The Drawing Excellence Framework: Redesigning the visual communication curriculum: restoring drawing as a core competency.
Craft skills in the UK are in the same position historic buildings were a hundred years ago. The Guardian, 4/8/2017
In the rapidly evolving landscape of art and design education, the need to re-evaluate and redesign curricula has never been more pressing. One area of growing concern is the decline in focus on drawing as a fundamental skill in courses such as Visual Communication, Graphic Design, and Illustration. The pressures of modern education — specifically the constraints of hours allocated to each student — have resulted in the diminishing role of drawing as a compulsory part of the curriculum, especially during the critical first two years of study.
Yet drawing remains central to the work of artists, designers, and illustrators across a range of disciplines. It is not just a technical skill but an essential tool of creative exploration and visual discovery, a process that enables students to visualise and develop their ideas. Drawing has always been a means to interpret, record, and analyse the world around us. As a primary visual language, it is as crucial for communication and expression as written and verbal skills. Despite this, many students in art and design courses today struggle with a basic confidence in their drawing abilities. This deficiency, and the underlying educational structures that have led to it, deserve urgent attention.
Drawing in Education: Why It Still Matters
Throughout history, drawing has been the backbone of visual culture, allowing individuals to express, explore, and communicate complex ideas. From the Renaissance masters who sketched anatomical studies to contemporary designers who use drawing to conceptualise their work, the practice has informed the development of visual culture for centuries.
The role of drawing in education remains critical — not just to the creative disciplines of art and design where it is foundational but to broader fields as well. As technology continues to develop and permeate every facet of our lives, the need to understand and interact with the world through visual means has become even more pronounced. Images and visual symbols can transcend language barriers and enhance global communication, making drawing a powerful tool in today’s increasingly interconnected world.
However, over the past few decades, drawing as a core component of art and design education has been gradually sidelined. Students often utter phrases like, “I can’t draw,” or, “I can’t draw” followed by “very well.” This sentiment, unique to the arts, reflects a failure in the system. Imagine a medical student confessing they don’t know their cardiovascular anatomy or a journalism student admitting they struggle with writing. Similarly, a music student would never say they cannot hear notes or play their instrument adequately. And yet, in art and design education, students somehow feel it’s acceptable to lack proficiency in a skill as essential as drawing. This points to a concerning dilution of higher education standards — today’s HE (Higher Education) in some areas now feels less rigorous than what used to be considered FE (Further Education).
The Impact of Current Educational Measures
In the United Kingdom, the National Student Satisfaction Survey (NSS), Research Excellence Framework (REF), and Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) were all introduced with the intent of measuring and improving the quality of education. However, these measures have proven inadequate in addressing the deeper issues within creative disciplines. For one, they fail to account for the importance of drawing as a fundamental skill. As long as these frameworks prioritise superficial metrics, the creative and technical development of students will continue to suffer. What is needed is a new approach — one that restores drawing to its rightful place at the core of the curriculum.
Introducing the Drawing Excellence Framework (DEF)
To counter this growing gap in skills, I propose the implementation of the **Drawing Excellence Framework (DEF)**. At its core, the DEF would re-establish drawing as a compulsory activity within art and design courses, requiring a minimum of four hours per week dedicated to direct observational and creative drawing. This would not be “A-level style” academic drawing focused solely on achieving technical accuracy. Instead, the emphasis would be on nurturing *heart, hand, and eye* coordination — an approach that fosters intuitive, exploratory, and observational skills. Drawing would become a means of developing applied visual literacy, where students engage with their work on a deeper, more personal level.
To paraphrase the legendary designer Paul Rand: “Drawing is simple; this is why it is so complicated.” The act of drawing may seem straightforward, but it demands a level of commitment and understanding that only comes with practice. Through the DEF, students would build the necessary skills to become fluent in visual communication, which is essential for producing the designers of the future.
The Importance of Applied Visual Literacy
Applied visual literacy is the foundation of design thinking, allowing students to analyze and interpret the world in a uniquely creative way. By embedding drawing deeply into the curriculum, students would gain not only technical skill but also the ability to conceptualize, reflect, and critique their work visually. This visual fluency is not just about the ability to render images accurately; it is about the capacity to use drawing as a tool for problem-solving, exploration, and communication.
Today’s art and design students are growing up in a world where visual communication is omnipresent — yet many lack the foundational skills to engage with it effectively. As educators, it is our responsibility to provide them with the tools they need to succeed. Drawing is a language that can bridge gaps in understanding, both within the creative disciplines and across other fields of study. Neglecting it puts the future of design education — and indeed, the broader creative industry — at risk.
A Call to Action
The need to re-establish drawing as a core competency in art and design education is clear. If we are to prepare students for the challenges of the modern world, we must ensure they have the visual literacy skills required to navigate it. The Drawing Excellence Framework offers a practical, concrete solution to this problem. By dedicating time and resources to developing students’ drawing skills, we can cultivate a new generation of designers who are equipped to think critically, explore creatively, and communicate effectively.
In the end, we ignore the importance of drawing at our peril. It is only through the deliberate cultivation of visual literacy that we can hope to create the artists and designers of tomorrow — individuals who not only engage with the world visually but also shape it in ways we have yet to imagine.
(The text is based on my lecture given at #Ideasofrevolt conference of the Graphic design Educators Network at Sheffield institute for the Arts, Sheffield Hallam University on Sep 8, 2017. The political and social landscape of 2017 offers graphic design students ample rich subject matter to react to, dissect and interpret, but where is the revolt?)
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Unless specifically stated, opinions and points of view shared are my own.
