Back To The Drawing Board Idiom Meaning & Phrase Origin - Sayings

Drawing can be fun, even when you're terrible at it like me! Where's the best place to draw? On a drawing board, duh. Drawing boards are useful for creating elaborate designs for a future project, or they can serve as a great place to write down some handy reminders for later.

While most designers now use powerful computers to aid their workings, the lonely drawing boards are quickly approaching an obsolete status. It wasn't always that way, though. They used to be the holding grounds for the ambitious concepts floating around in people's creative minds; a place where a person could express themselves!

Drawing boards were the place where aspirations were born, written, and planned! When a course of action did not go according to what was hoped for, what would a designer do? He'd let out of a sigh of disappointment, perhaps saying a few inappropriate words at the failed project, but then he'd gather his composure and return back to the drawing board to make the essential adjustments. Thus, the modern meaning of this popular expression was brought forth!

Phrase Origins

The phrase origin of Back To The Drawing Board seems to have come from Peter Arno, where in 1941, he wrote a cartoon for the New Yorker. The cartoon consists of a crashed plane with a man in a fancy suit walking away using the expression: "Well, back to the drawing board."

The man in the fancy suit carrys what looks to be some kind of blueprints rolled up under his arm. Hopefully he builds a safer plane next time, and wipes the smile off his face. He almost looks happy about the failure.

You can see the source of the picture containing the caption and origin of this saying here.

The Popular Expression Used In Basic Sentences:

"My plans for flying cars were unsuccessful. Oh well, back to the drawing board."

"I'll have to go back to the drawing board so I can further modify this extremely convoluted rat-catching contrapation!"

"Our dress designs were not accepted by the Dress Designs Committee. Sarah and I will be going back to the drawing board before we proceed any further. Or maybe we'll use a computer instead."

Note: For a lot of popular sayings, finding the exact person or date in which a phrase was originated is tough. Unless it's the phrase on this page, then it's easy!

Usually though, a phrase is a quote from an old newspaper, book, poem, play, etc. If it is already being used in these forms of media/entertainment, it should be assumed that the saying is already commonly known, so the origins are older. At least you can get a rough idea on when an idiom originated by using the earliest recorded dates that are given.

- Peter Arno wrote cartoons for the New Yorker and is apparently the originator of this common idiom. He was born 1904 and died in 1968 at the age of 64.

- Planes are the safest form of travel. Motorcycles and cars are the most dangerous for transportation. Wear a helmet.

- Drawing games such as Pictionary, where someone draws a picture and others try to guess what it is, have grown in popularity over the past decade. The most recent popular mobile game named Draw Something has a similar concept.