as i know, mostly the graphic designer are not able to draw(personal optinion), computer is the main tool for them, i’m really not agree with this , as an artist, we should not leave behind the tradisional skill, a drawing skill will improve the idea, which is it can transform the idea to a visual and not just working the shapes n playing around in the computer.their will very limitation
anyone have any comment on thid issue?
you can use a giant telescope to conceptualize your designs as far as i care. in other words you can demonstrate your ideas through any medium you’re comfortable with. that’s the way it should be.
however in a professional business environment where you deal with conceptually untrained clients you have to use the tools that make the presentation meaningful. i believe the best way is to utilise a strong cad package with rendering and pesrpective capabilities for design.
It may be true that most graphic designers are not illustrators but they can draw well enough to use it as a comunication tool as well as use it to do their ideation. Most graphic designers I know start on paper and not on the screen.
These days graphic designers are expected to be illustrators, photographers, web coders etc. They may be able to do all or some but very few are masters at all skills. If they were the professionals in these areas would all be jobless.
The fastest and easiest way to express visual ideas is through sketching of the two, computer v. pencil, I vote pencil.
Learn to draw with a pencil.
Anyone can learn to use the computer.
i disagree with concentrating on pencil drawing only. even in the old days when there were no computers as an industrial designer you had to come up with a model. some places still make models with hand… either a quick mock up or a sacle/fullsize model.
so don’t think that if you’re drawing with pencil someone is gonna do it perfectly in cad for you. my experience has been, although companies hire drafters and cad operators to make the process easier they can never be as fast or as good as the designer or engineer doing the modeling work.
it also depends on what you’re designing. sometimes you need a quick sketch to show how the design works. other times you need a detailed cad model and dwg.
it’s up to you. manufacturing needs cad to start prototyping not a pencil drawing.
I agree that computer skills are very important, but I believe hand drawing skills are even more important. When I have an idea, I can quickly sketch it out and try to depict what I have in mind. If I choose to start with cad… I probably will lose what I intended.
Of course this depends on your habits. Some people can throw a sketch model in cad quickly and accurately, but like how I always ask fellow students who depend so much on the noisy electric pencil sharpener… “What are you going to do when the power goes out?”
Designers shouldn’t be dependent on electricity to do their work.
i believe you should bring out what you are more comfortable in situation like this one.
either it is pencil or CAD drawing on a computer, everyone will have different opinion and design firms will ask for different presentation.
sure at the spare of the moment in a design firm, they would like to see a ruff idea on what you are saying so pencil is the way to hack at it unless you are a quick CAD man and can do it within seconds then do what you are more comfortable in.
Pencil or CAD… it is you who you are selling and not the program or pencil.
although i can definitely kick ass out of anyone with my simple pen or pencil drawing when it comes to speed,accuracy, and presentation i still would say that if you can’t put your design in cad you either have to spend the rest of your life pampering cad engineers or you have a lot of money you can pay other designers to do it for you or you’re your boss’s favorite pet. and that sums it up imo.
all this talk about pencil is because you have a hard time with cad and you don’t want to admit it.
i was working in a corporate design resource studio and the guy who was supposed to be the design director could not do cad. he didn’t even know spatial geometry. they had three engineers, two cad guys, and three designers. they averaged one finished design per two months. i designed 20 products for them in three months all in cad. it was ridiculous. they were done with projects for over a year in advance after they hired me. that’s the difference. but they were idiots. they decided to keep the old format because i told them they suck ass.
another tale of horror:
david knowles of mg world emailed me two weeks before the ending of the mg world design competition saying that he just saw my folio in cdn and was very impressed. he asked me if i was ready to enter the design copetition realising such a short notice. i said yes, why not. i finished it in two weeks and sent it to him via ups. i bet peter stevens was pretty much shocked because comparing the quality of work even to his design of the mg xpower sv current mg one can see the difference. lol. now bmw racing is using the same aerodynamic idea i introduced in that car for the new williams car. so to peter stevens i have to say with regret that he’s either out of the game or ignorant .
i know i might sound like a bit of a show off when it comes to design and a lot of people don’t like it, but are you any good if you can’t tolerate good design? it’s like saying i’m not gonna go to a good doctor because he’s a show off!! that’s insane.
I agree that CAD is no doubt the best tool of all. I can’t live without it. But anyone can use it. Drawing is something that is changable and interpretive. I have seen many great designs rendered, but I still feel the need to draw over them in design devlopment to get them to where they are finished. CAD is accurate and fast, however it is sometimes too fast. I think the best designer is one who can combine the two.
I find there are too many designers who rely too heavily on the computer, come up with quick renderings and fall in with their idea to early in the process.
to reach a level where you know what you’re doing takes time. it’s obvious that there’s no easy way out and that’s why a good design solution often requires putting it into test in a real situation. the more interaction between the object and its environment the harder the task.
that’s where design is also different from things like sculpture or landscape architecture or even to some extent architecture itself. when you design a facade of the building in architecture you’re not immediately thinking where’s the staircase. but those who do architecture also know that things like staircases (and also lifts, escalators, disposal, air ducts,plumbing,etc) are some of the most problematic.
same with design. you might design something and go through the whole process then realise it’s missing a part or an angle or a surface.in architecture you can get away with it because people don’t usually get annoyed by things like a twisted staircase. infact they might like it more. but just imagine if you were to design something like a stereo that way.
so it’s not the question of knowing cad in that sense. cad can’t help you slove the twisted staircase mystry. however cad is the best tool that can help you figure out how to materialize it once you have the concept down.
you MUST do both equally well.
when i finished school, my cad skills were sharp, my drawing skills were not.
i landed my first pro job because of those cad skills. it was crappy because i wound up a glorified cad jockey. no one wanted to hear my ideas, they just wanted me to translate theirs onto the screen.
fortunately, my next positions forced me to be an adept sketch artist.
look at it from the employer’s perspective: if you do both equally well, and with above-average talent, you are WAY more valuable than the guy that knows how to do that “extra” thing on the renderings.
also, i get further sketching on a whiteboard in front of clients than i do emailing computer renderings. face-to-face contact is invaluable because you can ‘read’ their reactions and the design evolves at a far greater speed.
versatile designers are far more desirable than specialized designers.
just my $.02
That is a very bizarre sentiment.
computer or drawing skill? which one impotant for designer?
so is this.
i’m pretty sure the two monitors sitting on my desk are making enough radiation to transform me into an impotent designer.
/rimshot
hopefully computers won’t remain the same as they’re now.
The answer to the question is niether one is better than the other. you need to use both. The last project i just finished was completed with a coppy machine highlighters a pair of sissors and stock photos. I only used a computer to scan it in and add some text. don’t question what is beter. question what is best for you and gaurented that will be different than the rest of us. lets face it your a designer and your computer is not going anywhere unless you can telepathicaly communicate with your printer. I think maybe you are close to a very real problem that alot of designers suffer from. That they are tied to there computer. The computer is just a tool.