Examples
- The client hated all three logo designs, so it's back to the drawing board.
- When the experiment failed, we went back to the drawing board and changed the method.
How to use it
Informal. Often used on its own as a reaction: "Well, back to the drawing board!"
Where it comes from
Linked to engineers and designers, who drew plans on a drawing board; it became popular from a 1940s cartoon in which a failed aircraft designer says it.