Here’s 2 pages from the 2008 CENTS Show. It’s a lecture on stone by Gordon Hayward.
A lot of his talk was showing work by Dan Snow and other stone masons/jobs/art peices up in the New England area.
Whenever a image popped up that I really liked I started sketching as fast as possible and attempted to keep up with his talk.
It was tough drawing, looking down, and following along on the screen . . . but it was worth the effort. A very nice talk on Gordon’s part.
Gordon showed a lot of great work and there were enough interesting images to get the creative juices flowing . . . how could I borrow off this peice, what could I add to another? Seeing built works and wondering how I could make them my own.
Fun stuff and a good talk.
The above page is a pretty good example of how I take notes during a lecture and I wanted to share that process with you and add why I feel it is important to take notes this way.
I know(for me) that this type of note taking has made me a much better designer and renderer(sp?). The improvement in my design skills is unquestionable. Plus I have all those notes, drawings, thoughts, and ideas(20+ years) at my fingertips.
Here I go Again
I’ve written about this before, go to industry events and take good notes . . . not on loose paper or a legal pad-no way. Take those notes in a notebook(s), good solid notebooks, notebooks/journals that will last.
One other thing . . . we are designers. Designers do not think in words only, do not remember in words only,or written expressions and thoughts. Designers should remember in pictures . . . visual concepts, drawings, quick sketches, doodles.
Let me say this again as designers we are visual people . . . so let us remember visually, think in sketches, create in concept drawings.
The work you produce will be better for it. Make doodling/rendering/sketching a part of your life. It’s from those quick sketches that some of your great ideas will come from.
Oh, one more thing . . . something very important-are you listening? When a great idea, solution, brainstorm, awesome thought hits you . . .
Write it down or draw it IMMEDIATELY, it is this power of recording those ah-ha moments as quickly as possible in relation to when they occurred a powerful, powerful tool in your creative toolbox.
Get busy drawing, and keep a notebook, Moleskine, or any other bound journal close by!
*That above image is a close-up from the top image. It’s all quick fast lines. Draw the concept of the idea . . . not a final rendering. Just capture the thought.
The Whispering Crane Institute 
interesting concept – some of us prefer to work with words – noticed that you used a reference from the 2008 cents – did anything impress you from 2009 ? – speaking of words – i lost the handout for the only class that really impressed me – ‘the w crane on stone’ – could you please mail me another handout? – hope your back is doing better –
question –
like how you divide design into two themes – geometric and curvilinear – but what about purely natural design? – some define curvililnear as having clean geometric arcs, but mother nature is always saying the hell with that rule –
b