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Agility & Limitations
“The touch screen is a gift to creatives,” Kenoff
says. “You’re able to work more intuitively,
you’re able to use your hands, whether it’s drawing
or even just the way that you’re pinching and
moving around your imagery. There’s a lot of
intuition between the hand and brain that designers
are able to access again. So, we feel like this
particular technology is a blessing to designers.”
That connection between the brain and the
hand is critical in terms of understanding how
to communicate without the use of a computer,
according to Ellen Cusick, interior designer and
founder of EMC Interior Design, and interior
design instructor at The Art Institute of Portland.
“One of the things that I find when my students
are preparing presentations and doing design
development is, I discourage them from going to
a computer because often their creativity is limited
by what they’re capable of doing in that software
depending on how well they know it,” she notes.
If they’re unable to create a curved wall in
a particular design software program, she suggests
students just pick up a pencil and a piece of paper.
Kenoff recalls how, 20 years ago, the tendency
in design education was to forgo hand drawing
instruction and skip straight to computer
rendering—a trend that now is reversing itself,
thanks to the possibilities opened up by touch
screens and new drawing interfaces that have made
the barrier to entry lower. “It’s a lot easier to sketch
on an iPad,” she observes. “There’s a lot of tools
to help you. It’s difficult to learn how to paint with
watercolor, but doing watercolor on an iPad is
much easier. So, I think students are starting
to re-access that craft and, given the touchpad and
a touch screen, we think there’s a bit of a drawing
renaissance; students are interested in drawing
because it’s kind of cool again.”
To be clear, the goal of educating students
in hand sketching isn’t necessarily to develop fine
artists, but rather to cultivate designers who can
communicate clearly. “I try to establish the idea
with incoming students that the reason why we’re
drawing isn’t to become a magnificent illustrator,”
explains Andrew Furman, associate professor and
associate chair academic at the Ryerson School of
Interior Design in Toronto. “It’s really about quick
communication, to communicate the illusion of
shape—and [drawing is] the fastest way to do it.”
Presentations have become more informal than
in the past. Many designers now are using
online tools to pitch clients with initial concepts
in the moment to stay ahead of the curve.
Ryerson students utilize
virtual reality to reimagine
a Victorian-era home with
elements from other time
periods. (Image: Courtesy of
Andrew Furman, Ryerson School
of Interior Design)
Students at Ryerson study
anthropometric and ergonomic
concepts to draw to scale
plan views and corresponding
elevation views of one or more
people in action. (Image: Courtesy
of Andrew Furman, Ryerson School
of Interior Design)
