A blog entry cannot justify the power hand drawings still have in design, especially in education. Drawings by hand document the path of form making. They make form. A drawing is like a piece of clay, while the pen is the extension of the hand molding the clay into an object. One instantly sees how the forms change and the brain responds immediately to that change to refine the form to its context/environment. The pen in the hand teaches the brain and vice versa. For me drawing is like writing, speaking, discussing with myself and then visualizing an idea spatially. This should be constantly practiced and many different forms of representation techniques should be tried. Like the sound of music, drawings document visually, a mood, an idea, a vision, a thought. The way the drawn line is expressed (controlled or loose) reveals one’s personal statement to the design problem addressed.
Daniel Roehr
