More Hand, less Mouse. Again.

It started all out in a client meeting some weeks ago. We were up to develop the design concept of an image brochure for an interesting client. We got in serious discussions about using hand-drawn illustrations as the key design element and how this appplies to that specific company. Finding this metaphor is always thrilling, especially when there is no product one can see. IT-consulting happens to be invisible.

We came across illustration styles vs. photography. You are standing there as a designer, sketching in front of a client and in your head it goes like: Hearditathousandtimes. Hooray for designers who can draw! And of course, sketches are great because they leave the idea a little bit blurred, so your imagination could supplement the rest. But I mean really: What’s it all about, using your hand more often for sketching & writing rather than clicking & typing?

The deeper we got into this discussion, the closer I got to this very moment of deep, deep truth. And this deep, deep truth hit me like this: hand-drawn illustration compares to realistic photography like questions compared to answers! And this questioning is so much more interesting than giving just answers. How do you start a conversation? With a question. So this sketching/drawing/writing with your hand is like permanent asking and leaving this final, boring answer out. Opening up more possibilities rather than producing dead-ends. Because there is this great laziness of answering everything to soon, with boring replies. And for me, this is directly transferable into the process of a concept or a design. This is what I am aiming for. So again: more hand, less mouse. Drawing equals thinking. Deep, deep truth of my last weeks. Am I somewhat right? Or is this the wrong question? I guess, I am exploring it a bit further starting tomorrow …