The Hand that Draws the Future - Part 8 of 10

Digital versus Analog approaches to Design

An Internet search for opinions related to digital versus analog approaches to design yields scores of points of view. Everyone has an opinion. But after two generations of advancement in CAD, we are in a much better position to evaluate the role of both approaches within the design process. And the general consensus appears to be…not either/or but both/and - a hybridized approach.

However. The design and construction industry has become acclimatized to L-mode digital efficiencies, and the money is following suit. One could argue at the expense of R-mode creativity.

Here are the current advantages of CAD for design. “Current” because, as technology continues to advance, we would expect this list to increase:

• Indispensable and powerful production tool
• Supported by a powerhouse of software suites
• Greatest strength lies in the back end of the design process
• Can handle highly complex tasks very efficiently
• High level of precision that cannot be replicated by hand

On the other side of the coin, current disadvantages of CAD for design. And again, we would expect this list to decrease as advances are made:

• Creative/spatial thinking and scale is reduced to Cartesian Grid, numbers and menu bars
• Increasingly complex tasks require less and less thought from user
• Tendency to draw what is not fully understood
• CAD unintentionally lulls analytical and editorial skills to sleep
• ‘Man the measure’ is replaced with ‘man the measurer.’

Harley Jessup, one of dozen or so artists at Pixar [who] design characters, develop the set design and the world they will inhabit: “We do ten drawings for every one that works on average, so Pixar artists draw 200,000 drawings or a cool half a million for the entire film. We’re constantly, constantly drawing.”

John Lassiter, then head of Pixar animation stated: “…we have almost as many artists…working in traditional media – hand drawing, painting, pastels and sculpture – as we do in digital media…The finished film we send around the world would never be possible without it.”

Many of the world’s most renowned architects are those who have learned to integrate both digital and analog modes of architectural investigation, design and representation, where they combine R-mode front-end design drawing with L-mode back-end production. For example, overlays of hand drawn designs over CAD-generated drawings combined with Photoshop editing are fast ideation methods useful to any firm. Sketch overlays on photos of field conditions are another.

Hybridizing and cross-pollinating digital and analog methodologies is a very powerful skillset combination for today’s practice, assuming competence in both digital and analog drawing skills. However, after two generations of digital dominance, working competence in drawing skills appears to have all but dissipated.

Next up: The discipline of travel or urban sketching can be an inexpensive yet effective way to develop analog drawing skills.