In The Year 2525
One day I believe we may just think of something, and with our thoughts alone the concepts will materialize physically right in front of us on paper, display or in the air. Until that day, we continue to use instruments designed to communicate and formulate ideas.
In our experience, a pencil has always been the go-to tool to get concepts organized. After scribbling disconnected partial thoughts, a fuller understanding of an idea begins to blossom. When drawing out ideas, I like to use tracing paper over the first rounds of drawing and ‘peek’ through the partially opaque paper improving on the scribble below. Layer after layer builds until the original thought is refined to communicate the idea correctly. Sometimes I’ll peel down to various layers and rescue a more elegantly drawn line or form. When the pencil drawing is fully finessed, the ink and pen are used to finalize the picture, and even then subtle improvements on the idea are drawn as the ink has a different character quality than a graphite pencil. All of the above is an accurate description of the process of my idea development with one exception. Sometimes I just scribble a drawing down on paper in ink, and that’s the end of it.
Perhaps Zager and Evans had it right when they sang of a failed technological future. In the year 2525, if man is still alive, if woman can survive, I just hope that with the above possible future technology, we’ll be able to ‘unthink’ the not so good ideas out of existence.
