Objectives

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Objectives

• Recognize the characteristics of a creative
  thinker
• Acquire tools that stimulate creative thinking
• Develop creativity through problem finding
• Grasp the role of conceptual thinking
• Learn about problem solving
• Use the six essential questions
• Learn phase 1 of the design process Orientation
  / Material Gathering
• Learn phase 2 of the design process Analysis /
  Discovery / Strategy
• Gain knowledge of a design brief
• Learn phase 3 of the design process Conceptual
  Design / Visual Concepts
• Understand the steps of concept generation
• Learn phase 4 of the design process Design
  Development
• Learn phase 5 of the design process
  Implementation

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Definitions

• Creative thinking is the ability to stretch
  beyond the ordinary, to be original, innovative,
  and flexible in ones thinking.
• A design concept is the designers primary
  reasoning that forms the basis for a graphic
  design solution.
• Strategy is the core tactical underpinning of any
  visual communication, unifying all planning for
  every visual and verbal application within a
  program of applications.
• A design brief is a strategic plan that both the
  client and design studio or advertising agency
  agree upon a written document outlining and
  strategizing a design project.

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Creative Thinking

• Creative thinking is the ability to stretch
  beyond the ordinary, to be original, innovative,
  and flexible in ones thinking. For example,
  creating a mnemonic device (a memory aid) is one
  way to think creatively, connecting unrelated
  things with a single visual in a design context.
• Other aspects of creative thinking are
• associative thinking
• metaphorical thinking
• elaboration and modification
• imaginative thinking

THE HIVE LOGOS VISUAL DIALOGUE, BOSTON
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Characteristics of Creative Thinkers

• Courage Fear quashes creative risk taking and
  supports playing it safe. Courage coupled with
  intellectual curiosity fuels creativity.
• Receptiveness Being open to different ways of
  thinking as well as constructive criticism allows
  you to embrace possibilities and new ideas.
• Flexibility Not only do an agile mind and
  flexible personality allow you to keep up with
  the times, they allow you to bend with the path
  of a blossoming idea or let go of a path that is
  not fruitful.
• Being Sharp-eyed Paying attention to what you
  see every day allows you to see inherent creative
  possibilities in any given environment.
• Seeking and Recognizing Connections Creative
  people are able to bring two related or unrelated
  things together to form a new combination they
  arrange associative hierarchies in ways that
  allow them to make connections that might elude
  others.

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Tools that Stimulate Creative Thinking

• Beyond enhancing personal creative
  characteristics are tools that aid creative
  thinking.
• Besides using these creativity techniques for
  concept generation, some designers and students
  use them as visualization and spontaneous
  compositional tools.

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Tools that Stimulate Creative ThinkingBrainstorm
ing

• Brainstorming can be used as a group or
  individual tool.
• Traditional brainstorming is conducted with
  agroup of people so that one contributors
  thoughtbuilds on or triggers anothers, although
  it mayeven work better when modified for
  individualuse, since there is no holding back.
• A brainstorming checklist is composed of action
  verbs
• Adapt
• Modify
• Magnify
• Minify
• Substitute
• Rearrange
• Reverse

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Tools that Stimulate Creative ThinkingMapping

• A mind map is a visual representation, diagram,
  or presentation of the various ways words, terms,
  images, thoughts, or ideas can be related to one
  another.
• It can be used to visualize, structure, and
  classify ideas and as an aid in study,
  organization, problem solving, and decision
  making.
• A resulting visual map is a diagram used to
  represent thoughts, words, information, tasks, or
  images in a specific diagrammatic arrangement.
• There is a central key word or thought, and all
  other words, thoughts, or visuals stem from and
  are linked to the central one in a radius around
  that central focal point.

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Tools that Stimulate Creative ThinkingOral
Presentation

• Talking about the design problem can lead to
  ideas and insights as well.
• This tool is based on two premises
• talking about your problem may reveal insights
  (analogous to speaking to a therapist who
  listens, more than speaks, so that you can hear
  yourself )
• having to present or explain the design problem
  to someone unfamiliar with it will force you to
  organize and articulate your thoughts, which
  might lead to better understanding of the problem
  and ultimately to an insight or idea.

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Creativity Through Problem Finding

• Designers can employ problem finding or problem
  seeking, where the process of sketching or making
  marks allows visual thinking, allows for
  discovery, for staying open to possibilities
  during the visual-making process.
• Brainstorming by Image Making
• The act of creating art activates several parts
  of the brain, sharpens thinking, provokes the
  minds associative network, and increases focus
  to a point where creative thinking can occur.

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Creativity Through Problem Finding

• Spontaneous Art Improvisation
• One of the premises of spontaneous art is that it
  allows access to your subconscious and liberates
  you from inhibitions you create images without
  concerns regarding conventions, aesthetics,
  composition, or intention, without concerns about
  content, not governed by the constraints of a
  design assignment.

KOBO ABE COVERS JOHN GALL, NED DREW
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Creativity Through Problem Finding

• Exquisite Corpse
• Believing in artistic collaboration while
  pursuing the enigma of accidental art and their
  belief, the surrealists played a collective word
  game called Exquisite Corpse (cadavre exquis).
• Each player contributes one word to a collective
  sentence, without seeing what the other players
  have written.
• Adapted to using collective images, each player
  is assigned a different section of the human
  body, though the original players did not adhere
  to any conventional sense of human form.

EXQUISITE CORPSE POSTER STEVEN BROWER, MILTON
GLASER, MIRKO ILIC, LUBA LUKOVA
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Creativity Through Problem Finding

• Attribute Listing
• By focusing on the attributes of an object,
  person, place, character, topic/theme, product,
  or service, you can find a characteristic that
  might lead to an idea.
• The process works deconstructively, breaking down
  information into smaller parts that are then
  examined individually. 
• Visual Metaphors
• Visual metaphors can underpin a design concept
  and be used to create strong images in graphic
  design, suggesting a similarity between two
  nonidentical things.
• A visual metaphor can make connections between
  two worlds of meaning and reveal an insight.

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Conceptual Thinking

• Concept generationthe ability to form/think up
  an idea, cogently state the idea, and then
  evaluate itdemands creativity and critical
  thinking skills.
• Among the many thinking skills of a critical
  thinker, the ones that are most applicable to
  designing are the ability to
• Analyze
• Ask penetrating questions
• Identify and address key issues
• Identify patterns or connections
• Conceive concepts
• Conceive a conceptual framework
• Communicate effectively
• Evaluate relevance
• Support ones viewpoint with reasons and evidence

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Problem Solving

• Generally, problem solving is the process of
• Identifying and defining a given problem (part or
  all of a design application)Defining what is to
  be accomplished
• Brainstorming for original ideas
• Evaluating ideas
• Interpreting raw ideas into graphic design
  concepts or advertising ideas
• Visually expressing and communicating the concept
  in creative or unique ways

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Six Essential Questions

• Becoming a good problem solver involves
  cultivating investigative thinking.
• Who is the audience?
• What is the problem?
• Where do this problem and potential solution
  exist?
• When does this happen?
• Why is it happening?
• How can you overcome this problem?

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Five Phases of the Design Process

• Orientation gt Analysis gt Concepts gt Design gt
  Implementation

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Five Phases of the Design ProcessPhase 1
Orientation

• Orientation is the process of becoming familiar
  with your assignment, the graphic design problem,
  and the clients business or organization,
  product, service, or group.
• Equally important during orientation is learning
  about the audiencethe targeted, specified group
  of people at whom you are aiming your message,
  design, and solution the audience is the main
  group who would purchase this brand or utilize
  this information, service, or product, or
  patronize this entity.

HOPE, HELP, HEALING POSTERS LARA McCORMICK
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Five Phases of the Design ProcessPhase 1
Orientation

• Material Gathering
• To design, first you must learn about the sector
  the product, service, company, or organization
  the companys history, values, and mission and
  of course, the audience.
• Every designer must be informed about his or her
  sector under assignment, the clients business,
  and the problem under assignment.

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Five Phases of the Design ProcessPhase 2
Analysis/Discovery/Strategy

• Analysis
• When you analyze, you
• Examine each part of the problem
• Concisely and accurately define constituent
  elements
• Organize the information so that it is broken
  down into parts that are easily analyzable
• Draw conclusions based on your analysis that

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Five Phases of the Design ProcessPhase 2
Analysis/Discovery/Strategy

• Strategy is the core tactical underpinning of any
  visual communication, unifying all planning for
  every visual and verbal application within a
  program of applications.
• Essentially, the strategy is how you are
  conceiving, creating, and positioning your brand
  or group and aiming your application in the
  marketplace to achieve differentiation,
  relevance, and resonance.

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The Design Brief

• A design brief is a strategic plana type of map
  that both the client and design firm or
  advertising agency agree upon, a written document
  outlining and strategizing a design project it
  is also called a creative brief, brief, or
  creative work plan.
• A thoughtful, clear brief can foster focused,
  critical thinking and lead to creative concept
  formulation.

SUPERDRUG STORES PLC, LITTLE MONSTERS
PACKAGING TURNER DUCKWORTH, LONDON/SAN FRANCISCO
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Five Phases of the Design ProcessPhase 3
Conceptual Design / Visual Concepts

• An effective graphic design solution is driven by
  an underlying concept.
• A design concept is the creative reasoning
  underlying a design application, the guiding idea
  that determines how you design it is the primary
  broad abstract idea.

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Five Phases of the Design ProcessPhase 3
Conceptual Design / Visual Concepts

• A concept is visually expressed through the
  creation, selection, combination, manipulation,
  and arrangement of visual and verbal (text)
  elements.

THE FURNITURE OF POUL KJAERHOLM CATALOG
RAISONNE MATSUMOTO INCORPORATED, NEW YORK
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Five Phases of the Design ProcessPhase 3
Conceptual Design / Visual Concepts

• The concept generation process is Preparation gt
  Incubation gt Illumination gt Verification
• Preparation
• Thoroughly examine your materials for insights.
• Incubation
• Once you have examined all the materials, its
  time to allow all you learned to simmer in your
  mind.
• Illumination
• Often, when we are relaxed and not working at
  formulation, a concept comes to us.
• Verification
• Once you generate a concept, you need to evaluate
  it, testing for both functionality and creativity.

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Five Phases of the Design ProcessPhase 4
Design Development

• Step 1 Thumbnail Sketches
• Thumbnail sketches are preliminary, small, quick,
  unrefined drawings of your ideas in black and
  white or color.
• Best practice dictates that you use traditional
  image-making techniquessketch by hand using a
  drawing tool, such as a pencil, marker, or pen,
  and do not sketch using digital media.

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Five Phases of the Design ProcessPhase 4
Design Development

• Step 2 Roughs
• Roughs are larger and more refined than thumbnail
  sketches.
• The purpose of this stage is to flesh out a few
  of your best ideasto work on each design concept
  and how it can best be expressed through the
  creation, selection, and manipulation of type and
  visuals in a composition.

SEED MEDIA GROUP SKETCHES, PRESENTATION, FINAL
LOGO SAGMEISTER INC., NEW YORK
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Five Phases of the Design ProcessPhase 4
Design Development

• Step 3 Comprehensives
• A comprehensive, referred to as a comp, is a
  detailed representation of a design concept
  thoughtfully visualized and composed.
• Comps usually look like a printed or finished
  piece, though they have not yet been produced.
• Type, illustrations, photographs, and layout are
  rendered closely enough to the finished design
  application to convey an accurate impression of
  the final piece.

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Five Phases of the Design ProcessPhase 5
Implementation

• For a graphic design student, execution means
  either printing ones solution on a home printer
  or showing it on-screen to ones instructor or
  creating a mock-up of a three-dimensional
  application, such as a package design.
• In a professional setting, implementing ones
  design solution takes a variety of forms
  depending on the type of application and whether
  the application is print, screen-based, or
  environmental.
• Digital prepress, also called production,
  includes preparing the digital files utilizing
  industry-standard software, collecting all needed
  photographs and/or illustrations and having them
  scanned, preparing font folders and image
  folders, proofreading (with or without the
  client), and following through by working with
  the printer.

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Five Phases of the Design ProcessPhase 5
Implementation

• Craftsmanship refers to the level of skill,
  proficiency, and dexterity of the execution. It
  includes the use of papers, inks, varnishes,
  cutting and pasting, and software programs.
• Presentationthe manner in which comps are
  presented to a client or the way work is
  presented in your portfoliois important.
• Debriefing

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Summary

• Creative thinking is the ability to stretch
  beyond the ordinary, to be original, innovative,
  and flexible in ones thinking.
• Designers use creativity tools for concept
  generation, visualization, and composition. Some
  tools include brainstorming, Osborns checklist,
  mapping, oral presentation tool, problem finding,
  image-making brainstorming, spontaneous art
  improvisation, attribute listing, and visual
  metaphors.
• Concept generationthe ability to form/think up
  an idea, cogently state the idea, and then
  evaluate itdemands creativity and critical
  thinking skills.
• Any good graphic design solution is based on a
  design conceptthe designers primary reasoning.

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Summary

• The design concept sets the framework for all
  your design decisionsfor how you are creating,
  selecting, and arranging imagery, for writing
  copy, for the imagery, for the colors you select,
  for cropping an image, or for choosing a
  particular typeface.
• Designers need to be able to problem solve.
• You can employ the six essential questions to
  help with problem solving.
• The five phases of the design process are
  orientation, analysis, conceptual design, design
  development, and implementation.
• Phase 1 of the design process involves
  orientation being briefed on the assignment,
  learning about the clients needs and
  requirements, product, service, organization,
  audience, competition, and more.

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Summary

• Phase 2 is analysisexamining all you have
  unearthed to best understand, assess, strategize,
  and move forward with the assignment.
• Strategy is the core tactical underpinning of any
  visual communication, unifying all planning for
  every visual and verbal application within a
  program of applications.
• A design brief is a strategic plana type of
  mapthat both the client and design studio or
  advertising agency agree upon, a written document
  outlining and strategizing a design project.
• A thoughtful, clear brief can foster focused,
  critical thinking and lead to creative concept
  formulation.
• Phase 3 entails conceptual design, the creative
  reasoning underlying a design application.

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Summary

• Most designers employ Wallass model for concept
  generation preparation gt incubation gt
  illumination gt verification.
• Phase 4, design development, entails
  visualization and composition, and most designers
  create thumbnail sketches, roughs, comps,
  followed by implementation.