Samuel Ringman, Architect and Illustrator, Ringman Design + Illustration, Dallas, TX

Orbital City/Space Elevator

Samuel Ringman’s sketch is just one of many the Dallas-based architect produces almost continuously. “I have stacks and stacks of sketchbooks and cocktail napkins with conceptual ideas like this one,” he says. Ringman earned his master’s in architecture at Texas A&M, working at HOK in Dallas before establishing his own firm dedicated to design and illustration. Some of his quick sketches—like “a tourist center at the edge of the known universe”—he goes on to develop into proper drawings, while many remain on a napkin. Even so, he says, “it’s fun to constantly record ideas.”

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Subhojit Sinha, Senior Designer, Callison, RTKL, Dallas, TX

Sangath, Ahmedabad, India

Subhojit Sinha’s sketch of Sangath, the work—and offices—of architect B.V. Doshi, stemmed from his appreciation for “Indian vernacular architecture in a more contemporary form.” The Dallas-based RTKL senior designer visited the building, located in the state of Gujarat’s largest city, Ahmedabad, during his undergraduate internship in India. “I really liked the building, and I had read about it a lot, but I wanted to experience it,” he says. In Sinha’s own practice, he says he’s “inclined toward hand sketches—that’s where I get a lot of my ideas. It’s always my first step.”

View the Cocktail Napkin Sketch Contest main page.

This year, submissions by Gensler employees from across the country impressed our judges, leading the company to win the 2015 title of Best Firm.

View the Cocktail Napkin Sketch Contest main page.

These submissions from registered and non-registered architects and designers alike received special recognition from our judges.

View the Cocktail Napkin Sketch Contest main page.

Check out a few of the most creative entries we saw, as well as this year’s submissions from past winners of the Cocktail Napkin Sketch Contest.