Studying Graphic Design at Noroff. This is a place for my art. Where I publish my reflective journal, work and show my learning curve. Stay tuned.
2.3 Idea Generation
This week I learned a lot about idea generation and different ideation techniques.
Some of the ideation techniques I learned about:
Mind Maps: enable you to capture thoughts on paper to get a broader perspective. Take form with a central word or concept in the middle.
Consequences: a way to place yourself in the consumers shoes. Think «good» and «bad» consequences with the product, and see where it leads you.
Metaphors and Similes: it’s a great way to make something relative to the audience. You compare the product or service to something they already know and understand.
Checklists: asking questions about the product og service you are designing for, like What? Why? When? How? Where? Who?
Assumptions reversals: identifying assumptions about the brand and then reverse them. That leads to absurd statements which can lead to both relevant and novel ideas.
The rephrasing technique: different word can all have the same meaning yet give you different reactions, associations and images. Work with key words and rephrase them to come up with different ideas.
Random stimulus and free association: use randome nouns you come up with or a generator, then work with the one word that sticks out – Ask questions about the word: looks? Smell? Texture? Abilities? And then link it to your product.
The second-guess technique: group setting ideation. First let everyone write down their ideas, then come together and just reveal part of your ideas, let the other group members guess the rest. New ideas might pop up!
Morphological analysis: this is to identifying a variety of elements and components to solve a problem, then mixing and matching to generate an idea. Often takes form of a comic strip with images/sketches.
Group brainstorming: before group brainstorming, everyone should already have come up with their own ideas. Then come together and bounce ideas off each other. Even combining several ideas together.
SCAMPER method: it’s used to look at a design problem in different ways – substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to another use, eliminate and reverse. Follow these steps and look at it from every angle.
All of these methods are a big help in the process of designing. The first steps before making anything is always research and analysis, part of that is also the time you use to come up with good ideas related to solving the design challenge.
I also learned a lot about how to overcome creative block, and how creativity works. We often tend to link creativity to artistry, but they are not the same.
There are methods to spark your creativity and help you reach your goal. I also learned a lot about inspiration and how to collect inspirational work to draw inspiration from later on.
Motivasion are also a big part of the mix and I learned a lot on how to keep my self motivated and overcome creative block.
Inspiration = comes from the outside.
Motivation = comes from inside of you.
I took a course in LinkedIn learning about Creativity and on how to generate ideas in greater quantity and quality.
Here are some of the projects I worked on during the course. Have in mind that I had time limits on all of them!
3 minutes to come up with as many medieval toys as possible. 6 minutes to roughly sketch a dream dog house. I included: outside food & water, dog tv, bed with a lot of pillows, shoes to chew on, food, light, plant, dog pool and a slide (of all things) Hole in paper – then draw face. Solving it in 15 seconds. I must admit that i forgot myself and doodle it with more hair before stopping when the timer rang. At 15 seconds she was bald… Another task: «What’s next». Write as many sentences with what happend after the man press «Play» in 3 minutes. I got 6 possible outcomes. The assignment where to make randome doodles, and then follow instruction on what to draw in each doodle. Face, fish, dissy and angry. And it had to be solved fast. The next assignment where to make a catapult with what ever you could find in the house, within 9 minutes. It had to work and be able to spring a «marble like object» 12 inches. My final product worked and got the job done. The cat in the house loved this assignment and chased the «marble» as it flew across the livingroom. He has now taken ownership of the catapult. Next up the task where to ONLY use four lines and one sircle and show each word with the drawing. This is my outcome. Only one minute pr. word. I used less than a minute one every one because there where so many restrictions that it got easy. That was the whole lesson of the task, the more restrictions the more easy it becomes actually. And we ofthen think it’s the other way around. Too many options leads to difficult solves. Assignment: make a carneval bug transport/ carriage in only 5 minutes, using whatever you can find in your house. I have to admit I didn’t get it done in 5 minutes! I did it as fast as i could. I was shaking on my hands! I used cork from sodas, a pizza sauce container, some glitter add-ons, Icecream sticks and glue gun. Assignment: design your dream work desk in 6 minutes. And I where to then mark the essentials, and after that choose to get rid of two of them! I wanted a lot of space, storage, bookshelf, a place for my markers, paint and other creative- stuff. And I also added a yoghurt icecream and ice machine built in the desk, because that’s my favourites when im working! If someone reads this and have a lot of money, feel free to make this dream desk come true! I only want the desk as payment for the design – thank you! Assignment: list 3 meals on restaurant menues that are common in «kids menu». I wrote down: chips and nuggets, hamburger and fish & Chips. Then the assignment was to make them more fun for kids! So I created «Chips’ n Smilys» (nuggets made as smily emoji), «Fun-Burger» (burger bread with rainbow colours) and last but not least: «Fishy Chips» fish made looking like chips and Chips looking like fish! Same assignment: after the new menu I had created, I needed to list 6 new foods that kids enjoy. And then, link two and two together – creating something even more fun for the kids. Have in mind that during these assignments you do not get to know where the assignment is taking you before each step, so the outcome can be quite absurd. My personal favourite must be the «donut-pizza» Assignment «Aroman»: Besides man perfume, what kind of smell would a man like to smell around or on himself. Keep writing until the timer rings. 3 minutes. Sooo… It went a bit crazy. I don’t know if men really want to go around smelling like News paper.. do they? Last assignment in the course: to help with creative block it’s good to know where you can find your energy and inspiration. So the assignment was to identify where I (personally) can find inspiration out/ travel, around/ near and in/ inside my house. These are my personal inspiration-bank options. For example: when I am organizing my hobby stuff I always get a lot of ideas and start using my materials instead of putting them away! And when i’m in the forest and smell the woods I feel free and let the mind wander, I always feel relaxed and observant to the life around me. Birds singing, ants working, leaves falling to the ground.. This is my diploma for finishing the course!
I feel that I have some much more knowledge about where to find my creativity and inspiration now. And I learned a lot about how creative we actually are without even realizing it.
CDHGraphicDesign 
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