Goodbye to Gnomon Workshop – Spreading the good word!

This week instead of just posting a bunch of links for you in the traditional link love, I am going to give you a quick review of a great site. Like design droplets it was started recently and it’s pretty awesome! If you haven’t already heard, IDsketching.com is the newest design sketching resource on the net. I am predicting its also set to be one of the most awesome as well.


For the last ten years industrial designers have had a smattering of online sketching resources. An odd sketch tut on Core77 or Product Design forums. A dodgy video a University has shared.  But no more.

Since early 2008 two industrial designers have been changing this one sketching video at a time. John Muhlenkamp and Spencer Nugent are sharing their methodologies, work and sketchbooks with the online world and designers everywhere. Via their fantastic site you can access free online video based sketching demos, which I am pretty sure will one day be better and more comprehensive than even the marvelous sketching tutorial DVD’s that the Gnomon Workshop produce. You can also chat with other avid sketches via the IDsketching forums and check out John and Spencer’s sketchbooks (which are regularly updated). Plus they are collecting some extremely talented contributors like Steve McDonald, from Nike Innovation Kitchen, and Michael Ditullo.

While that’s what is currently on the site, it sounds like there is a lot more to come. Interviews with ’sketching gods’, Sketching Tool reviews and assignments to get their readers sketching like mad things.

So whether you are a design pro whose sketching is a bit rusty or a first year design student – Chuck out those Gnomon DVD’s, grab a sketchbook, sharpen those pencils, and get over to IDsketching.

These might also interest you.

• Designer Q&A with Michael DiTullo

January 30, 2009