Visual Notes

My week has been a busy one and I do not have as much as I would like for this week's entry.

Over the last few months, I have been looking over the literature on sketching to find several interesting references to use in exploring the area of design sketching and its value and application to the design process. In attempting to take the broadest view, I find useful the description/model given by Norman Crowe and Paul Laseau in their book, Visual Notes for Architects and Designers. Although it was published in 1984 (Van Nostrand Rienhold), the ideas presented are still relevant today, over twenty years later.

Crowe and Laseau remark that the value of design sketches or visual notes can be integrated into the creative design process in three areas: recording information, analysis of information, and solving design problems.

For the current study that I am doing, my focus is on the first area of recording information and more specifically observing environments. Design sketching is a complex area of study and covers a wide range of drawing types and disciplines. As I explore this area, I am beginning with observational sketches as a focus area. My own work in sketching will be doing observational sketches of Main Street buildings in the city center of Stevens Point, Wisconsin. I will be posting some of these sketches from time to time. As a new activity of doing a web log, I am slow and hesitant but intrigued by the medium for communication with others interested in this topic.

In trying to describe the experience of place, I am using all senses along with the visual aspects in sketching, including notes on sounds, smells and the touch of weather (there have been some very cold days out there sketching over the last month). My thoughts are somewhat disjointed as I write in this Friday’s log and I hope to organize them better as I continue in this endeavor.