Written by Shawn Kearney, Design Team Leader
In today’s digital high-speed world of graphic design, we are bombarded with library images, templates, ‘insert design here’, drag and drop – a world of “instant design” I suppose. To us, the professional designers who learned our trade in a world without widespread access to computers, the power of the pencil for ideas is still as strong as it’s ever been! No matter how many Pinterest ideas you see or design templates, our clients need originality and a design to fit a bespoke strategy and of course, most importantly, their brand.
Don’t get me wrong – the likes of Pinterest can help to persuade and inspire, as they should, but some of best and I dare say quickest concepts are still established on notepads with a pencil directly connecting your hand to your brain!
Once you’ve had that lightbulb moment, going from a single thought to a mix of ideas is instant when you have a pad and pencil, the flexibility of thought, that one stroke or drawn line that swiftly turns into something special (we hope). The fact it’s fluid and instantaneous means you can evolve the design in real time with a colleague or self-edit – yes, I mean get the rubber out!
As a designer, sometimes you just get that idea. That eureka moment when you’re in the shower, sat at the traffic lights, or walking around the supermarket, and you literally just need to get it down on paper! Getting that first draft in pencil opens up a world of possibilities to a designer!
Part of the design process involves the legendary “brainstorm” – in many cases you are simply emptying your brain and dumping ideas – and other times you have that one ‘big idea’ you just need to see on paper, only to realise “nope, that ain’t gonna work!”
So you draw a big cross through it and start again. But that moment has taken three minutes and not three hours in Photoshop with layers, filters, templates etc.
Working with a pad and pencil is efficient, instant, helps filter out bad ideas, and is a best practice that designers of all ages should implement, despite the modern design tools available – ‘designers’ templates available, downloads, image libraries etc.
Sometimes the simplest tools are the most effective. Never underestimate the power of the pencil.
To see what we can come up with using the power of our pencils, please visit our Services page. To see more from S2F, please follow us on LinkedIn.