Troy Church recently published a very inspiring article on sketching entitled “Why I Sketch Every Day”.

In a nutshell, sketching helps me see, think, and communicate more clearly. It facilitates dialogue with myself, and others. It produces wonderful records of the conversations for later. It adds emotion and context to my memory and fuels my imagination. It has simultaneously slowed me down, and sped me up. It’s made me a better designer. It’s enriched my life.

It’s interesting to see how such a simple, but important step can improve our planning and development process. Sketching is definitely a great way to communicate ideas, and help others visualize what we’re envisioning for a project, and vice versa. Personally, sketching didn’t only improve my work, but also helped me enjoy designing even more. It’s fun and it gets easier the more you practice it.

I don’t sketch because I call myself a designer, I call myself a designer because I learn, think, and envision ideas by hand every day — in short, because I sketch.

So if you don’t sketch, give it a try. There are many resources available to get you started. You’ll be glad you did.