Ep 264| Sketching Most vital Skill for a Designer - 3 techniques and LIVE Activities

Welcome to Design for Change podcast. Thank you for staying tuning here, guys. We have a very exciting information. We have started an initiative called Skill Booster for the next hundred days. That means every single day you will be learning a skill from this podcast. In fact, if you wanted to get a live demo of this, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel also to get it rolling. Okay, thank you so much guys for connecting here. I'm super excited to tell you that this is one of the great initiatives which we have taken recently. And today as a day one, you're going to learn something very interesting which is called sketching skills.

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So people have a different, different notion towards sketching and other activities. I will tell you one thing very important, guys. See in this podcast audio. I cannot possibly teach in depth, very detailed. But I'll tell you the basics of sketching. I'll tell you why it is very important. I'll tell you how not to do it. I'll tell you the misconceptions. I'll give you a live activity also where you can practice at your home with the right tools and right materials so that you can start getting a master of it. Okay, thank you guys. Yes. So the very first thing is focus on straight lines and diagonal lines. When you're having your paper and paper and pencil in front of you, you can start drawing some straight line guys.

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So when you're starting with the straight lines, you can start moving your shoulders instead of just hands. If you really want to shoot live, you can definitely come from my YouTube channel. The description will be available in the bottom of the Spotify or Apple podcast or Amazon podcast, wherever you're listening. But ultimately, listen to this. Maybe I'll know like some of the people who might be traveling, they may not have the resources with them. It's okay. I really appreciate that you're learning on the go, you're learning at the travel. But make sure when you're returning back home, take your YouTube channel, find the description below and start watching me how I'm moving my hands.

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The very first thing is hand movement. Second thing, first of all, when you are designing, when you're sketching something like lines or anything, your hand and eye should be very well coordinated. Your idea in your mind, your I, your, your hand, each and everything should be synchronously coordinated.

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While if you're doing that it improves your controls, it blocks your creativity. Blocks. Like let's say a lot of people think jagdish, I have something idea in my mind, but I don't Know how to bring it back. The very first thing is this will block your creativity. It will break your creativity block and it will make you draw a lot of things.

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Sometimes you may be having a raw idea, sometimes you may have an abstract idea. But this will particularly when you put it in a paper, you, you start seeing in a very different way.

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Third is it improves your creativity. Fourth is it improves your communication tool. Fifth is it saves a lot of time. The reason being when you showcase some idea at an early stage with your team, many times you will be getting a feedback. Many times you can able to correct it. Instead of making a detailed sketch and making it so perfected and beautiful later somebody or client or your team is coming and telling you this is not what we expect. Then you have to reiterate every process, right? So that is why sketching is the most, most, most fastest way. So these are all the reasons guys, why sketching is important. It improves your creativity, it breaks your barrier, it improves your control, it boosts your creativity. And also it improves your communication and saves a lot of time. I'll tell you third, the misconceptions of it, okay? People think I need to be a perfect guy in sketching. I need to be a Leonardo da Vinci in sketching. It doesn't require that level of skill. In fact, it doesn't require any level of skill. As long as you can able to sketch a stick diagram of a human putting on round and a stick and two hands and legs. That is more than, more than enough to communicate. Guys, this is very, very important to understand. You don't have to be perfect. Sketching is all about communicating idea what you have in your mind. Sketching is all about communicating what you are thinking in your mind in a very, very rough way. Because it's an iterative process. Please remember that this is a misconception people have. Okay, the key techniques, first of all, you can start with, start circling, start putting lines, guys, you can start putting diagonal lines. You can put 45 degree lines. You can start putting some boxes. Maybe if you are a digital designer, you may be sketching wire frames. You may be sketching some kind of a mock ups, right? So if you are a UX designer, many times you will be able to sketch some storyboards. So in that case try to put some boxes, try to sequence it, try to put some arrow marks, try to put a small, small sketch inside. Like let's say if you're having a guy who is going to give a gift to a girl in a romantic situation, try to put two stick diagrams, Try to put some flowers. Try to put some one situation. Go to those two situation. Make sure that guy is bending his knee and giving the flower to that girl. Make sure in the third sketch both are hugging. That's it. So you're just communicating a very, very simple romantic message through a basic stick diagram. This is as simple as to do it. Guys, in order to do a sketching, I'll tell you one basic technique.

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First, you can start drawing lines. Second, you can start drawing diagonal lines. Third, you can start drawing some boxes. Fourth, you can start drawing some basic thumbnail sketches. If you are able to do it for just five minutes before you start sketching your ideation session, this will be a super warm up activity for you guys. In the one sheet itself you can do, ideally you can take a material of Staedtler pens, or maybe you can take big ballpoint pens if you want, you can take a pencil, no problem. And you can take a newsprint sheet for the paper. Because newsprint sheet will be very, very big. Make sure if you are using newsprint sheet, your hand will move like anything. Because the more you move your hands what happens the better you will be able to get a control in moving forward, guys, because lot of people don't think it is very important. People think, hey, I'll do it in my A4 sheet here I do it in my effort sheet. No, it's not the point guys, because I'll tell you what, the more if you're able to do it in a bigger sheet, the better clarity you'll be able to get while you're doing it in the smaller sheets. Because bigger paper, your mistakes will be very, very visible.

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So try with that and use big ballpoint pen because ballpoint pen will be more uncomfortable for you.

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Try to use Staedtler pens.

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See these round will be available in Amazon, Flipkart. Whatever is comfortable, you can able to order it online because in the local shops it won't be mostly available.

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Yes. So and after using the right materials and right things and doing the warm up, then you can start doing this sketching activity. So as and when you're doing this sketching activity, what happens is you'll be initially having some problems. Don't worry. Take a snapshot, share it with me. Type out your comments, what is your mistakes you're doing. Type out your takeaways, what you're doing. Definitely I'll be replying back to you at the end of the day. Because every single skill, when you're practicing, you will get lot of doubts, guys. You will get a lot of confusion. That is the only way I will tell you. You are learning the skill in a right way. Hey, what Jagdish? Getting confused is the right way, you're saying? Yes, guys, it's true. This is also a misconception. When you're not getting any doubts, you're not learning that skill at all. When you're having lot of doubts, hey, how to move my hands. Hey, how to sketch? Whether this line is good or not, whether this circle is good or not, whether the diagonal line is good or not, whether the thumbnail is communicating or not. That is a super way to know that you are on the right track. Learning. So type out your learnings, type out your mistakes and definitely I'll be able to follow it up with you guys.

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See, people who are taking action are and getting reflection will only get results. If not, there is no point in doing this activity or listening to this podcast at all. You can do another activity, guys. Okay, okay. Let me tell you what are the statistics and relevant data for the sketching? 70% of the designers believe sketching is the fastest way to brainstorm. People who are doing regular sketching, they will have their cognitive ability built towards solving a problem and recalling their ideas from the abstract mind. Teams who are using these low fidelity sketches are 30% higher success rate in prototyping. Guys, what we did is a very, very low fidelity sketching. It's a very, very small activity. What you're doing in a very rough way. When you're doing it in a rough way, that's called low fidelity mock up or maybe a sketch that much is enough. We will see what is high fidelity, medium fidelity in the later and then people who are able to complete this 25 percentage improvement in accuracy with the basic line of the drawing practice. See, you will be able to get your 25 percentage accuracy improved when you practice this in a regular manner. Guys, these are all the information and the statistics available with me. Particularly when you're a product designer, ui, UX designer, you'll be able to create some flow diagrams, you'll be able to create some wireframes, you will be creating layout, you'll be creating some sketches, you'll be creating some basic concepts. So this is the benefits of doing this, guys. Okay, so now do this activity. Pause this podcast for the next 30 minutes. Try to draw at least 100 lines in your new sprint sheet. Try to draw at least 50 lines. If not possible, try to draw 50 diagonal lines. Try to draw 50 boxes, try to draw 50 scenarios of human stick diagram and create a story around it. And make sure you are doing this for the next 30 days. Because if you learn 30 days, 30 minutes, 30 skills, you are getting very exceptional apart from any designer out there in the market, guys, okay? And make sure you comment what you are learning. Also and also at the end of this particular podcast, I wanted to tell you this is a very, very small part of the design process. Sketching is in fact a less than 1 percentage I would say as a design process. But if you really wanted to learn more. Coming Sunday, I'm conducting a live webinar, guys. Maybe if you're listening to this podcast later, no problem, you can able to attend this live webinar because every Sunday, 11 o' clock, Indian time, we have a webinar which is a free webinar two hours masterclass where I'll tell you how using the sketching, how using these skills as a designer, you can get your dream job in 90 days. Because a lot of people think learning, learning, learning, learning will give them a job. No, you have to put it into action. You need to know the right things to get the right job at the right time with the right salary, right? So I'm going to give you the design job secrets in just two hours you can able to get it clear. In fact there's not even two hours, guys. It's only 90 minutes webinar. Okay, in 90 minutes you will know what are the three secrets which I'm telling you using the power of generative AI, you can able to get job within next 90 days. If you really wanted to know how you really wanted to make the get the secret formula of my six step, come on, attend my live workshop at 11 o' clock which is going to happen on the Sunday 11 o' clock. You can register and the link is given below and see you there guys live. Okay, thank you so much guys. If you find this podcast useful video give me best star rating in Apple and Spotify. And if you really want to share with others of your friends, please do spread a word because it will be truly, truly helpful for them. And it's free of cost available in Spotify and Apple and Amazon. And if you are subscribing to my YouTube channel and other places, I've also given my blog and other substack medium blog and LinkedIn blogs and medium Blog. You can able to go and watch my earlier content also and start learning guys. Okay, I wish you all the best. Take care and provide me best star ratings. If you find this valuable, see you in another episode. Day two, guys. Bye. Bye.