Most of us were doodlers at some point in our lives, usually in grade school, when writing implements were always on hand and there was a lot going on to be bored by, before other idle pastimes like fidgeting, nail-biting, smoking, or general anxiety took its place. Many architects never stopped, which is undoubtedly why some of them were drawn to the profession in the first place. With Pointless Drawings, Minneapolis-based architect and designer Josh Lewandowski has taken his penchant for, well, pointless drawing, and applied it to the single-topic blog, a favorite idle pastime of the modern age. Lewandowski posts, as his site puts it, "A new, meaningless diagram drawn daily, just 'cause," and the result is both a refreshingly pointless palate-cleanser and an intriguing look at what a design-oriented mind comes up with on autopilot.
As Lewandowski recently told Co.Design, he came to structural sketching after watching the PBS art special The Secret City, which taught him how to use perspective to create 3D shapes (grab a pen and watch it here if you need a refresher). He went on to study architecture at Yale and now leads the multidisciplinary design studio Nordeast Industries, but still makes time for drawing up imaginary structures. Naturally, after so many years, he's become quite good at it, and his snippet-like, reference-less pieces should appeal to anyone with an appreciation for the charm of wobbly, Shel Silverstein-esque freehand lines. The blog is a place to showcase his work, but also, as he writes on it, something that comes from "my sincere belief that setting aside time to doodle useless stuff is extremely useful." We assume he means 'useful' as a mental and artistic exercise, but hey, you can also purchase his doodles on Etsy.
· Pointless Diagrams [Site via Co.Design]
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