Design Sojourn | Strategic Industrial Design Blog

Good sketching skills is an important design process, truly needed in the design industry today. In my years of working in the design industry, I have seen many young designers, giving up sketching because they think they cannot do it.

The truth is, sketching is a process that requires constant practice to perfect the skill. Therefore, the determination to practice sketching is essential to help you succeed to the point where sketching will become second nature to you the moment you visualize a design in your mind.

One good way to improve your drawing is to use good sketches to motivate you. So here are some references that I find useful as a source of motivation:

1. Design Sketching (Sweden)

An excellent collection of design sketch explorations, this is a book worth buying. It features 24 of the best design works from the Umea Institute of Design, Sweden, one of Europe’s best design schools. Well-known for their good design sketching skills, this book features many powerful designs that have been done in various art mediums (pens, pencils, markers) and computer programs like Photoshop and Illustrator.

The website itself provides sneak previews of the some of the chapters in this book. Their 2D rendering skills are so amazing that you will be tempted to order it from this Swedish website.

2. Carl Liu Design Book (Taiwan)

Possibly One of the best Asian focused design sketchbook published for industrial designers, Carl Liu’s book is a collection of many of his personal product design sketches. Working in reputable design companies like Astro Studios, his works shows an extensive collection of ideation sketches, presentations, exploded views and storyboards done with quick drawings and renderings.

Looking at the portfolio in his website, will definitely inspire you to design and practice your drawing further.

3. Scott Robertson (USA):

Being known for his strong futuristic conceptualization of product, transportation and city designs, Scott Robertson’s website shows many works created far beyond one’s imaginations. On his website, there are design sketching DVDs available, which shows vivid demonstrations of how Scott Robertson himself, would clearly demonstrate sketching skills in the correct perspective and proportion from scratch.

In today’s design society, 2D design is still a very powerful tool of communication. It is never easy to master it, but with constant practice and a library of good references, you can achieve it. So do enjoy!

This article has been contributed by guest writer PY.
Working in deep undercover for one of Asia’s more reputable ID firms, PY’s daily industrial design experiences and observations contributes to her posts. Also consummate traveler, she has undergone many design adventures on various continents. These valuable experiences teaches her precious skills in jungle designer survival, an appreciation towards the unique values of Asian design and how to kill or reject a man in 101 ways.

Other than industrial design, she also enjoys dabbling in other kinds of design related activities such as writing for Dutch design blog Studio 469 and churning out groovy T-shirt designs for the cool and funky. Always willing to try out new things, PY does not believe that the sky is the limit as she will be joining Richard Branson in space soon.