Brands: Sketch to Masterpiece

Why Drafting, Prototyping, and Preparation Matter in Your Work Where are your sketches? Great things don’t come cheap! Today, I’d like to take you back to a few personal stories that have shaped my perspective on the world of creativity, business, and execution. These stories carry a simple but powerful lesson: before you put out the product or service you’ve been dreaming of, you must go through a process of concept prototyping and preparation. This goes beyond art. It’s about building anything worth building: a business, a book, a brand, or even a career. Back to KNUST – My First Lessons in Preparation During my time at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), I studied Rural Art, which included coursework in sculpture, woodwork, and clay modeling. The rule in every creative project was clear: before you touch the clay, the wood, or the stone, you first needed to develop your idea on paper. This meant going through conceptual sketches and idea development stages before creating the final piece. The lecturers didn’t just want to see your finished product — they wanted to know the thinking that led to it. But here’s what happened. A few of us, with minimal experience in sculpting or carving, would bypass the planning stage entirely. We’d grab a lump of clay and start molding whatever came to mind. Or pick up a piece of wood and start carving immediately. The only “plan” we had was in our heads. When presentation time came, the lecturer would ask, “Where are your concept sketches? Where is your idea development stage?” We would scramble. Some students would finish their sculpture first, then go back and hurriedly sketch something just to “prove” they had gone through the process. But in truth, the final work came first, and the so-called sketches were drawn after the fact. It was a shortcut — and while it might have saved time in the moment, it robbed us of something bigger: the ability to think through, refine, and improve our ideas before execution. The Danger of Skipping the Drafting Stage That experience stayed with me, and over the years I’ve seen the same mistake play out in other fields. In art, skipping the sketch stage means you might miss the chance to test, tweak, or even completely rethink your approach before committing valuable resources. In writing, skipping the drafting stage leads to books or articles that could have been far better if the author had taken the time to explore different angles, remove weak sections, and strengthen the message. I’ve written many books, and I’ve helped others write theirs. I’ve met people who are amazingspeakers, powerful preachers, eloquent orators — but when it comes to writing, their work feels flat. Why? Speaking often flows in the moment, while writing forces you to slow down, process, and refine your thoughts. A draft allows you to: In short, the drafting stage turns raw talent into polished work. The Blueprint Principle Think of your first draft, sketch, or prototype as your blueprint. In architecture, nobody builds a house without a blueprint. You don’t buy the bricks and cement, then start laying them down in random shapes until it “feels right.” You plan the rooms, the dimensions, and the placement of doors and windows. You test different layouts on paper before the first brick is laid. The same is true for product development, brand building, and even personal projects. When you take the time to map out your concept: The Power of Seeing it on Paper Here’s something I’ve noticed: once you get an idea out of your head and onto paper (or a digital board), the possibilities multiply. With a physical sketch, a draft manuscript, or a mockup in front of you, you can suddenly see opportunities you didn’t see before. When I was working on a wood sculpture back in school, I remember sketching a figure on a block of wood. Looking at the sketch, I realized I could carve additional, smaller details into the design that weren’t in my original idea.