Sketching is more than making correct drawings

Sketching in the context of a design process is not a goal in itself, but can be considered as a tool to make better designs. Sketching as a design tool has several useful effects as: ordering your thoughts, better understanding of difficult shapes, functioning as a communication tool, and providing an iterative way of developing shapes. In our bachelor-curriculum Industrial Design Engineering we developed a series of courses that addresses these effects in particular. The courses are Sketching and concept drawing (SCT), Product Presentation Drawing (PPT) and Applied sketching skills (TTV). This line of courses is built on three pillars: - Learning to sketch; Theory, speed and control of the materials. - Learning from sketching; Develop a better insight in complex 3D shapes (Figure 1). - Sketching as a design tool; Communication, ordering your thoughts, iterative working. As a result we see that students who have finished the courses instinctively start sketching in an iterative manner, use sketching as a source of inspiration and learn that the whole process of iterative sketching helps in structuring, developing and communicating the design process. In this way the students become better sketchers and better designers