One of artist Matt Mullican's sketches/drawingsOne of my favorite things about being a graphic designer who had their teachings in the basics of art FIRST and then learned about design, is that I have always loved to draw. In fact, years before I learned about Illustrator or Photoshop (or back in my days of high school design, Freehand) I was mapping my paper with crayons and pens and paints; pretty much anything I could get my hands on that made a mark on my drawing surface.
This still holds true today. My coworkers joke with me daily that I can't complete a story or idea without grabbing a writing utensil and post-it or piece of notebook paper. I try to start all of my design projects with a great pen that flows black ink from it's tip easily onto my blank paper. Notes, words, layout ideas, logos, photography layouts. All new projects MUST start with this basic idea of "sketching". Once these sketches are finished, I have moved to my Mac, and even after the project has been completed and out the door, I love to look back at my original ideas/plans. I think they show more character and purpose than the finished product (sometimes, not all) and so it is because of this love of not only the written word and picture on paper as well as the thought process that I also LOVE looking at other people's sketches. I think you can tell so much about a person and what their true intentions are. After reading this article about artist Matt Mullican's notebook love I am reminded of the basics of art and design and why I do love it all so much. And why making time for that pen and paper is so crucial.
This still holds true today. My coworkers joke with me daily that I can't complete a story or idea without grabbing a writing utensil and post-it or piece of notebook paper. I try to start all of my design projects with a great pen that flows black ink from it's tip easily onto my blank paper. Notes, words, layout ideas, logos, photography layouts. All new projects MUST start with this basic idea of "sketching". Once these sketches are finished, I have moved to my Mac, and even after the project has been completed and out the door, I love to look back at my original ideas/plans. I think they show more character and purpose than the finished product (sometimes, not all) and so it is because of this love of not only the written word and picture on paper as well as the thought process that I also LOVE looking at other people's sketches. I think you can tell so much about a person and what their true intentions are. After reading this article about artist Matt Mullican's notebook love I am reminded of the basics of art and design and why I do love it all so much. And why making time for that pen and paper is so crucial.
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