Sketchbook: Conceptual Drawings From the World’s Most Influential Designers
Written and designed by Timothy O’Donnell

Creatives the world over use the same computers, the same software, the same fonts, and view the same inspiration online. The work all starts looking the same.

This executionally-level playing field makes the ideas behind the work even more crucial, and the creative’s thinking the only true reflection of their creative process. I wrote Sketchbook to address the award shows and design annuals, which all show the projects as beautiful finished work—with no sense of how its creator arrived at it.

This book features the sketches—some digital, some analog, some messy, and some sublime—that led to the award-winning work in the first place. Simply seeing finished results tells students, look at this genius—nothing like your failed attempts. Discovering the messy doodles and false starts from celebrated designers tells students: we all approach the blank page with the same uncertainty—it’s the ideas behind the gloss that ultimately matter.