The value of a thumbnail sketch.
Years ago as a student, I sat in a University hall at the Fine Art School of Tasmania and listened to a lecture on the basic principles of design creation. I loved those design theory lectures as they highlighted the rich and diverse history of design and built a context that informed my developing practice. More importantly they emphasised the need to always know where you are as a designer and where you were going in relation to the creation of the communication piece. The fundamental message from this particular talk was the importance of creating an initial set of thumbnail sketches for your design. At the beginning of each piece of work, regardless of its size, purpose and destination, the thumbnail sketch was an essential component to the overall success of the design.
As I sat listening to this lecture, I remember feeling somewhat frustrated by the topic. In my mind, sketching thumbnails was not a necessary component of the design creation process; it was more of a hindrance to it! What value was there in wasting time creating little pieces of art, when in the ‘real world’ clients wanted quick and relevant solutions for their money! In my ‘learned’ opinion, thumbnail creation was merely a construct of Art school assessment formalities and certainly not how I saw my design process in the future.
Undoubtedly, my naivety was unfounded, as I had not yet really designed in a ‘real world’ context; what did I really know? Rather, my perspective stemmed from my own reservations about my undefined and developing design process and a misguided understanding that in order to be a great designer you had to have amazing sketching skills. This perception was not helped by the fact that the Art school environment was filled with Painting major colleagues, who were producing fine art sketches good enough to sell! In my classes I would always spend vast amounts of time sketching things just to make them ‘look’ like good pieces of art rather than thinking about their design purpose. My thumbnails weren’t really connected to my design nor did they really contribute to them meaningfully; they were too concerned with looking creative and clever. Ultimately I was just wasting my time as I was only trying to ‘look’ like a good artist/designer; not actually be one.
Despite my misgivings, I actually continued to sketch thumbnails through a stubborn need to be better and the desire to pass my course. With each new task I persisted in drawing sketches, slowly caring less about their artistic merit and more about their communicative value. Ironically the less I worried about the art, the better and more relevant my designs became. Years of following this process left an indelible print and a habit formed. It became increasingly clear that the message in that lecture was spot on. Creating thumbnail sketches was not only important they were an essential component to the overall success of a design.
The sketching of several hand drawn thumbnails helps to organise and define your initial ideas and concepts from a consultation. They allow you to explore options of style, layout and orientation along with potential colour palettes and typeface choices. More importantly they help assist your brain in disseminating any potential references to other work, alleviating you from reproducing something already designed.
When I look back through my old design journals at the hundreds of sketches I have made throughout the years, I am amazed at how clear the process of design, from start to finish actually is. I can often pinpoint a starting idea that stimulated my thinking or I can see where I changed my mind and followed a particular trend. The true value of sketching thumbnails lies not in their artistic quality but rather in their ability to display and map the thinking and problem-solving journey. I am grateful that I sat in on that particular lecture all those years ago, as the message was the beginning of a good thing. The sketching of thumbnails is an essential part of the design process and I use it daily in my practice.
