There’s one thing to a pen, drawing, there’s another to a pen, writing. And being a longer term practioner who plays in both spaces — the drawing and the writing, it will be interesting to see, yet again, if this concept takes hold. Yes, me — Newton. Two of them. And I loved it. Being an early chasm leaper, I just went for it. I liked everything about Apple Culture. I still might have that there, somewhere. That, of course, was a lesson for Jobs and his teams. Cool, but really? Lines laid, concepts evolved, thinking and scales emerged, new coolness took root. Route?
I’ve not explored this in the last decade — and during that earlier exploration, I worked on and for Waccom. Might still have that around, too. But the point there, and the point here, is what is the point? That is, why draw with a digital computing device — and a fat one at that, when you can draw with a pencil. Ron Mitchell, a friend of mine, architect and designer does just that — he takes his work on the road, traveling millions of miles, working all over the world, and his makes his changes, get his ideas out, on a little pad of digital sketching out, working on the plane and elsewhere, doing his cool work for resorts and luscious developments and architectures worldwide (WATG + and his consulting own practice as well)
When I first worked with Steve Jobs at Apple, in the 80s, and he’d flown me down there to learn something about this “mouse activated computer” — he said: “how does it feel, can you make it work?” taking the mouse out for a spin. The point is just that, the tactile, the feeling, the connection to surface, the sensation of the grace of the tool…Sure, the cursor moves, but what of the character of the connection — to gesture, to drag, to surface feel, bounce?
For a tool for the road, like Ron’s warrior corridors, I’m all for the experiment.
This time around, the computer’s in the pen, which records what’s being written, and even records and plays back sound.
Draw me another.
—-
tsg | nyc