Paul Hatch, the infamous and outspoken director at TEAMS Design in Chicago, kicked off the first lecture here at the Midwest Conference with his lecture on naked design... since it's really hard to write and watch another lecture, I am going to let the photos do the talking:

That's Paul.

I agree. Paul started his lecture with the outline of a sportscar. When he asked the crowd to name the car, they were unable to-- without seeing the details and surfaces of the vehicle. His main point was that the many designers sketch by defining the basic outline of a product, but the essence of the design lies in the surface details.

Paul illustrates the power of the visceral in recognizing form-- in the above image George Bush was flipped upside down, with his eyes and mouth right side up-- he was still completely recognizeable, in both instances.

Jacko is a freak in either orientation!

The basic elements of controlling form-- which he continued to elaborate on throughout his lecture. We all know these basic elements, but do we take the time to pick them apart and really consider them?

At this point in the lecture Paul began to illustrate the use of the basic elements of building form by doing some PRESENTATION SKETCHING. I've been to a bunch of business conferences, but this is the first time I have seen this done in a way that was more than demonstrative. Paul brough up various generic CAD forms or product forms, and sketched over top of them on his tablet PC to illustrate his point.
I think it's safe to say that the death of paper in ID has fully arrived-- and not a moment too soon. Now if only I could convince my boss that I *need* a tablet PC...