A sketch is a sketch is a sketch ...

In the digital age, where keyboards and touchscreens dominate everyday design activity, freehand drawing might seem like "old school". Arguably, however, digital drawing is just a different medium with different capabilities and to draw digitally is performing the same mechanical action as to draw traditionally. That is, the foundations are the same and the aim is the same. Moreover, it could be said that the digital medium affords more control over the design process allowing designers to focus on creativity rather than medium-specific techniques. Also, digital image generators have the advantage of making things look sharp, shiny and pretty, and delivered at speed. However, in the studio, the pencil remains a hands-on tool for generating and communicating ideas. In fact, research shows that hand-drawing is a complex cognitive process that allows for more deliberate thinking as well as greater spontaneity. Also, to draw, and write by hand can offer more time or opportunity to explore and reflect on ideas and express them visually, be it in the format of a sketchbook, creative journal or mind mapping. Furthermore, the physical act of freehand drawing is multi-sensory, feeds imagination and recalls memory while addressing both the rational and emotional sides of the design task. Indeed the sketch is a go-to tool for speculation. And so, practise freehand sketching or lose it!

Originality in the age of AI

GenAI has rapidly become a starting point in the ideation process as AI systems are capable of generating novel ideas that surprise even the most creative designer. Yet the generative models used to produce texts, images, videos, or other forms of data, may result in designers producing ideas that seem to lack originality. That is, the assumption that original ideas are manifestations of human thinking. If so, GenAI might challenge or compromise a designer's creative identity leading to digital dissociation with reality. That is, digital technology makes the designer feeling somewhat detached from the traditional material world. What is then originality in the age of AI when knowledge production, which includes creative action becomes increasingly distributed, collaborative and mediated by technology? When collaboration between human and machine heralds a democratic design process where "everything is design"and "everybody is a designer".* Integrating design and AI, then, suggests a rethink of the conception of originality and its relationship to design. Indeed, what makes, or who is a designer in the age of AI? * Already back in the 1960s, designers, such as the Archigram collective were interested in how the consumer could be part of the design process, not just a recipient.