Photoshop Made Me Lazy and It's Okay

I am an MIT undergraduate student studying Architecture. Because I am an MIT student, that means I do not sleep much. Because I am an Architecture student, that means I spend this time not sleeping by producing lots of design drawings and preparing pinup presentations. As these sleepless nights accumulate over my college years, I am grateful to say that Photoshop has allowed me to become a bit lazy with my work, and this is okay.

For designers whose lives are filled with presentations after the next, Photoshop is a $150 investment that buys you time you can save in the future. One of the most frustrating things about hand-drawn drawings is that if one draws just one incorrect line with a pen (which is the typical writing utensil used,) one will most likely have to redo the entire drawing again. Otherwise, one must settle for a slightly flawed drawing. Now if this hand-drawn, flawed drawing were imported into Photoshop, one could simply delete the incorrect line and the drawing would be perfect again. Furthermore, if the drawing were being made by Photoshop itself, one could simply press Control+Z, and the drawing would return back to its perfect state. The most time-saving aspect about Photoshop is that it can correct drawing errors easily. One does not even need to worry much about drawing things to scale, since Photoshop can even resize drawings. Nor does one need to worry about drawing things on the right part of a canvas; Photoshop can crop the appropriate parts of the drawings for you too. These are just a few of the features of Photoshop that I have learned to take advantage of for the sake my saving time and laziness. My drawings do not need to be perfect; Photoshop can do that for me more quickly than I could myself.

One issue that may rise out of “photoshopping” drawings is whether or not one’s work is still actually authentic and credible after digital processing. If one can just “photoshop” away his mistakes from his work, does his final presentation still even show his skill level? To be honest, I used to think digitally processing drawings was cheating. However, I came to learn that using Photoshop has become widely accepted as a part of a designer’s skill set. Using Photoshop to correct some mistakes is equivalent to retracing the drawing all over again. The only difference is that Photoshop saves half the time. In a designer’s final presentation, all that matters is what people see in front of them; it does not matter how the drawings got to be in the beautiful state they are in. The fact is that the drawings are beautiful and flawless. A bonus to digitally processing drawings is that this converts drawings into a computer file that can be shared in an instant (through USB, flash drive, email, etc.) Also, drawings can be reproduced quickly anywhere by simply printing and reprinting these files. Carrying around paper drawings is way too obsolete for our society. Whether it be to a client, studio teacher, or partner, digital drawings allow for the quickest and largest distribution of one’s work. If one does not want to distribute his work, there is a solution for that too – he can just not send it.

Photoshop has definitely changed my life as a designer. I have grown fond of pressing Control+Z to Undo commands and Control+T to transform images. Images are drawn and perfected so much more quickly. Instead of presenting three drawings for a presentation, I maybe can present five drawings with the help of Photoshop. Photoshopping drawings has become accepted in the design community, and I must say that I definitely have jumped onboard as well.