The hesitations of a hand-drawn line
I recently stood in front of my architecture students, demonstrating how to draw a concept narrative diagram. It’s something I’ve done countless times and yet, I remember this particular session vividly.
I remember hovering my pen above the page, deciding which colour to use first. I remember second-guessing the size of my shapes and figures. I remember layering one sketch on top of another, hesitating just long enough to avoid overcomplicating the drawing, but still wanting it to be rich. Meaningful. Just enough to provoke curiosity. Then I looked around the studio.
Most students weren’t drawing. They were thinking about drawing. Almost like they were waiting for the perfect image to crystallise in their minds before making a single mark. It struck me then and there. They assumed the diagram had to exist in their head before it could exist on the page.
But that’s not how design, or thinking, works.
Designers don’t just draw what they know. We draw to find out what we know. The act of drawing is the act of thinking.
What AI can’t replicate (yet)
I’ve experimented with using AI to generate diagrams too. It’s fast. It’s efficient. It can give you fifty versions of an idea in seconds. But here’s what I’ve noticed. Those diagrams don’t stick with me.
They’re forgettable. Disposable, even. I often can’t recall which prompt led to which image, or what made one version different from the next. It’s as if the speed of generation dilutes the memory of the process.
And when I compare that to the hand-drawn diagram I created in class, with its little hesitations, its imperfect proportions, its layering of thought over time, the contrast is striking. Each diagram, drawn slowly and uncertainly, carried far more meaning.
That’s when this prompt by Amandeep Kalra on LinkedIn clicked for me:
In the AI era, the most future-proof skill might just be the oldest one: using our hands.
I love that. Because it reframes the conversation. Instead of asking what AI can do for us, it invites us to ask: What do we want to keep doing ourselves?
Why we still need to use our hands even in the AI era
If AI can generate faster, slicker, more polished results, why should we still sketch, build, model, or make with our hands? Here’s why:
Thinking through doing
Using your hands slows your thinking in the best possible way. It helps you discover ideas, not just express them. The pen, the brush, the scissors, these are tools of cognition.
Building memory and meaning
We don’t remember outputs. We remember effort. AI can create 100 variations in a second, but they don’t leave an imprint on your thinking. In contrast, hand-made work sticks with you because you had to wrestle with it.
Friction invites reflection
Manual work introduces friction, and friction invites reflection. You pause. You question. You learn. That struggle is where your design judgment sharpens.
Craft as critique
To work with your hands is to care about how something is made, not just what it looks like. It resists the culture of instant polish. In a world full of AI-generated gloss, hand-crafted design stands out for its depth and intentionality.
Complement, don’t replace
This isn’t a call to abandon AI. It’s a call to sequence wisely. Use your hands first. Get messy, explore, tinker. Then bring in AI to expand, refine, remix. That way, you lead the process, not the other way around.
What if the future of design is both?
Maybe the real future-proof skill isn’t just using AI well. Maybe it’s knowing when to use AI, and when to use your hands.
The hands draw what the brain doesn’t yet fully know. The friction of making slows the rush to finish. The memory of making helps us trace our own design decisions.
And when our students understand that? They’re not just faster, they’re better.
Over to you
What’s something you made with your hands, recently or years ago, that still lingers in your memory? Do you feel a difference in what you remember when it comes from AI vs. your own hand?
