He has also embraced digital sketching (using Wacom tablets and iPads), applying his marker logic to Procreate and Photoshop. Yet, even his digital work retains the visceral, human energy of hand drawing. Koos Eissen is more than a teacher; he is the guardian of a dying, essential craft. In a world of instant renders, he reminds us that the human hand, wielding a ballpoint pen on a piece of copy paper, is still the fastest idea-to-reality interface ever invented.
In the world of industrial design, the gap between a fleeting idea and a tangible product is vast. It is a chasm bridged by skill, technique, and, most importantly, visualization. Few individuals have built as sturdy and influential a bridge as Koos Eissen , an associate professor, author, and sketching virtuoso from the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands. While many designers create products, Eissen dedicates his life to the process of creation—specifically, the art of drawing.
Koos Eissen is not a household name like Apple’s Jony Ive, but within the global design education community, he is a titan. He is best known as the co-author of the seminal textbook "Sketching: The Basics" and "Sketching: Drawing Techniques for Product Designers." These books, co-created with Roselien Steur, have become the unofficial bibles in design faculties from Eindhoven to Seoul. They demystified the intimidating world of perspective drawing, marker rendering, and shadow casting, turning chaotic creativity into structured visual communication. To understand Eissen’s impact, one must understand the culture of TU Delft’s Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering. Unlike art schools that focus on expression, Delft views sketching as a cognitive tool . Eissen argues that a designer does not draw only to show a client a final result; a designer draws to think. When a designer is stuck, they do not stare at a blank screen—they pick up a pen.