Sometimes sketches work out. Sometimes they don’t. My most recent little sketch of happy campers came out looking much more like a horribly tragic road trip inferno.

People want to see sketches. Clients need to see mock-ups in order to communicate the best design direction, potential employers want to see sketches to illustrate you creative process, friends want to see sketches just because they’re curious of what you’ve got hidden away in your notebook, and what you’ve been working on.

Some people have beautiful sketchbooks.

I guess there’s a difference between sketches that are doodles and sketches that are ideas. Ideas are fluid and messy. They come like lightning and leave just as quickly, so you have to capture them. Good ideas are hidden among lots of terrible ugly ideas too.

So should sketchbooks be a public domain, messy work and all? Or should the sketches that are presented to the work be a type of “second-draft”, a facade of neat creativity?

View more beautiful sketches.