The Egg Story

By Toni Myers

Many students enter my Interior Design course insecure about their

“perceived” lack of creativity and drawing skills. I begin with the
following lesson to shatter that mind set and to show them that being
a good “Designer” has nothing to do with drawing, it’s all about
understanding how to use Spot, Line and Shape.

I begin by telling them that I have a minor in art from the University of
Southern Mississippi. I ask if that leads them to assume that I am an
accomplished “artist”. “Certainly, if I have a minor in art, I must be
able to draw really well…right? Wrong!!’ I tell them that I am
maniacally creative, great with color, really good with composition,
incredible with computers and cameras, phenomenal with food
garnishing and cake decoration….but I can’t draw!!!

I then proceed to draw “my best thing” on the board. It is a pitiful

cartoon version of a frog. They all laugh and I have a bit of fun with
making it a girl frog, (add eyelashes). I tell them that if they can draw
better than that, then they are already a better “draw-er” than me. At
this point, they are feeling more comfortable and at ease so I begin to
tell them another story.

“As an art minor, I had to take classes with the art major students.
They typically did not like the Interior Design students because we
were not as “talented” as they were. I REALLY dreaded every art
class I had to take because it was always excessively humiliating
(pointing to the frog on the board) based on my drawing abilities. One
particular semester, I was signed up for Design 101. Once again, I
was in the class with all the snoot art majors. At the end of the first
day, the professor gave us a homework assignment to create a
composition using only black and white. Our theme was breakfast.
Having a bad attitude, I waited until the last moment to do the
assignment. I grabbed a large sheet of newsprint, and some
charcoal. I quickly drew this….” (I draw an oblong-ish circular shape
and a very dark, smaller black circle, offset from the center, on the
white board. It looks like an abstract of a fried egg.) I ask the class,
“So, if the theme is breakfast… what is this? (They call out …it’s an
egg!) I say, “Of course…it’s an egg!!!

The professor asked us to hang our compositions on the board. I was

in agony!!! The prissy art majors had created beautiful drawings of
bacon popping, silverware glinting, coffee steaming, butter
melting...and then…there was this…(pointing to egg) The professor
went around and looked at each piece. He paused at mine and very
seriously asked…”Who did this?” I hesitantly raised my hand
preparing for, once again, extreme public humiliation. Much to my
surprise, he looked at me and exuberantly exclaimed, ”YOU’RE A
GENIUS!!!!!!!” He then went around the room n a very dramatic way
and pulled everything else off the wall. He said, “All this other work is
GARBAGE…but this (looking at my egg) is design perfection!! There
are only two elements here. If you erase the outer circle...you no
longer have an egg…if you erase the smaller inner circle…you no
longer have an egg. You can’t add anything and you can’t take
anything away. It’s perfect!!!” “Needless to say, I loved the class. I
had a simple sense of design composition that the snooty art majors
had lost along the way.

So, my point in all of this is...whether you are designing clothing, cars,
graphic art, websites or interiors. It all starts with the basics of design.
It begins with good composition and stems from understanding the
fundamental use of Spot, Line and Shape.

My students love this introduction and are inspired to do well. We

continue the unit with seemingly simple lessons that are actually,
quite complex. The students create interesting black and white
compositions, while not being allowed to “draw”. It is difficult for some
but most rise to the occasion. It is immensely satisfying to watch a
student uncover the creativity they didn’t think they had. This is my
favorite unit to teach.

*I have attached a PowerPoint presentation with a modified

version of this story. I created it as if it were a children’s story.
This will allow anyone to use the egg story as a
hook/foundation for the lesson.