The more fundamental skills of Industrial Design (Sketching, CAD etc….) are not something that we regularly cover here on Design Droplets, as there are plenty of highly informative resources available both online and offline. However we thought that we might share some of our favorite sketching resources so that you can explore them and improve your skills.
Online
Skills
IDSketching – Without a doubt the best industrial designs sketching resources on the net. John and Spencer do an amazing job creating the free videos and moderating the very helpful forums.
Core77 Boards – Here you will find advice and design challenges in which to hone your awesome skills. More specifically you should check out the sketching forum and the Doodling thread.
Product Design Forums – Talk to other designers, get advice and check out others works or share your own. Check out the dedicated Sketching & Rendering forum or Sketching Challenges.
Designer Techniques – An automotive focused site that has some great tutorials, articles and interviews for those interested in sketching cars and such.
Inspiration
Coroflot – although you won’t find advice here, you will find some amazingly talented peeps whose sweet sketching work will inspire.
Sketchology – A blogspot blog that is a stream of deign sketches, although would be nice if they were referenced so we know who does some of the sweet work.
Offline (books & DVDs)
Sketching: Drawing Techniques for Product Designers
Design Sketching – Released by the Umeå Institute of Design in Sweden this book is a nice slim volume that has plenty of short tutorials on various areas of sketching from basic to advanced. Would be fantastic if some of the tutorials were more involved. Like most Industrial Design sketching books it is full of sweet sketches.
Carl Liu Design Book – This book is full of work by Taiwanese designer Carl Liu. It discusses and shows his design process, design philosophy and his sketches. It is full of inspirational sketches and it is nice to see the design process and sketching process interweaved in a book, as oppose to focusing on one or the other. Only problem with this book is that it is still hard to get a copy easily, unless you can make a trip to China. You can now purchase a copy via the Product Design Hub Store.
Presentation Techniques
Drawing for 3-Dimensional Design
Design Studio Press - Founded by Scott Robertson, they publish loads of really cool design books that are inspirational and useful. Favorites include: How to Draw Cars the Hot Wheels Way
The Gnomon Workshop – These guys produce some of the best sketching tutorial DVDs on the planet. Favorites include: Techniques of Scott Robertson 1: Basic Perspective Form Drawing
People who do inspirational sketching work.
Draw Through – Scott Robertson is an industrial designer & concept design, he has produced a bunch of DVDs for Gnomon Workshop and is the founder of Design Studio Press, which publishes loads of inspirational books and a few skills focused ones.
Michael Ditullo - Head designer for Converse and regular at Core77 forums – Check out our interview with Michael for more info.
John A Frye – Check out John’s folio for loads of inspirational sketches.
Brook Banham – Founder of Middlescott design.
Harald Belker – Harald has worked for Porsche and created DVDs in conjunction with the Gnomon Workshop.
Feng Zhu – Founder of Feng Zhu Design and FZD School of Design. Read more about Feng’s school in our interview with him.
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