Visual Journaling

I was cleaning around my house the other day and came across old sketch books. I find it fascinating to look back through them. Some go all the way back to high school. As a designer sketching is an important way to get ideas down and to work through design problems.

Comic idea from 1993

As I flipped through them I realized I knew exactly where I was and what was going on when I did each sketch. Whether it was an idea for a project, a class in college or a trip. Going analog is a good way to start any design project. It helps to get multiple ideas down in a rough stage and lets you keep a record of those ideas for future use.

Christmas 1995 "cat watching fish"

Thinking about this I dug out some of my college notes and high school notes. Looking back through these I have doodles and sketches on the margins. These doodles helped me to remember what the teacher was talking about in the classes. Being a visual person many of my notes contained doodles of what the teacher was talking about. When test time came I could never remember the words on the page but I could remember the doodles and those would help me answer the questions.

Pizza de Campo, Sienna, Tuscany 1996 "Lovers on the plaza"

Most people keep written journals about their lives or events. I find I keep a visual one. The only problem with it is in the future my kids will have no idea what each drawing was about.

2006 Gibbs Design logo sketches