Creative Process: Sketching Thumbs and Roughs

The creative process in a very personal one. Every creative person has their own unique way of generating ideas and then, in turn, getting them out into the world. One thing that has been stressed in my classes is the importance of sketching out thumbs and roughs as the first step in the actual creation of a project.

My design teacher can often be heard saying, "You need to get your ideas out and on to paper," and "Usually your first ideas are no good. You need to get through that crap quickly and on to the good stuff." 

This is why I (usually) spend a couple minutes after research to sketch out four or five different ideas for the final project. Just a couple minutes is all I allow myself and all I really need to move past the crap to the good stuff. 

Then from my sketch I can more easily go into the software and create good quality, well thought out projects. 

In his article, "The Role of Sketching in the Design Process," Sean Hodge boils it all down to five main reasons for sketching. 

1. Rapid Concept Development
2. Basic Composition or Layout
3. Client Communication and Approval
4. Visual Exploration
5. Refining Visual Solution

Hodge provides some really good explanations and visual examples and I, being inspired  by the article, decided to include a video of my brainstorm sketching of a t-shirt project that I am currently working on. I hope to put together a video of my entire creative in future, but we'll just have to see about that.