Because drawing is like speaking or writing...it is a form of communication. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then...well, I've never been accused of being a man of few words!
I've drawn as long as I can remember. My mom used to hand me pencil & paper to keep me occupied while she did chores. My school notebooks were always covered in more doodles than notes. I decided to persue a career in architecture, in large part, because I knew it would allow me to get paid to draw all the time. I spent my first decade in architecture learning to draw well and, more importantly, to do so quickly. Then along came the computer and the promise of days spent drawing became something else, something that felt a whole lot more like work! I promised myself that if I ever went into business for myself, I'd draw by hand as much as I possibly could.
Now that we have our own practice, I've managed to keep that promise. Rarely a day goes by that I don't spend time at my drawing board, dreaming & drawing or sitting across a table from clients drawing upside down or standing on a job site drawing details for contractors right on the walls they are building.
Buildings are still largely crafted by hand. Hand crafting the drawings that communicate the design intent requires that I think about the meaning and feel the placement of each line, creating drawings of buildings in a manner similar to the way they are eventually built. We hope that this synthesis results in buildings uniquely crafted to meet the needs and the dreams of our clients.
Tom Emerson December 2016
