Don: Hello, this is an Ask Kris and Don Quickie episode where we answer a question from a designer who feels held back because they believe they cannot draw. Let’s chat about this. You’re listening to Design and Prosper episode 126.

[Intro Music]

Kris: Welcome everybody!

Don: Hello! Okay, so this is a great question and I’m sure a lot of designers out there can relate to this. So, let’s read it. It was given to us by an anonymous contact an anonymous person out there, which is fine.

Kris: Yes. You can submit your own question anonymously if you wish. Just head to designandprosper.co/podcast and submit your very own question too

Don: Yes, please do because we are getting low

Kris: We are.

Don: And we really would love to answer questions that are important for you to know the answer to. So let us know what you would like to know. Alright, let’s dive in. So the question is, I’ve been a designer for a long time now, but have always felt held back on my inability to draw. I do some brand identity work, but feel maybe I shouldn’t offer that anymore as I’m struggling with syndrome a bit there. Aw!

Kris: Ohhh. No!

Don: We’re sorry that’s happening for you, lovely.

Kris: Yeah, look, this is absolutely just a limiting belief. I promise you 100%, you do not need to be able to draw in order to be a designer.

Don: 100%, I reiterate that. 100%, you do not need to.

Kris: Yeah. My beautiful business partner of 10 plus years was an incredible designer, such a good designer. And she could not draw. She could not draw. We’d laugh about it. Like it was, it was funny. She actually wore that identity as a badge of honor, you know, it, maybe took her a little while, maybe through her university years, she started to really take that on as her identity and it’s like, it’s totally fine.And we really tapped into her strength in not actually being able to draw. Now, I know that sounds strange, but she was incredible with symbols and icons and really simple design. That was her strength. Really powerful communications that instantly communicate a message, I guess.

That was her strength. And I really feel like it’s very important that you step into your power with this. And. and own it about yourself. I can’t draw. Hands up. Yeah. It’s not part of my skillset. But you do not need to be able to draw to be a great designer.

Don: Absolutely, thank goodness drawing is not required for graphic designing. Thank goodness, it’s such a misconception. I mean It is a skill set that is required. You need to be able to sketch out ideas for you, for your eyes only, for you to understand what it is you want to do with thumbnails and things like that. And if that, if you can understand your conceptual thinking.

On paper, that’s okay. That’s all that needs to happen. So don’t stop that. You know, so many designers that I know are not fabulous illustrators. They can sketch an idea in stick men and, you know, and shapes and blobs and communicate a highly conceptual approach without being able to draw.

I’ve seen it time and time again. I’ve worked with so many designers and I would say most of the designers that I know could not draw in that traditional sense of drawing.

Kris: Like an illustration.

Don: Like an illustration. Yeah. One designer that I worked with, who is one of my dearest friends to this day, she was actually a senior designer at my first job, and we became so close.

I think she’s the only designer that I’ve ever worked with who is a highly skilled illustrator and painter and can really draw. Facial features,

Kris: Yeah,

Don: pretty much anything. She could draw anything. She was incredible. And that’s a skill set that she had. But quite literally every other designer that I have worked with myself included, we sketch in code, you know, when we sketch in shape

Kris: In symbols.

Don: In symbols and we need to be able to understand our sketches and share them with maybe whoever we’re collaborating with, but the detail and the understanding that you have to be a really detailed illustrator has never, never ever come up.

Kris: No, I’m just wondering ’cause you said in the question that you do some brand identity, but you feel like you shouldn’t offer that.

Well, in terms of brand identity. I am. I’m wondering. Where you’re gathering inspiration in terms of branding and brand identity because generally Brands aren’t overly illustrative anyway

Don: Yeah, they’re usually distilled down.

Kris: Yeah, they’re really highly refined symbols, or they’re rarely illustrative like if you think about You know the most successful brands in the world.

There’s not a lot of illustration in there or drawing you know. Well, I can draw. I can sort of…yeah, I can definitely draw, but I rarely,

Don: That was so sweet then! Yes, I can vouch. Kris can draw!

Kris: I rarely illustrate with design. I rarely do even with layout and publication design or whatever. I rarely illustrate with design. Sometimes it comes in handy and I can have a bit of fun with it, but Rarely, like there’s other skills that I use. I’m, I love typography and color and shape and line and there’s all these other elements, you know, the elements of design that you can use to have very successful design solutions.

Don: it’s absolutely okay to release that limiting belief that you have to be highly skilled at drawing to be a graphic designer. We promise you, it is not required. Being highly conceptual, now yes, that’s a skill set that you need and you need to be honing that. But being able to draw, literally draw things, is not a required skill and we want you to embrace your other strengths. So have a think about what it is that you do love doing and what you’re good at doing and approach those things with vigor, you know, like, what do I love doing? What am I really good at? And don’t be too shy to say that you’re good at those things, because it’s like Kris’s partner, she was exceptional at conceptual thinking and branding without being able to draw.

And it’s okay to say that, I am exceptional at X, Y, or Z. It’s okay for you to lean into the strengths that you have. I actually worked with illustrators. I love illustration. I can draw a little bit, but I draw in code. I draw in thumbnail sketches. And I have designed many projects where specialist illustration has been required over the years, over the many years. And then I actually source illustration and drawing from The guys who do it really well, you know, are finding really amazing illustrators and we’ve got some incredible illustrators available to us here in Australia, as I’m sure worldwide. And I just love collaborating with them. So if I needed illustration or wanted illustration, if my concept called for illustration, I would actually collaborate with someone who could do it well. I collaborated with people where that was their secret source. It was their, you know, in their wheelhouse.

Kris: There’s so many beautiful illustrators in the world. You can tap into their strengths. Their zone of genius.

Don: Yeah, that’s it, that’s right. But that’s for, whenever I did illustrations. I conceptually designed a brand where an illustration, quite an extensive illustration was required. So worked hand in hand with that illustrator for that. But it’s very specialized and it’s, and it’s not going to be required all the time. 90 percent of my projects did not require high level illustration skills. It’s kind of rare.

Kris: It is kind of rare. Yeah. They are beautiful projects that require illustration sometime, but yeah, you don’t have to do it yourself.

Don: Yeah. That’s for sure.

Kris: So it really is, like Don said before, you need to tap into your strengths. What are your strengths with design? And like, maybe it’s like, maybe for you it is color, maybe typography is going to be your thing. Or maybe it’s like you always work with a certain style of imagery. Like it could be…not saying that you need a signature style or anything, but, that’s one thing that my my business partner did so beautifully. She was a really great art director, really great with image styles and all those sorts of things. So what is your secret sauce? You’ve definitely got a strength there and you just need to figure out how to leverage that and work with it.

Don: Yeah, absolutely. And don’t be afraid to collaborate, be brave, allow yourself to work with other people if you need illustration. But like we just said. It’s really rare. It’s really rare.

Kris: Yeah, design is about communication, and you don’t need illustration to communicate. You don’t. There’s so many other ways that you can communicate. Yeah. And there’s so many beautiful design elements that you can use other than illustration.

Don: Absolutely. And when you do use it, you’ve got so many amazing illustrators out there to work with. I used to rack my brain for most projects, who could I work with on this one? I’d love to use illustration. I loved using illustration in my brands. We, Kris and I, work very similarly. We like to have a colour palette, a font story, and we like to have illustration as well. So where possible, a bit of a pattern palette, things like that. So we’re always going, Ooh, what could we do here? Who could we work with? You know, that’s exciting, but it’s not always appropriate. So you can’t always pull it in, but I would always want to. I love working with illustrators. It’s so much fun. But yeah, it’s not for every project.

Kris: I feel like for you, beautiful designer, there is some work for you to do and some research to do to explore the world of branding a bit more and just open up your eyes to brands that don’t require illustration and drawing.

Don: Yeah.

Kris: Aand look at different design styles. Like you might look at say design from the 1950s or the 1930s or different eras and see what they used. Like there’s certain design styles like the Swiss international style that doesn’t use illustration in the way that I think that you think you need to be doing illustration and incorporating it into design. It’s just, it’s just not necessary. There’s this geometry and there’s, oh, there’s just so much, you know, like a kid in a candy store, there’s so many aspects to design that don’t rely on drawing or illustration. So have fun exploring!

Don: Yeah! Be brave, lovely one and all the best. Boot that imposter syndrome to the curb.

Kris: So before we go we would really appreciate it if you are enjoying this podcast. It would mean so much to us if you could leave us a positive review and make sure you’re following or subscribing to us, so you do not miss an episode and it helps the podcast to grow as well.

Don: Yeah. The algorithm likes it

Kris: Yes. With the podcast players. So just press the follow button.

Don: Yay! Please and thank

Kris: Yes, we appreciate you all so, so much. And yeah, until next time,

Don: be brave.

Kris: Be brave.

Don: Bye!

Kris: Bye!