Drawing for Graphic Design

102

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103

In a professional practice, so dramatically

influenced by digital and photographic

media, using drawing as an approach is

challenging in many respects. There is,

of course, an often-perceived disconnect

between imagery that is generated by

hand, with its characteristic roughness

and gestural spontaneity, and what

is slick, hard-edged, or photographic.

Overcoming this disconnect is simply

done by attuning the form language of

the drawing to best correspond to that of

other pictorial material, while considering

the two simultaneously for how they will

interact when juxtaposed. Corollary to

this perception is another, that a drawn

image must remain separate from digital

and photographic forms as a kind of

sacred element that can not influence,

or be influenced by, the latter. Once a

drawn image is brought into a digital

environment—and further, given that

drawing may be accomplished digitally

and photographically—it affords a

designer new opportunities for investiga-

tion and refinement, in which digital tools

may be used to alter the original work, or

the drawing hybridized with photographic

elements as a totality.

From Pencil

to Mouse and

Beyond:

Integrating

Drawing

with Other

Image-

Making and

Production

A

Brochure Cover / Paone Design Associates United States

Drawing

/ for Graphic

Design

Processes

From Pencil

to Mouse—

and Beyond

In this cover for a brochure promoting a

university program focused on regional

planning

/

A

/

, approaches that originated

in research and sketching were translated

into other media. The designer explored

visual languages derived from mapping

elements—topographic contours, spatial

grids, and graph data associated with

surveying—first in sketch form and then

as vector elements

/

B, D

/

. A reductive

translation of a river

/

E

/

, local to the

university, was drawn in a software

program. Population density images were

simplified and re-envisioned as vector

dots. A photograph of snow

/

C

/

, on the

other hand—which imparted seasonality

as well as a dual interpretation as a

landscape—was used as a photograph;

its textural contours and gestural rhythm

clearly embody qualities seen in the

designer’s sketches, almost acting as a

drawing as-is, but the designer enhanced

it with an overlayed charcoal tracing.

Together, these components—because

of their identity as drawn images, but

evolved through the respective media of

their execution—integrate seamlessly in

the realized cover.

Another, more practical concern is how

to translate effectively a drawing digi-

tally and to manipulate it with regard to

production, specifically in print. Different

methods yield not only varying degrees

of finesse for desirable reproduction and

an impact on file size, but also limitations

and possibilities for layout, coloration,

and printing techniques. Some methods

are more appropriate for retaining fine

detail and authenticity; others for keeping

file size small, or when the designer

intends to use it in a particular way.

The nature of the drawing itself directs

the designer toward best practices

with regard to production, as its form

language and composition do with regard

to conceptual and visual unity in the final,

designed expression.

C

A photograph of snow with

grain enhanced and a charcoal

tracing overlayed

D

Translations of mapping syntax drawn with

vector-based tools in a software program

E

Vector-drawn translation of

a local river

B

Hand-drawn studies of visual languages derived from a study of

geographical and survey maps at small scale, both in graphite and

colored pencil