Why We Sketch: The Fastest Way to Think Forward

In a world of polished decks and AI-generated everything, sketching might seem quaint. But at Cheil, it’s one of our most powerful tools for thinking fast, prototyping bold, and building what’s next.

Sketches, Post-its, and scrappy mockups aren’t throwbacks. They’re how we move into new territory. When there’s no precedent, no frame to swipe, no last-year-deck to recycle, sketching helps us uncover original solutions with speed, clarity, and creative confidence. Because if you can’t find a reference image or pull a frame from last year’s deck to express an idea, it’s a good clue the idea’s original.

Take our Rube Galaxyberg campaign for Samsung. Faced with the challenge of creating a net-new experience for an 84’x104’ digital screen in downtown Dallas, we didn’t start with 3D renders. We started with doodles. In rough lines and hand-drawn motion studies, we began shaping a massive Rube Goldberg machine that would turn complex Galaxy features into a kinetic, joyful story. Those early sketches became specs. Those specs became a system. And the system became a full-scale, tech-enabled spectacle that won at the Dallas ADDYs and, more importantly, captured the imagination of everyone who saw it.

Doodling isn’t a creative warm-up. It’s how we explore uncharted territory with agility and intent. In today’s landscape of connected experiences, lo-fi prototyping keep our ideas human, scalable, and future-facing.

We don’t sketch because it’s simple. We sketch because it helps us build what doesn’t exist yet.

At Cheil, that’s our edge: blending raw ingenuity with world-class execution, powered by innovation and tech-driven thinking. From scribble to spectacle. From concept to campaign. From lo-fi to launch.