Sketching Your Big Idea

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Posted on June 15, 2026 by Alumni

Alumni

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If only you could remember that life-changing idea that popped into your head — and then popped right back out.

Alma Hoffmann knows what can capture those skittish thoughts: the humble sketch. “You have to stop and seize that inspiration, or it says, ‘I’m going to find some other vessel, because you’re too busy for me.’”

The compulsively creative Hoffmann, an artist, author and former dancer, is an associate professor of graphic design at South. She envisioned “a kind of looseness” for her three striking artworks in a current online exhibition called Symbiosis V. So she attached her brush to a stick, à la Henri Matisse, and actually danced as she painted big, dark swirls. Poetry — improvised on the spot — and snippets of song lyrics added layers of color and meaning.

She sketches every day, even while watching a movie or attending church. In her book, “Sketching as Design Thinking,” she cites research showing that sketching, or just doodling, improves memory.

Sketches also convey ideas. “Isn’t that how we started to communicate with each other,” she says, “making marks on cave walls?”

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