Design Tools, Digital Sketching

15 May 2007

With almost equal numbers of product designers and product engineers, CobaltNiche can approach product development from all angles.  However in terms of digital tools, up until recently these have been heavily stacked in favour of product engineering with CAD packages such as ProEngineer and Solidworks providing impressive capabilities for digital design at the ‘tail-end’ of the development process. 

To address this, CobaltNiche has recently purchased two new Wacom Cintiq tablet monitors for our Melbourne studio.  These design work stations are an important advance; combining the best of the digital world, whilst giving designers complete intuitive control to sketch and design as they like. 
At first glance the Cintiq is a large 21 inch LCD monitor with a flexible stand that lets it recline anywhere between vertical and horizontal as well as spin almost 360 degrees.  But its real trick is that it allows designers to sketch directly on its totally flat surface as if they were drawing on paper.

 

Apart from its cost, the Cintiq has no negatives; it faithfully captures the subtlety and precision of drawing by hand whilst overcoming the limitations of paper sketching.  Erasing, colouring and effects are a click away instead of being laborious and problematic.  Otherwise, sketches and ideas are just as intuitive to create as if on the back of the proverbial envelope.
For designers, tablet monitors open up new forms and effects.  Knowing that you can not make a mistake, as incorrect lines and shapes can be instantly ‘undone’, does truly open users to new design thinking, Unlike drawing on paper, the possibilities for designs drawn digitally are limited only by imagination. 
For clients, the greater efficiency provided by the Cintiq mean we can do more in less time. 

© CobaltNiche May 2007

Tips to Digital Sketching