The short answer is nothing!

You don't need any specialist skills or knowledge to start studying design at the OU. Everything you need to know is in the material you will study.

This means:

• You don't need any qualifications or knowledge about design - everyone starts right at the beginning you'll learn about design as you go 
• You don't need to be able to draw anything - you'll learn basic sketching and visual representation as you go through our courses
• You don't have to know any special software or have special equipment - you'll get the chance to try free design software on the course (and the chance to use your own methods as you progress)

What it is useful to know are some of the basics of how to use a computer to work online. Technically, by reading this you're online and accessing a website - so you've already passed that test! 

For a lot of students, not having any design skills can feel frustrating and it's natural to want to be good at something as soon as possible. But some skills do take time to develop and sketching is one of those. 

Sketching in design is not about creating high-quality drawings - it's about making ideas visible so you can work on them and communicate them to others. A badly draw sketch can still be a great idea!

Let’s get started with some basic drawing exercises to warm up. All you need for this is some blank paper (lined paper will also do) and a normal pen or pencil.

Watch the next video and try to copy what you see. You can use a pen or pencil for this activity and your Project Journal (or any blank paper you have available).

Now that you've tried doodling, let's do something with that - create a Zentangle!

A Zentangle is a square that you fill in with a texture, pattern, or other doodle.

Using the techniques from the video you just watched to make five Zentangles on blank paper. Here's a few examples to get you started:

You could also spend two to three minutes skipping through the following video to try some different shapes and patterns.

Warning - drawing Zentangles can become addictive...

You can find other short design courses you can try on the OpenLearn Design Hub

When you're ready to begin you design journey:

More on our Bachelor of Design (Honours)

Explore our other design degrees, funding, and OU study.