The Power Of The Pen/Pencil: Developing A Design Sketching Syllabus To Help 1st Year Product Design Students Communicate Effectively

Digital, immersive, and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have propelled technology-focused design to the fore.Due to our technology-driven society and growing demand for technology literacy, the perceived need for traditional/analogue skills is being overlooked/underappreciated.Within product design (PD) education, students are increasingly embracing digital design tools to communicate, overlooking traditional/analogue tools.Subsequently, students are increasingly designing within the remits/restrictions of digital tools.This presents numerous challenges, including overreliance on computer aided design tools, perfectionism through corrective tools available with digital sketching platforms, and the complete disregard of quick concept generation in favor of AI.The power of the pen/pencil is being lost affecting the learning/appreciation of fundamental principles of design sketching/communication, a core skill required of every product designer.This paper presents our philosophical standpoint on design sketching and the development of a 24-week design sketching syllabus for product design 1st-year students focused on fundamental/traditional skills.