Thumbnailing: A way of creative ideation
On Quantity, Not Perfection: Teaching Thumbnailing as Creative Warm-Up
In my Thumbnailing class, I often start with a provocation: “Draw ten bad ideas first.”
Students laugh, but then they draw. And in the process, something happens—they stop overthinking and start creating.
This course is part of the Game Art curriculum at SAE Institute, where I’ve been teaching since 2015. It introduces students, many of whom are designing props or characters for the very first time, to the world of visual ideation. The method is simple: no references, no pressure, just pens (or styluses) and space to explore. Quantity over quality. Momentum over mastery.
The idea of thumbnailing is rooted in the earliest stages of visual development for entertainment media. It's not about polished images but raw visual thinking. Students create quick, small sketches to experiment with form, silhouette, and concept. It’s brainstorming through drawing.
We explore how thumbnails are used across the pipeline in:
- Games (for environments, characters, UI)
- Film (for scenes, costumes, storyboards)
- TV/Animation (for layout, posing, motion ideas)
I always emphasize the iterative nature of creative work. As seen in my own analogue and digital sketches (below), thumbnailing is less about control and more about discovery. These chaotic little figures, shapes, and silhouettes often become seeds for more developed ideas.
In the course, we talk about:
- The brain’s tendency to seek familiar patterns and how thumbnailing helps break that
- Silhouette as narrative: how a shape already tells a story
- The psychological value of “bad first drafts” as creative warm-up
For many students, this is their first encounter with design thinking through drawing. And the result? They surprise themselves. Not because they create something “perfect,” but because they create at all.
If you’re curious about applying this method or teaching it yourself, here are a few references I recommend: