite of the fact that technology is incorporated into the curriculum, “Most design school are still approaching the teaching of design the same way they did 50 years ago. Like exceptions such as Art Center College in Pasadena, IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology), University of Illinois at Chicago, and Herron, design schools need to rewrite their curriculum following a model of relevancy.“

I like drawing and sketching, but I often don’t need to do it, and I can often knock out better sketches by screwing around in Illustrator or Indesign than I can with a heap of tracing paper and a light table. This is a big issue for me because during the previous semester my core design class revolved around concept and tracing-paper process. It didn’t go well for me, and I really only got work that I liked when I just ignored the instructor and put the paper away.

Employing an experimental approach throughout my design education (originally as a student of illustration) allowed me to explore what was intuitive in terms of mark making, ideas development, etc. Even now, I find myself using found objects such as feathers and sticks to dip into Indian ink for lettering, mark making and drawing. Indeed anything that makes a good mark. Depending on the nature of the design brief, I will sometimes develop ideas pencil to paper and some directly on the computer, usually a mixture of the two. For a design student and ‘digital native’ like yourself, I think it is invaluable to try many different processes and approaches until you find one that is comfortable for you; one that is not unnaturally forced or laboured.

Further to what James has previously mentioned: Swanson (Heller’s, Education of a Graphic Designer) makes an interesting point, stating that, “by teaching what they were taught, [design educators are] teaching the graphic designers of the twenty-first century how to be mid-twentieth century graphic designers.”

In my experience hiring young designers who cut their teeth on the Mac, I do think something gets lost when you are not taught to try to visualize the design problem and solution before you boot up your computer. I remember one assistant whose computer was down and she came to me and said “I can’t work”. I threw some type books and a pad of paper at her and told her work up some ideas. I think she hated me.

No doubt schools need to adapt their teaching methods to the new technology and there’s no need to force students to learn the waxer and the ruling pen. The best instructors will teach their students the to think visually and conceptually with or without a computer screen in front of them, and be flexible in their approach to the problem.

Clients. They are the biggest waste of time.

Alas, they’re the ones that pay us. So it’s a bit of a catch-22. ;o)

In my experience hiring young designers who cut their teeth on the Mac, I do think something gets lost when you are not taught to try to visualize the design problem and solution before you boot up your computer.

I understand and agree, however, I think that some design professors get hung up on the words of Glaser and Fletcher when it comes to typography, and expect students to work in the old ways while ignoring the possibility that a computer is still just a tool, and thus can be just as useful for visualization as pen and pad.

When I studied calligraphy and book design with Friedrich Neugebauer back in the 1970s, he insisted that I take figure-drawing classes (his workshop was part of a much larger college of artistic and industrial design). Having grown up in an architect’s office, I was very comfortable with T-square, french curves, technical pens, etc. but terrified of free drawing. So I felt that the time would be better spent if I did more lettering instead. However, he persisted, I acquiesced and went to drawing, and gradually I realized that doing this was a way to approach qualities of line, gesture, the nature of curves, light and dark, from a different vantage point. He encouraged me to work on litho stones as well.

I do not make figure drawings for the work that I produce, but the process certainly was very enlightening and I see now the wisdom of Friedrich’s direction. Even if they are not part of my working outward expression, these drawings are indeed a part of my foundation and instincts.

I don’t know if this is helpful to you as you struggle with hand work, but it certainly seems worth trying some more.

When your rich and have your own company, hire a story board artist. That away, you can just tell him your ideas and he can draw them for you! lol

Scott,

I agree with those that say sketching on paper is still the best way to flesh out ideas quickly. As someone who never went to design school, I still fall into the trap of going to the computer to quickly to try and make a weak concept work. I end up wasting time fleshing out a concept that was not going to work to begin with.

I would recommend www.illustrationclass.com by Von Glitschka. Though it is more focused on illustration instead of type design, there are numerous downloads where Von goes through his process from sketching to computer. I think it is a great resource. He even has examples from other illustrators/designers so you can see their process as well.

I’ve run into computer only solutions for design but often they lack a concept for the over all project. Its putting the cart before the horse. Its fine and good to know the programs but its better to have the solution to the problem first.