Creativity

Let’s not forget the power of the pencil

Designers are becoming increasingly afraid of pencil. Rather than sketch something out, the default solution seems to be: “You’d definitely be able to achieve a similar effect using Photoshop.” Digital certainly has its benefits, but let’s not forget the power of the pencil.

In an attempt to conquer this fear, Firedog ditched the PCs in favour of a quick pen and paintbrush workshop. Just 20 minutes of painting reminded us that sometimes, the best solution for a creative block can be to step away from the distractions a PC brings.

Our designers share a love of typography – we excitedly post around work that catches our eye. In Friday’s workshop, we wanted to remind ourselves of the effects that can be achieved when experimenting with an array of paintbrushes and brush tipped pens.

Cliff was also inspired by typographer Sean McCabe’s hand lettering techniques. Sean notes that with the domination of digital, hand lettering has seen a strong resurgence because it conveys a warm, human element.  The popularity of his hand lettering tutorial has led Sean to teach courses on the subject, so hand drawn typography is definitely an area that people are returning to.

We’ve noted the same thing – just look at the Nandos typeface or the popularity of artists like Jessica Hische, Peter Strain and Oli Frape. Hand drawn type is definitely much more sought after than it would perhaps have been a few years ago – probably because it communicates a sense of character and craft in a very digitised world.

So, what did we take away from the workshop? We may be a digital agency, but we haven’t forgotten the importance of picking up a pen or paintbrush every once in a while.