People have sent some very nice compliments (see Comments link below). We’re open to constructive criticism, too. Mind you we do moderate because, of course, there’s the usual spam from The Trolls Under the Bridge…but we toss them into the river (the comments, that is).

As we translate a visual memory into a new rowing poster design we’re really harkening back to pre-photographic times. We’re all so awash in digital imagery now that it’s hard to conceive of a time when people really had to look, see and remember — a sketch by hand was the only non-literary means to discover and retrieve new knowledge. It worked for Charles Darwin, Lewis and Clark and countless others. Yet it’s a skill anyone can learn.

Try this fun exercise:

Take a pencil and paper and do a simple line drawing of the front door to your own home, office or dorm — without looking at that door. You’ve seen it thousands of times and yet how much detail can you actually recall? Come on, did you just draw a rectangle with nothing in it?

Even for those of us in the design field it’s amazing how little accurate detail one can record without having to go back and check! What else in life are we missing?

It’s like hearing without listening.