There is a good trick to find new ideas that artist and designers use in concept art, sci-fi movies, but also in product design.

Ask yourself: ”What if”…

It’s about making unexpected association where we can challenge the impossible and one self’s imagination.

  • For these doodles I asked myself: What if a Chinese temple would preach its religion from a continent to an other navigating by boat.

I use the painting method I have just discovered using ONLY water.

Let’s see some other examples of “What if”:

  • Transportation: What if people could travel from a country to another through an “under-ocean” tunnel ? (No climate issue in the tunnel while boats and planes face the weather)
  • Logistics: What if people could receive there deliveries by drone ? (Amazon “buzz” projection)
  • Communication: What if people could exchange information by just shaking hands ? (We could transmit any type of information: identity, contract, confidential information…)
  • Fashion: What if clothing fibres could change of properties according to the weather and body temperature. (I wish such thing could exist for hiking)
  • Concept art: What if people could be identified from the retina in public area (Minority report). This could be a way to pay the transportation fee or anything else without scanning any card.
  • Product: What if we could type or draw without using hand. (Sciences has already succeed at typing words through thinking – a brain is connected to a computer through an helmet with multiple captors)
  • Video Games: What if a plumber could throw fire balls to a dragon (turtle?) to deliver a princess ? (I guess this scenario is familiar to you, and you also wonder how they came out with such nonsense story)
  • Environment: What if every single step from millions of pedestrians of a big city could produce energy.
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All these association allow you to get new perspective and scenarios that will broader your idea exploration.

I have just discovered a great YouTube channel about science and technologies discoveries that may reshape our future: FW: Thinking. It’s fascinating. Design love science.

Whenever a great idea pop in your mind, don’t forget to take note or to doodle it IMMEDIATELY.

If you also share your ideas with your friends, and they they look at you with big round eyes thinking you are a dreamer or kind of “crazy”, share your ideas with us !

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Hello! I'm Chou-Tac, a Product Designer from France.

If the sketching methods I’ve acquired aid me in my life and in my industrial design career, I believe that they can also help you reach your dream goal as a student or professional designer.

Leave a comment in the blog or send me an email at choutac@thedesignsketchbook.com : )

Chou-Tac

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  • Aniket Dash: “I come from India. I am 25 years old. I want to sketch cars and consumer electronics. I discovered this…Sep 5, 17:18
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  • Pamela: “Photography isn’t as satisfying as I thought. Looking at other peoples sketches lets me feel more connected to a place…Sep 3, 02:13
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