A typology of design sketches, defined by communication factors: The case study of the Thule Yepp nexxt child bike seat

Within the field of industrial design, sketches play a significant role for communication. Sketching represents a language for designers to explore options and support creativity, and to express visions and solutions to teams, clients and other stakeholders. Considering the many different goals and formats professional sketches (and visualisations in general) have in practice, this paper suggests to also explicitly distinguish and teach the various factors that should be taken into account for each specific type of sketch: uncover why sketches look the way the look. Several authors have in the past described classifications of design sketches and drawings, mostly assigned to specific design stages. However these scholars do not specifically describe the communication factors, nor do they provide clues or guidelines for implementation. The case study on which the research was based was executed in close collaboration between University and Dutch design agency Vanderveer Designers, it concerned the Thule Yepp Nexxt child bike seat project they ran, which was awarded with the ‘best of the best’ Red Dot Award and the IF Gold award. The case study has helped to conclude that sketches vary along an extensive range of dimensional axes. Further, the visual database of sketches helped to uncover the various characteristics sketches could have. Correlating (1) specific sketches with (2) the factors defining them and (3) the outcome characteristics together will help students and designers, agencies and clients to better understand and interpret each other.