Drawing v computer software

One of the discussions I had with C&G External Verifier Margaret Walker yesterday was on the importance of freehand drawing in the process of creative thinking & for communicating design intentions.  We got on to the use of charting software in official assignments.  She was adamant that, in order to prove competency at a skill, the student must produce the work themselves, or the competency skill they are demonstrating is actually the ability to use software.  (Producing tension relevant Excel charts is different because you are creating something yourself)

Also that in many of the knit design programs written pattern instructions are automatically generated when the charts are made, so this isn’t worked out & understood by the student.

So, from now on the working  & schematic drawings must be drawn by hand and charting / patternwriting software is outlawed for the assignment items.  I shall need to see your rough workings for the pattern calculations too please, so I know for sure that you have mastered the whole process.

Pattern-writing software may seem to have turned anyone who can use it into a knit designer – but has it?  The fine details, such as mirror-imaging cables in a design, or morphing ribs into the main knitting pattern in an attractive & unified way, get forgotten.

Then at the Belville Sassoon event David Sassoon made a passionate case for designers drawing and urged the school teachers there to emphasise this to their students.  He wouldn’t employ a designer who doesn’t draw because he says it is an essential part of the process for the next idea / tiny alteration to be forming as your pencil moves.  But, most importantly, designers should to be able to discuss design ideas with their clients and clarify their intentions ‘on the hoof’ without needing to switch on a computer.  If you remember, Wendy & Belinda the two knit designers at the last educators event, said exactly the same thing.

The teacher from E Sussex who was next to me said she has an enthusiastic after school sewing group (male & female 11 – 16 yr olds) and they are drafting their own body blocks and patterns, both flat (i.e on paper) and on the stand (draping & manipulating fabric into shape on a dress stand).  How good is that?

I loved seeing the design illustrations at the exhibition (many are shown in the post before this) and many of them use the simple mark-making / art techniques you sample in the module coursework.