Drawing for Product Designers (Portfolio Skills: Product Design) Paperback – September 12, 2012

I would recommend this book to anyone who is new to sketching technical objects. This book is aimed at product designers, but I would also recommend it to anyone who wants to draw objects in perspective.The author covers a great deal of theory related to sketching. He discusses principles which are important to making quick sketches, which are also easily understood. This is not only a 'technique' book, it is also a theory book, with a great deal of instruction on why certain techniques work. He goes on to show you how pencil sketching is related to the newer field of 3D design on computers. There is no program-specific information, just general "Here is the pencil sketching technique and here is what it would look like in a computer 3D design program.He fills the book with real-world project examples of designs and products. He discusses orthographic projection, isometric perspective and true perspective sketching--with the focus on getting to a point where you can get your ideas across quickly in a very realistic manner. He teaches how a sketch is different from an artistic drawing and what you should focus on to get your design ideas across to collaborators on your project.There is the occasional, "What is he talking about," where I didn't really grasp his reason for starting a chapter in a certain way. An example of this is that he titles chapter five "Registration," then doesn't define registration, or even use the word registration later in the chapter. The chapter still makes sense, I get what the chapter is talking about, but I still have no idea what the definition of registration is. Nevertheless, I have been truly pleased with this book. The real-world cases are helpful and the sketching exercises all have a point or a reason or something specific to teach you. I was generally wanting more 'follow me' sketching examples, but this book ended up being something even better..."here is how you make a sketch which gets your point across and doesn't make classic mistakes."I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs to make quick sketches to get concepts across to others. This is much more than a 'how' book...it goes the extra mile or two to teach you 'why' as well.

There will be times when even as good as you are a sketcher or renderer, you will forget how something is supposed to be done or the best way to go about achieving it. Happens to me all the time. This book is definitely a great reference as well as learning tool. There are many books out there these days on sketching for product design but not every book covers it all. Think of this book as filling in the gaps of the "Koos Eissen" books (which I own) or any other book on ID sketching you might have in your library. Some of the content you might be familiar with already but there a ton of gems in here that you might not be.I highly recommend this book. It's chock full of images, sketches, examples and case histories. Get it while it's hot!

Although it's a lot of theory at first, the tutorials as we move into later chapters, make the learning experience truly rewarding.

he book is extremely well researched and takes a new and more insightful look at this important subject. It is jam packed with important cognitive theories and principles related to how we see and experience the world. Any instructor of drawing will appreciate this book, because it allows them to explain the underlying theory with some great examples. I think this approach is more intelligent and needed if we are to understand why sketching is so important as a design tool and method.

I have met the author at one of the IDSA meeting.Great guy.. Great book.This is the kinda book I have wished I had in my undergrad years.Now that I have the book, as a part-time instructor, I encourage my students to purchase it as a guideline to sketching, shading, understanding depth, perpective, value changes..etc.

I'm currently on chapter 3 - orthographic sketching section. So far this book is impressive. Really covers the basics and gives a comprehensive knowledge of sketching, and in particular, why we sketch. The book has many examples and case studies and since I haven't lost interest by now, I would say it's a winner.

I'm torn about this book. On the one hand, some of the sections are extremely helpful. There is a section about line weight that I actually find to be almost indispensable. But then there's the rest of it...it's over-complicated and a bit of a slog to read for a drawing book. A lot of this information you can find in books like How to Draw and How to Render in a much more digestible format, and this book has multiple paragraphs of text for concepts that are maybe better explained in pictures. Overall I'd say worth picking it up and looking through it; some of it is quite useful.

This is a great book for new designers and experienced designers. I have been working in the industrial design field for 5+ years now... This is a great bridge for drawing studio into the design studio. The author also recognizes drawing and how it realtes to CAD phases of the design process.