Designers do far more than visualize new products; they are called upon to imagine a future and bring it to life through visuals. Whether such futures begin as elaborate maps and diagrams of emerging technology or speculative "world-building," the contemporary designer's skill set must cover the entire spectrum, from abstract to representational, and from "low fidelity" to "high fidelity" visualizations.

The advent of tablet-based sketching, VR sketching, and hybrids bring new and more intuit...