A line is a dot that went for a walk - paul klee-

illustration-AS

The magic word, way back when we studied was CROQUIS! Most of us sketched and had a free hand signature style. Most of our faculty could identify our work from afar. Rendering was a common term and each of us struggled with a print or a texture, with almost every design assignment.

And! There used to be an award for the best illustrator!

Cut to today. As a seasoned fashion industry rag trade garmento, I find my most favourite go-to stress buster is pencil and paper. The feel and texture of the surface and the soft friction on it of an extra dark pencil is therapeutic. Grab the pencil and move in tandem with your thoughts…ahhhh!

Earlier on (I talk about 30 years ago when I was a junior designer at my first job at INTERCRAFT, New Delhi), a ‘Buyer’ was the biggest ever term and really important. This ‘Buyer’ group of beautiful and nice smelling foreigners used to descend on our office for weeks at a stretch. During the day, the buyers worked with you and you sketched. And in the evenings, took them out to dinner, never ordering noodles lest it dangle from your mouth and you cannot scoop it in quick enough The whole sampling range comprised of 20 to perhaps 50 styles?? One had no computers and no laptops. And certainly, no access to internet. So you just imagined the buyer brief, visualized it pronto, and put the pencil to task!

I find that urge to draw lacking in the new professionals and find them practically petrified of wielding a pencil. Each has access to the www, canva, AI and a printer and voila! And you wonder how your smart millennial-junior-design-assistant is ever going to sit with a client and pencil out the brief.

I really wish the design schools rekindle that romance of sketching in our future design professionals, ingrain the importance of proportions. And figure out the details.

Don’t you think we should let the new age revel in the real and feel this art of expression?

Anjali Sharma, reviving some of my old work with love. July 2023