Drawings and the development of creativity and form language in product design education

This paper explores the role, typology and evolutionary aspects of drawings and related modelling tools in the design process, as a basis for the development of product form language and related semantics. Case studies, which utilise analogies based on biological and other forms to generate creative concepts, will be used to show how the design process, as used for designing an object, product, artefact or system, often starts with an informal visual language and finishes with a formal visual language so that the product use and esteem functions are properly described. This paper will trace and explain this development at a micro level so that this progression will be better understood from a didactic viewpoint and serve to remind educators and students about the nature and fundamental roles of drawing in the design process.