Creativity and control: drawing for ideation and specification in the design process

A new, targeted investigation, predicated on the author’s nearly thirty years of design drawing research, has yielded intriguing findings and raised some significant new issues. The drawing activities of two disciplines of designers are examined in this paper, namely textile and visual communication designers, and examples of their drawings are presented. Investigation of the role of drawing in each stage of the design process indicates major changes due to fundamental developments in technology, but it is still apparent that experienced designers use traditional drawing techniques to their advantage. However, there are concerns that increasing reliance on digital systems is undermining the acquisition of fundamental drawing abilities by students, with consequences for their creative potential. Through the analysis of the accounts of designers and of the drawn record of various stages of the design process, particularly the development of ideas and the control of production it has been possible to identify and observe very different uses of drawing and to identify crucial aspects of designers’ drawing knowledge.