A lifelong artist, Jose Ardila applies his love for drawing, engineering, and technology, every day as a patent illustrator. "When my drawings help create something that exists in the real world, it kind of goes back to one of my early heroes, Leonardo da Vinci," says Jose.

It does feel like it's come full circle. Tens of thousands of patent drawings later, Jose reflects on his success as a patent illustrator. "It's about solving problems through design." It's also a lot of sketching, cleanup, review, and revisions. It's important to meet the inventor's requirements and the patent office's high standards for approval. Whether it's through mechanical drawings, flow charts, or diagrams, it's Jose's job to interpret and express an invention's innovation and function perfectly.