That was before they hired their first real creative director, Jamie Dihiansan, and now they have a variety of sketching styles, from rough and quick to clean and organized:
He came from Crate & Barrel and it looks like he's got the most chops on the team for pure visual design, not that he does only that. Jamie's added dimensionality and color to what was a previously flat and boxy vibe in their work.
I can't find the link (it might've been in a podcast) but I remember Jamie talking about differences in process and said that he stays in paper a bit longer than the rest because there's usually a few more things he wants to try out. That makes sense, since he's been responsible for upgrading the overall look and feel of the 37S branding and extending their visual vocabulary, starting with their marketing pages and email newsletters. I've heard both Ryan and Jason say that their roles are more like product managers now.
So use the right type of sketching for what you're trying to do. Trying to cycle through concepts or overall flow? Quick and dirty with sharpies. Want to try out a new visual treatment to an existing UI, maybe play with ribbons or a stack of photos or whatever new visual trick you saw somewhere? Use grid paper and a pen, maybe even bust out a fine-tipped architectural pen and a metal ruler.
To clarify: I did come from Crate. All designers here are way better than me in many ways. You could say we all have design chops. I'm not a creative director. I'm a designer. I prefer to be called an employee (only). Ryan and Jason still design. They are intimately involved in all design. Scott Upton, Jason Zimdars, and Jonas Downey are also part of the design team. They are all very awesome.
Cool, sounds like a fun gang. I didn't say anyone's not awesome, just that each is different and that the natural variation in types of skills also seems to carry over to sketching styles.
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1880-the-different-sketch-sty...
He came from Crate & Barrel and it looks like he's got the most chops on the team for pure visual design, not that he does only that. Jamie's added dimensionality and color to what was a previously flat and boxy vibe in their work.
I can't find the link (it might've been in a podcast) but I remember Jamie talking about differences in process and said that he stays in paper a bit longer than the rest because there's usually a few more things he wants to try out. That makes sense, since he's been responsible for upgrading the overall look and feel of the 37S branding and extending their visual vocabulary, starting with their marketing pages and email newsletters. I've heard both Ryan and Jason say that their roles are more like product managers now.
So use the right type of sketching for what you're trying to do. Trying to cycle through concepts or overall flow? Quick and dirty with sharpies. Want to try out a new visual treatment to an existing UI, maybe play with ribbons or a stack of photos or whatever new visual trick you saw somewhere? Use grid paper and a pen, maybe even bust out a fine-tipped architectural pen and a metal ruler.