Lecture 4: Design Visualization is Thinking and Communicating

Some people believe that the core of design visualization is thinking and communicating. I would say I have to agree with them. This is because design is more about making a finished product than expressing oneself, in which case the exploration of ideas is needed as well as thinking how the finished product will work and its specifications. In design, the drawing process is definitely more of creating something as an object. Visualization is about creating an image that can communicate ideas and concepts across to other people rather than having enigmatic qualities and meanings as is the case with more artistic and emotional images.

As it is important to communicate ideas using visuals, it is also important that you find an inner "visual voice" to get your ideas and concepts onto paper. As an exercise for this, I drew hands 20 times, hid them away for a day and looked at them again the next day. This allowed me to find if I have any patterns emerging in the way I draw.  Among them, these were my favorites:

They're my favorites because I feel they each have an emotional pull to them and suggest that there is a meaning or emotion behind the gesture of the hand.

Visuals can be categorized into two broad types, representational and diagrammatic. Representational visuals take much longer to draw, are more artistic and need a lot more skill to do, while diagrammatic visuals are the opposite, conceptual, quick to draw and not as much skill is needed.

I feel that I am very much diagrammatic in my drawing when trying to communicate ideas, and probably in most of my drawings as I'm not that skilled at drawing. The main reason I use diagrammatic drawings when communicating is because they are able to get the idea across without so much time being consumed and putting too much detail on the paper that isn't needed.