Picture one piece of furniture: a big flat board, tilted towards the window, with a sheet of paper pinned down at the corners. A designer stands in front of it and the whole plan lives there as lines on paper, and nowhere else yet. From that one picture come the two expressions English uses far more often than the board itself. While the sheet is still pinned up, the thing is only being planned — it is on the drawing board. When the design fails, the designer walks back to the empty board with a fresh sheet — back to the drawing board.
可以想成一件家具：一塊又大又平的板子，斜斜地朝著窗戶，紙的四角釘在上面。設計師站在板子前，整個計畫就只存在於那張紙上，別的地方都還沒有。今天英文裡更常聽到的其實是從這個畫面長出來的兩句話。紙還釘在上面，表示事情還在規劃——on the drawing board。圖不行了，人走回空板子前重畫一張——back to the drawing board。