The Hand that Draws the Future - Part 1 of 10

This series will stress the importance of developing and maintaining the rigor and discipline of analog drawing in and throughout design education as a critical and indispensable tool for future innovation and the problem solving of global issues. Drawing by hand, with its intimate neurological connection to the brain, despite the light-speed technological advances bombarding emerging design professionals, reflects what it truly means to be human. And being human will likely always be at the forefront of solutions for humanity. Consider the following quotes related to creativity separated by over 40 years:

“According to LinkedIn, there are 50,000 different professional skills people can master. At the top of that list in recent years is often one seemingly simple skill—creativity. In an IBM study of 1500 executives, they ranked it above management, integrity, and vision in importance for tackling a changing future.” (Joe Hart, President and CEO at Dale Carnegie Training, July 2021)

“In drawing, you will delve deeply into a part of your mind too often obscured by endless details of daily life. From this experience you will develop your ability to perceive things freshly in their totality, to see underlying patterns and possibilities for new combinations. Creative solutions to problems, whether personal or professional, will be accessible through new modes of thinking and new ways of using the power of your whole brain.” (Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, 1979)

Using studies by neurological, psychological and other scientific experts, we will consider the intimate haptic relationship between the drawing hand and the brain, and how drawing by hand unlocks powerful learning and creative capacities within the brain, and in particular, the right hemisphere of the brain. This is important because western society has largely been constructed, operated and managed by the workings of left-brain thinking, at the expense of silent but valuable qualities of right-brain thinking.

This series will show how drawing by hand enhances brain activity, learning, memory and creativity, and how it should be established as an equal design partner to digital processes currently dominating the design and construction industry. However, current design education has given a back seat to the discipline of analog methods and allowed the forces of technological advancement to dominate the skillsets of emerging design professionals. The reestablishment of competent and skillful drawing by hand will rebalance those skillsets and undoubtedly lead to measurable gains within contemporary design practice and solutions.