My folks visited me about six months ago or so. While reading my draft portfolio booklet, dad started laughing. He'd read where I stated that I start every design with a pen. 'No you don't, you have a drawing tablet! You draw in the computer!' says my dad. No, I don't, but I thought it was a funny assumption and so here we are talking about it.Here's the thing - using technology is lovely when you know what you want it to do, but when you have no idea, when you're imagining stuff, using Photoshop with a tablet and stylus is not the most direct route from the brain. You have to push buttons, set layers, import files, etc. Forget THAT! For me, using a pen is the shortest distance between creative thought and seeing it with your eyes (on the page).Take for example a current design project in Southern California, it is for the residence of an Architect I worked with years ago:I typically sit in a coffee shop and doodle for a while while studying site photos to really wrap my head around the issues of the site and try out various ways of shaping the space, fitting in uses, etc. I use a printed base plan under tracing paper, my favorite Japanese ballpoint pens, and a latte (in reverse order). The first round is not to scale, exploring idea after idea, small about the size of an index card.Sometimes I do studies that try to fit certain ideas to the site regardless of anything, and these usually look pretty nuts, especially when I don't re-draw the parts I've decided against:After generating several concepts, I refine a few ideas into what I still call conceptual design, and I limit myself to 3-4 per area max. In this case, there's a front garden and a rear garden. Even now, nothing is really measured, it is all eyeballed and still very sketchy. Notes around the edges help me remember the images I had in my mind's eye for plants and other materials. I have to make some assumptions about the clients' lifestyle, and sometimes I suggest things they have not thought of - like what if they said they want the rear garden to be for kids' play but the front is actually a better size for it....(like in this garden).... the interview process can provide a lot of information, but you really can't explore all the possibilities in an interview or two, and it helps to see ideas drawn when discussing them.At this point, I sometimes send it to the client for input. Below are the finalists for the front garden:and here (below) are the finalists for the rear garden:Some clients enjoy working at this sketchy loose level, and this client is definitely one of them. I'm honored to be designing the home landscape for his family, I hold his abilities in the architecture world in high regard and I know he and his wife have great taste. However, there are clients for whom it is more appropriate to narrow things down to one or two ideas and do a much more formal, complete presentation. I like both approaches, but for sure, this one allows for the client to have much more input at the very early stages.SO - which will they choose? We'll see.