What matter more than sketching or creativity skills to grow like crazy.

Hello ! It’s Chou-Tac,

How things going today ?

At noon, I met Eugene and his wife Mandy for lunch at Ho Chi Minh City.
They are such a lovely couple.

Vietnam is the 3rd country I met in real life people who follow the Design Sketchbook blog.
It’s meaningful to me and I feel closer to my readers and students.

Let me share with you about Eugene’s story as an aspiring designer,
as you may live the same situation.

Eugene is a “white collar”, 28yo
and wants to change his path to become a designer.

He left a message for me on Facebook,
saying we are both in the same city thus we should meet.

So we did, and Eugene bring me for a lunch for a Bun Cha Ha Noi. :)

Eugene is looking for enrolling into a design school in USA.
However he’s worried as he doesn’t feel having good enough sketching skills.

He loves design and wants to improve people’s daily life.
He’s an observer, and often wonder how to make things better.
He has a lot of ideas.

But there is a big gap between his thinking and his drawing. -.-U

I told him not to worry much about it.
That’s a normal situation.

That he should sketch his ideas anyway with “ugly doodles”.
They may not be the best, but the ideas are there.
And this is what matter the most for now.

Sketching is about technique.
And technique can be learned.
With his ideas in mind, he got things to sketch and communicate to others.
In other words, he has value to bring to the world.

As an aspiring designer,
you rather have a lot of ideas and not being able to sketch them – than the opposite.

Do you see what I mean ?
Having the ability to draw doesn’t make you a great designer,
but a great sketcher.

Of course the best combo is: Great sketching skills + Creativity. But it is ok if you do not have them developed yet. THE SEED WILL GROW.

What count the MOST to enroll a design school is your passion for design.
The WHY you want to become a designer. WHAT you FEEL when you draw and create.

This is where is you biggest potential of GROWTH.

Your passion is your best “seed fertilizer » to make it grow fast and high.
You can only pursue your dream if you feel love at what you do.

Someone with skills will never beat someone with a damn high passion who give a damn and focus on work.

Every designer starts somewhere as a beginner.
No matter your level today,
Do your best, and show what you got !

Cheers,
Chou-Tac

PS: I will be in Japan early July. If you are there. Let me know.
We could meet up around a drink !