Sketching

Sketch. Oh, sorry, this is not about the new hyper design tool, it's about that step before. You know, where you use regular pen and paper. Making sketches for me was always very important and I do it for several reasons:

Not to forget stuff. This is probably the main reason. The moment I have an idea, solution to a problem I am working on right now, or I see something that inspires me to do something — I make a quick sketch. If I don't, the chances that I forget what I just though of are almost 50/50.
Get rid of ideas. I firmly believe that if you have a lot of ideas and keep them in your head, you would actually think you have a lot of ideas. When most of the time it's not actually true. Sketching helps me getting rid of stuff from my head.
Communicate. Sometimes I use simple sketches to communicate an idea to someone. I would usually take a picture of the sketch with my iPhone and send it over by mail explaining it a little more in details. Helps me not spend time mocking up things in Photoshop. That's an obvious one. Boring.
Visualize a whole picture. If I am working on a website, or any project, sketching most of the layouts on paper helps me see the whole picture and not worry about the amount of work. Say I need to design 10 completely different pages, if I keep all of them in my head, I constantly think that I have a lot of work to do. But the moment it is in-front of me on paper (even if it is super rough), things seem to be more clear and not so busy. It is similar effect to a point No 2 above.
Brings me down to earth. Sometimes if I have an idea and I sketch it out, I quickly start to realize that it is actually not a great idea. If you visualize solution on paper in front of you and it helps you imagine final result much clearer, therefore helps you understand if it will be good or not. 💩

Sadly I throw most of my sketches out when a project is complete or result of the sketch was not good enough. Recently I came across a stash of different sketches in my drawer that I kept for future case studies just in case. Here are some examples of original sketches and final designs

Lightmeter App, personal project.

Qards for DesignModo, Anton & Irene project

New York Photo Guide, personal project.

Urban Walks umbrella site. Part of Urban Walks

Porsche Panamera Campaign. Concept for a Porsche family tree. Site no longer live.

About section of my personal photo site photo.repponen.com. Personal project.

Gone Surfing. Personal project.

Early version of HTC.com site designed at Fi. Project is no longer live.

KarimRashid.com redesign. Anton & Irene project.

Urban Walks case study. Anton & Irene project.

Spiral Cup. Personal project.

"One Month Off — Indonesia". Personal project.

Solar System clock. Personal project.

Four of Spades. For Playing Arts collaborative project.

Clip Deck. That design was a complete accident. I was brainstorming about skateboard design for AIGA exhibition, and this design was a complete afterthought.

Concept for BBC Video Experience.

Parts of Illusions Series. Personal project.

Concept for Ferrari.com. Together with Anatoly Gromov.