About

An Idea Sketchathon (III) is a ‘sketch marathon,’ like Idea Storm (III), where a group of designers uses sketching to come up with many ideas and to solve design problems.
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​​​​​What you need

• A group of about three to five designers to do the idea sketchathon together.
• A place to work quietly, large table with chairs.
• Papers and pens or pencils.
• At least an hour to do it properly.

How it’s done

• Everyone sits around a table with enough space to work.
• Write the subject of the idea sketchathon on a piece of paper or on the board. The subject is the topic of the design thinking project.
• Each person works alone, and notes or draws 3 to 5 ideas on paper, one idea per page. Work for 15 minutes like this.
  • When everyone is done, each person passes their sketches to the person to their right (thus, each will also receive the sketches of the person to their left).
• Now respond to the sketch ideas that you have received. Add your thoughts by sketching or by writing notes on their sketches.
  • When everyone is done the second time, you pass your growing pile of sketches once more to the person to your right, and receive the sketches from the person to your left.
• After a few times, everyone will have plenty of ideas to work with.

Tips

• Share your ideas, the more you give, the more you get!
• Wild or crazy ideas are welcome! Let your imagination run free.
• Do not judge ideas or criticise them. You will do that later.
• At the end of the idea sketchathon, you can choose the best ideas using dot voting.
• Try to complete a full circle so that everyone gets to help on each other’s design ideas.
• Note that the bigger the group, the longer the idea sketchathon takes.
  • Three designers working for 5 minutes each round might take an hour. Five designers will take two hours.​​​​​​​