When a new vehicle design program is launched, when the package has been finalized, when the market segment and cost parameters have been determined and the project is turned over to the design staff, typically the designers assigned to the project begin their initial design search by creating quick idea sketches for design themes. We call these drawings empathic sketches. This comes from the word empathy which the dictionary describes as the imaginative ascribing to an object( such as an automobile) feelings or attitudes present in one self. This is not an intellectual analysis of the design problem but rather a gut feeling about what the design could be. Since they are very quick to do, each designer will produce many different ideas in the hope that their theme will be chosen for development. They can be in any media, however, felt tip pens , pastels, colored pencils on inexpensive paper classically have been the favorite tools of the car designers.. Today much of this work is done on computers,however, I prefer the classic way since the computer tends to  reduce the artistic individuality found in drawings on paper. . Here are a selection of sketches to give an idea of the spirit of the technique.

TYPICAL SKETCH PROGRAM TO DEVELOP A DESIGN THEME --- JON GEAUDREAU  1997

Prismacolor pencils on bond paper

FINAL DESIGN

Mark Micelli

Geoff Garstecki

Albert Dvokin

Scott Roller

Steve Schock

Dave Roulo