Paragraph 2.2: Design drawing of the Delft Design Guide, for Industrial Design, TU Delft ()

Delft Design Guide | Part 2 | Creating Product Ideas and Concepts | Design Drawing – 2.2

Design Drawing

fig. 2.36

When you enter a design studio you will find out that

drawing by hand is an integral part of the decision-

making process, used in the early stages of design,

in brainstorm sessions, in the phase of researching

and exploring concepts, and in presentation. Drawing

has proved to be a versatile and powerful tool for

exploring and for communicating. (see: Sketching,

Eissen 2007).

Exploring

Explorative drawing enables the designer to

analyse visually and to generate and evaluate ideas

throughout the entire product design cycle, and

especially in the synthesis phase (see section 1.3 -

The Basic Design cycle).

That also includes:

• Analysing and exploring the perimeters of the

problem definition

• Using drawings as a starting point for new ideas, by

means of association

• Exploring shapes and their meaning, function and

aesthetics

• Analysing and structuring principle solutions and

visualising structural and formal concepts (see section

1.5 - The Fish Trap Model).

Hand drawing is also beneficial to the development

of the designer’s visual perception, his or her

imaginative capacities and perceptiveness of form in

general.

Communicating

Next to verbal explanation, a designer also

uses drawing to interact and communicate with

several groups of people, with different levels of

understanding of professional jargon:

• Fellow-designers or team members

• Model makers

• Marketing managers

• Clients and contractors

• Public offices.

Effective Drawings

The significance of a drawing depends on the context

in which it is made. A drawing serves its purpose

when it is efficient. Therefore a certain phase in

the design process may require a certain type of

drawing. Time is an issue and in many cases, a quick,

suggestive sketch is preferable to a more time-

consuming rendering.

Keywords

Idea generation

Concept generation,

Sketch,

Drawing

Presentation

Detail

Design Guide | Part 2 | Creating Product Ideas and Concepts | Design Drawing – 2.2

Preliminary

Concept

Sketching

When several ideas

are combined to

develop preliminary

concepts, the

designer has a

general idea about

the materials being

used, the shape, its

function and how

it is manufactured.

Colour and

expression of the

materials (e.g.

matt or reflective

plastic) become

more important and

drawings become

more elaborate.

(figure 2.39) Side-view sketching can be a quick and

easier way of making variations in shape, colour,

details, etc. (figure 2.40).

Mixed Media

With a PC and tablet the designer can easily adjust

colour and shading in the (scanned) drawing and add

textures or the brand name.

Computer sketching also has some advantages.

It can speed up the drawing and enhance the

designer’s eye-hand coordination and muscular

movement. A relatively new explorative medium in

generating ideas is called Intuitive Sketching (van

den Herik and Eissen, 2005). This method uses a

simple doodle as a starting point (figure 2.41), as a

means to break free from conditioning, to express

feeling without hindrance, and to expand your visual

language.

For generating and evaluating ideas, hand drawing is

more versatile than CAD rendering and prototyping.

A rendering can look very definite and unchangeable,

which is not appropriate, for example, when a

studio is still conferring with its client about design

directions and possibilities.

A (brainstorm) sketch can also easily be upgraded

into a more presentable drawing, on paper or digitally

by using a tablet and e.g. Adobe Photoshop or Corel

Painter.

Early Phase

In the early phase of the design process, drawing

tends to be simple: basic shapes or configurations,

(grey) shading and casting shadows (figure 2.37).

This kind of drawing incorporates the basic skills

and rules of perspective, construction of 3D shapes,

shading and constructing cast shadows (figure 2.38).

Colour is not always used and very often this kind of

drawing will suffice for idea sketching or structural

concepts (fig. 2.38, and see section 1.6 - The Fish

Trap Model).

fig. 2.37

fig. 2.39

fig. 2.40

fig. 2.38

fig. 2.41

Design Guide | Part 2 | Creating Product Ideas and Concepts | Design Drawing – 2.2

By combining or integrating several drawings with

other types of images (figure 2.42a and b), layers of

information can be presented in a coherent way and a

suitable context can be provided: the meaning of the

product, user environment, etc.

Material Concept Sketching or

Preliminary Design

When concepts become definitive, when you want to

explore or explain how different manufactured parts

are assembled, or when you are communicating with

an engineer, choosing an exploded view is effective

(figure 2.43). Side-view drawings for exact

dimensions, detail drawings, ‘ghost’ view or

shaded cross-sections can also be very useful in

communication. Drawings of user interaction can

serve to get feedback from users, prior to the testing

of prototypes (figure 2.44).

fig. 2.42a fig. 2.42b

References and Further Reading

Eissen, J.J., van Kuijk, E. and de Wolf, P. (1984) Produkt

Presentatietechnieken, Delft: DUP.

Eissen, J.J. and Steur, R. (2007) Sketching: Drawing

Techniques for Product Designers, BIS Publishers.

van den Herik, Y. and Eissen J.J. (2005) Intuitive sketching: a

new and explorative medium in generating ideas, CAID&CD’

Delft 2005: applications of digital techniques in industrial

design engineering. pp. 708-713. Beijing: International

Academic Publishers

http://www.sketching.nl/ (retrieved May 2009).

see also www.designdrawing.io.tudelft.nl

fig. 2.43 fig. 2.44

Design Guide | Part 2 |