Some may think sketching is a disappearing skill, but if you ever enter a design studio, you will find out differently. Studios still make sketches and drawings by hand and in most cases, quite a lot of them. They are an integral part of the decisionmaking process, used in the early stages of design, in brainstorming sessions, in the phase of research and concept exploration, and in presentation. Drawing has proved to be, next to verbal explanation, a powerful tool for communicating not only with fellow designers, engineers or model makers but also with clients, contractors and public offices. This book can be regarded as a standard book on design sketching, useful for students in product design.

This book explains the basic sketching techniques and decisions more in depth and provides much more step-by-step example drawings, which makes it even more suitable for students and professionals who want to become better sketchers. Sketching the Basics can be seen as the prequel to Sketching as it is more targeted at the novice designer. The Basics explains the essential techniques and effects more in detail, taking the reader by the hand and guiding him step by step through all the various aspects of drawing that novice designers come up against.

We are very pleased to announce the third book by our bestselling writers Koos Eissen and Roselien Steur. After the worldwide success of Sketching and Sketching: the Basics the authors now shift their focus from 'how to sketch' to 'why to sketch'. For designers, sketching is a daily activity that can serve many goals. You can sketch to brainstorm, to find and articulate ideas or to present a project to other designers in your team or people from other departments. And of course you sketch to present projects to clients and production companies. All these goals require different sketching techniques, which will be even more effective if you understand how people view your sketches and how you can use your sketches to improve your way of communicating what you want.