Sketching & Communicating

I had to chuckle as I read an article in the September 2025 issue of LD+A about the importance of freehand sketching. (Drawn to Life by Cristobal Correa and John Slone) https://www.ies.org/lda/drawn-to-life/ If I had any success in lighting it occurred in the twelve years I spent traveling to China to help the manufacturing facilities build the products the company wanted and consumers expected.

The scenario was essentially the same in every visit. I sat at a table with our translator. On the “opposite side” one or two people from the factory spoke English. Most did not. I had to communicate what I wanted and what we expected via translation. I quickly realized the easiest way to get what I wanted was a sketch. I sketched various ways to solve issues that caused interruptions or impasses in our conversation.

Since the 1980s, I’ve been writing with a fountain pen. These trips were no different.  On an early trip to The Philippines, I found a great Waterman blue pen with a classic 24K gold nib at a local shop. Waterman pens are wonderful to use and tough as nail. The pen gallery was offering this one on sale at quite a bargain. I couldn’t resist. With fountain pens, that is a common problem I have. I can’t resist a purchase.

I began to travel with this pen on all my subsequent trips to Asia. Upon departure, I’d grab three legal pads of white lines paper, my trusty Waterman and a pile of cartridge refills. Only the pen returned. I later learned, our staff and the factory folks used to joke (in Mandarin, Shanghainese and Cantonese) “Bring out the blue pen!” Years after their creation, factories would retrieve a ratty, wrinkled sketch I created, some time ago containing a solution I arrived upon, in the moment and on the fly. To be honest, these almost always were collaborative efforts and some problems helped competitors as well.

After I exited the Engineering Department to manage product lines and eventually help in the education of lighting use, newer, younger engineers didn’t/couldn’t sketch, instead relying on CAD snippets and words. The beauty of a sketch is it contains NO WORDS. I could “talk” to the factory engineer, who spoke no English and we understood each other completely because often, he’d grab the paper and pencil-in a counter-sketch. Two or three sheets of white lined legal paper later, we had a solution.

The LD+A article discusses the limitations that computer-based “sketch” programs deliver, compared with the freedom of a clean sheet of white lined legal paper. Like Apple’s insistence on changing words in a text message, the predefined program digitally pushes back against the sketchers intent, making it more difficult than necessary. A pen or pencil is easy.

A lot of people can’t sketch. Even some talented, artistic people do not sketch well. I believe sketching should be considered a treasured gift. The most successful people I knew, who interacted with personnel in another country were blessed with the skill of sketching.

I’m the last person to discount the importance of technology. What can be done today with a computer, as opposed to a pencil “T” Square and Triangle is astounding. In a collaborative manufacturing setting, the real results are often found in conversation between the designer, engineer and manufacturing management. More often than not, that battle takes place over sheet of sketch paper.