Visualization of a design is an incredibly important aspect of any creative project. From architecture to engineering, the ability to realize the project at hand allows the designer to communicate honestly, accurately, and efficiently with the client and produce a satisfactory outcome.
With that said, a large part of design relies heavily on the designers skill for visualization, in short the ability to listen deeply to your client’s vision and create the physical representation while considering limitations, expansion, and infusing your own creativity and flare. This type of visualization is accomplished in various ways including hand drafted or computer generated renderings. Rendering all comes down to technical drawing and the integral role it plays in the design world.
What is Technical Drawing?
Also known as draughting or drafting, technical drawing refers to visualization of a design project. In this way, a structure and its features and functions are explained through drawings. Technical drawing is an incredibly invaluable skill and oftentimes is one of the main forms of communication between the client and the professional. Many fields, such as engineers, architects and landscape architects, contractors, plumbers, electricians, and even inventors, readily use technical drawing to develop and mediate structural concepts.
One of the most important aspects of technical drawing is the ability to make on-the-spot, immediate modifications to the design. While changes to computer generated renderings are more accurate, they involve the use of a computer or portable device such as a laptop or tablet. Hand drawn renditions are easier to modify on the spot, such as during a client meeting, yet are subject to flaws and miscalculations.
The Artistic Influencing the Technical: Working in Tandem
One of the largest misconceptions regarding technical drawing is its complete segregation from artistic drawing. These two styles, artistic and technical, are aspects that both play an integral role in any type of drawing. With that said, it’s important to differentiate between the styles in order to understand how best to use them.
Artistic drawing is relies heavily on the perceived visualization. It “is generally very subjective and open to interpretation. Where one person sees one thing, someone else might see something completely different or take different meaning from the same piece of art.” When a client reviews a draft it’s not unusual to receive feedback based upon their artistic interpretation.
Technical drawing “is absolutely clear in what it shows and/or represents and there is very little room for interpretation. [It] generally follows very specific rules and guidelines in order to make its intent clear and avoid confusion.”
Therefore, it’s important for designers to understand the artistic element in order to bolster communication with the client and, when it comes to drawing a design, technical skill is surmount
Types of Technical Drawing
- Hand Drawing
Technical sketching is a diminishing skill in the field of design. With the burgeoning use of computerized rendering, the demand for hand drawn drafts is decreasing. Therefore, it’s more important than ever to elaborate the role of hand drawn design.
This begins by understanding the difference between sketching and drawing. Per the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s design handbook, “‘sketching’ generally means freehand drawing. ‘Drawing’ usually means using drawing instruments, from compasses to computers to bring precision to the drawings.” Both are great skills for designers in any field. The ability to freehand means on-hand modifications, while using instruments allows for more precision.
Taking a deeper dive into the skill behind hand drawing illuminates aspects such as isometric drawing, orthographic drawing, and dimension. All of these variations create lead to the ultimate goal of a three-dimensional representation of the project called rendering.
While computerized rendering is great for client visualization, sketching is the most lucrative way to formulate ideas and bring to life a visual representation from the infant stage of conception. An initial client meeting can be a frustrating endeavor as client-designer communication is established. By utilizing hand-drawing skills, a level of trust and intimacy is formed on behalf of the client, which nurtures the relationship into the stages of computerized rendering.
- Rendering
While the “drawing” aspect implies a hand-sketched image, this restrictive implication isn’t always true. Computerized technical drawing, also referred to as rendering, is an integral part of design development. In short, rendering is the process of turning two-dimensional images into three-dimensional life-like images through the addition of detail such as shading, lamination, and color.
A common form of rendering is seen through the development of graphics, referred to as graphic design, such as web and software design, as well as video game design. Yet, rendering is also an important part of technical drawing for architects, engineers, and designers.
Both forms of technical drawing, hand-sketched or generated, are equally important for the design process. While hand-sketched designs provide an intimacy that helps cultivate communication between the client and the designer, a three-dimensional computer rendering provides an easier to consume reality of the end product.
Free hand drawing on tablet
Finding A Balance: Hand versus Computer
While cohesion is the ultimate goal, there are advantages and disadvantages to utilizing both styles in design. It’s best to look at each skill having its place and time in the design process. The ArchDaily, an online source of architecture based resources, elaborates on this style in their article The Computer vs The Hand in Architectural Drawing: ArchDaily Readers Respond.
“[O]ne of the most enduring arguments in architecture – especially in the academic sphere – is the battle between hand drawing and computer aided design. Both schools have their famous proponents: Michael Graves, for example, was known as a huge talent with a pencil and paper, and came to the defense of drawing in articles for the New York Times, among others. Patrik Schumacher, on the other hand, is famous for his commitment to the capabilities of the computer … Almost all [readers] seemed to believe that CAD and hand drawing could perfectly coexist, as most seemed to feel that sketching was an ideal tool for forming ideas and design software was more suited to the precision and clarity that is required at the later stages of the project.”
Paulo Armi, founder and creative director of CGI company EFEX™ digital, elaborates this point, “In every project we’re involved in we always start by hand drawing sketches. Why? Because that’s the early stage and we’re developing alternatives with our clients to explore which one works best. And doing it by sketches we’re quickly creating different alternatives and identifying the best ones, saving effort, time and costs for us, but principally to our customers.”
While the debate may be a heated one in the design world, it’s clear that a mixture of old school hand drawing and modern rendering technologies lends to inspired creativity, connectivity to the project, and lucrative formulation.
The Engineering Design is a team of professional and experienced CAD experts offering high-quality, low-cost rendering services. As a one-stop-shop outsource service, engineers, architects, and designers are able to request projects on an as needed basis.