Graphic Designers: Why pencil and paper could be the inspiration you need

In the digital age, it’s easy to forget about the power of pencil and paper. But for designers, these simple tools can be incredibly valuable for generating fresh and original ideas. Too often I see design students jump straight into their MacBooks to visualise their ideas. However, the desire to refine and perfect these visualisations is a barrier to divergence and stifles originality. They become motivated by the polish of their visual output rather than developing original and effective communications and concepts.

Utilising pencil and paper might seem a bit old school to young creatives today but here are some of the benefits:

• Pencil and paper are experimental tools. You can explore your ideas, at least roughly, without limitations of your technical abilities. Of course, I am not talking about drawing perfect renditions of objects here. I am talking about simple sketches that adequately record and communicate your creative intentions.

• Pencil and paper are portable. You can take them with you wherever you go, so you can sketch out ideas whenever inspiration strikes. This can be especially helpful if you’re on the go or if you need to brainstorm with others.

• It’s more natural. When you use pencil and paper, you’re using the same tools that humans have been using to communicate for centuries. This can help you to tap into your natural creativity and come up with more original ideas.

• Pencil and paper are fast. You can quickly sketch out your ideas, without having to worry about the technical details. This can help you to capture your thoughts and ideas as they come to you. Without the time limitations imposed by more complex digital tools, you are free to generate more variations and iterations and more potential solutions.

• As we become increasingly more digitised, we adapt to this, and our sense of reality becomes structured by it. Sketching ideas draws us away from our digitised reality and allows us to approach creative briefs from a different perspective.

• Mind-maps! Mind-maps are a great way to explore and report on specific subjects (clients, companies, themes, concepts). The key here is that you explore a subject extensively and intuitively and nothing does this better than good old pencil and paper.

Of course, drawing and sketching does have drawbacks. People who are not used to drawing often feel self-conscious about their abilities and might shy away from sharing their ideas. This can also be the same for producing creative work using any tool. However, the advantage of generating ideas quickly using pencil and paper is that you have the ability to be more prolific. And, the more you draw, the better you become and the more confidence you will develop in your work. Another drawback is that sketchbooks can be easily lost or destroyed. In contrast, in graphic design contexts we are adapting to cloud-based storage which means that our work is always safe. But overall, the benefits of using pencil and paper far outweigh the drawbacks. If you want to be able to explore more diverse ideas, generate more design ideas rapidly, or quickly visualise what is in your head, then you should endeavour to embed the use of pencil, paper and sketching ideas into your design process.

Here are some specific benefits of using pencil and paper for generating ideas:

• It helps you to think more creatively. When you’re drawing by hand, you’re forced to think more visually and spatially. This can help you to come up with more creative solutions to problems.

• It helps you to focus. The act of drawing by hand requires your full attention. This can help you to block out distractions and focus on the task at hand.

• It helps you to communicate your ideas more effectively. When you sketch out your ideas, you’re able to communicate them in a way that’s easy for others to understand. This can be helpful when you’re collaborating with other designers or presenting your ideas to clients.

Try not to be shy about what or how you draw and sketch ideas. Pablo Picasso spent his whole career trying to make pictures like children do. He wanted to be able to draw with the same confidence and energy that children do. Be more like children! Children do not care if their pictures don’t look like the “real” thing, they love them nonetheless.

Fear of the blank page can be a real barrier to creativity and generating new ideas. Often, a blank page feels like a reflection of a blank mind! However, there are resources that can help this. The Designer’s Project Book, for example, is a project journal filled with different templates intended to provide a foundation for sketching new ideas and organising projects. Different types of grids and thumbnail templates offer the perfect starting point for your sketches. Or, they can also provide a useful intervention and allow you to think laterally about seemingly straightforward design problems. If a project requires organic and natural looking imagery, why not use a grid lined page to generate your ideas just to see what happens!

Exercises:

1. You have been asked to design a single page of editorial for print. You have two images and around 500 words. How many potential layouts can you explore using digital tools vs pencil and paper? See just how many different layouts you can produce quickly using pencil and paper.

2. You have been asked to produce a logo design for a landscaper using their initials ASJ. Utilise three different styles of gridded paper to explore potential ideas for the logo. You could use isometric grids, cross grids, axonometric grids, or basic square grids (maths paper), for example. Allow each style of grid to act as a starting point for your ideas and see what you can come up with. The Designer’s Project Book provides all these in one handy booklet.

3. Make a mind-map about your favourite genre of music using pencil and paper. Shut down your computer, take yourself away from distractions and see how many points and connection you can make based on a subject you already know a lot about. You will be surprised at just how extensive your knowledge can when you lay it out in front of you.