Drawing Board - Modern-day Idiom

Modern-day Idiom

The expression "back to the drawing board" is used when a plan or course of action needs to be changed, often drastically; usually due a very unsuccessful result; e.g., "The battle plan, the result of months of conferences, failed because the enemy retreated too far back. It was back to the drawing board for the army captains."

The phrase was coined in the caption to a Peter Arno cartoon of The New Yorker of March 1, 1941 (cartoon)