Conceptualizing and the Process of Sketching - My Senior Project

I find it interesting how when your back is against the wall it forces you to produce something. For me , that something was graduating from college.

I think I was designed for college. Not the good student part, but the institution that forms the way of life that is college. I was a "not take it too seriously type" that loved exploring new ideas, having good conversations, socializing at parties, and listening to great lectures. The college system also had a way of allowing you to not worry where the money was coming from (thanks college loan system and your corky way of deferring the consequences). With this in mind I really loved my time at MSU.

So there I was in year four of school. Those that I started with, that actually survived to make it to year four, were walking the line. All the while I was wondering how I was going to move on. At that time my advisor gave me an option. Spend two more year completing my B.S. (Bachelor of Science) or declare a B.I.S (Bachelor of Independent Study) and get the heck out of college and into the workforce.

For those of you who might not know what the B.I.S. is all about, simply put, it was for people like me. Those that came to school, worked hard, could not figure it all out, but had the credits to graduate. It is also for those that came to school but their major was not really offered at the university and this gives them an option to study that area with advisor support.

My advisor was an architect, so I was going to do some spin on a design project. For me it was a 30+ page research paper on the concepts of Modern Architecture in relation to residential design. I was then required to produce a residential design that embodied those core concepts. This idea was really interesting to me. The architect gave me a site plan (a problematic pie shape at the end of the cul-de-sac). My plan was to design something Habitat for Humanity could build that would be cheap and fast. It was also to show how great design and its elements could produce a better home for those that needed a home. That is when the sketching began.

It is important to know that your sketches can be whatever you want them to be. They are sketches for a reason and they are there to help you play with the concepts. Some of my sketches that you see in the gallery above have zero possible realistic outcomes (there is a arrow to move from image to image). The gallery below shows you how I refined on those ideas. These are still concept sketches. You should not worry on the quality of the rendering, that is the beauty of a sketch, just get the idea out.

Now that I have an idea of what the areas might look like and how the house would flow, I can then start to think realistically about the design. This would be about the needs of the building and start to play with scale, floor plan details , etc... To actually build the blueprints of the design.

I think it is important to know that sketching helps you to produce what you need when you need it. In my case it helped me to produce a final project that was approved for my senior project. I went on to actually do the technical blueprint work for the submission of my project. I could not have gotten to that point if I did not do this process. This is the meat and potatoes of design work.

Thankfully, I went on to gradate from Murray State University. If I could take a way one skill set from my time at MSU that was most important, it would be this process right here. All to often everyone in the room does not know where to even begin. It is when you go into the brainstorming room and start with the sketching process does the image of what needs to be done come into focus.

Also, remember to not don't take it to seriously and enjoy the ride. You might need up with something great that you didn't see in the beginning. I look back on my career and feel that I ended up where I needed to be and it was nowhere near where I thought I would ended up at. Funny how life imitates art.