I have been holding onto this blog post for a while because I thought it was a great example about how creativity works and how people can adapt or not adapt to it. I like this article for two reasons. The first is about letting go to the end product at some point. I personally deal with a lot of situations where my years of experience and thought put into designing a piece is easily undone by the client making suggestions either to make it more to their taste or to what they see as looking better. Don’t get me wrong I fully understand that they are paying to have the piece created and they have the final say as to what is produced, but when you remove or change elements the have purpose it can eventually destroy the overall purpose of the created piece. Over the years I have been able to adopt a spirit of letting go. I will do my best to create a piece but I know at some point I need to let it go, it is no longer mine, unlike Stravinsky attitude toward his piece.

The second reason I like this article is for the exact opposite of that. I love when I create a piece or start to create a piece and am able to hand it off to a designer and see the end product after they put their twist onto the design. So many things can happen when a design is shared by two creative minds. They see things differently than I do and they are able to take what I started and add another level of creativity to it. Similar to what Glass was able to do in this article, giving a piece that you started or created to someone else, it turns into their piece, their interpretation of what you started. I think that is a great way to look at things. And I love seeing the outcome. It’s similar to helping students in the classroom as well.

As a side note, I mention items where I have control over the design. I don’t in anyway suggest stealing someone else’s work and making it your own.

As I looked through the three process books the first thing that jumped out at me was the organization of the information on the page. Two out of the three had a very simple layout in which the text information was presented separately of the visual information. I really liked this because as I walked through them page by page I always knew where to look. It allowed time to breath and think about the visual information and the written information.

With that said, the process book that I felt was more abstract had a very nice heading on each page, but that got lost in the jumble. After looking at several pages I stopped looking at the heading so the info that was being presented wasn’t as clear. I like the artiness in this process book but when you are going through 50 pages of that kind of information I personally start to loose interest or I stop paying attention to what information is actually being presented.

If I were to do this, or change the process book that I have already developed I would certainly add a little color but not so much that it draws the viewer away from the important information. I also like separating the text and the imagery. This creates a consistent and easy to follow process. I would also make sure that each page continued to have a header that help the viewer read along and if there was a need to stop and come back it would be easier to find where to begin again or at least know which section the viewer left off on.

Overall, I personally prefer the cleaner versions of these process books. There is so much information included that the easier you make it on the reader the better. By incorporating certain aspects of all three of these with what I have already developed will help make a better process book overall.

I have had the opportunity to be in a lot of brain storming sessions as of late. One thing that I have noticed with myself is the idea that there are no bad ideas when initially brainstorming. I used to fall into the trap when verbally brainstorming of shooting down ideas too soon in the process. The strange part is that I don’t do that when working on design projects. One thing that has helped in my design process is producing a ton of thumbnails. I don’t get that opportunity at work as much as I would like, but when you are pressed to create 25 thumbnails for a single design, every idea is important, especially when trying to make every idea original. When brainstorming, I have now found myself stopping the people who do one of two things. The first one is stopping people when they start to get to far off topic. We are usually pressed for time so keeping on track really helps. This is also true with my design process. Bringing myself back to topic helps my design process and I don’t feel as if I wasted time on of base ideas. The second is stopping people when they start to shoot down ideas, or even debate the ideas as they are being thought up.  I understand that I’m probably preaching to the choir, but it’s been very useful. It is even something that the main people that I brainstorm with have also been bringing up. It’s good to not be the only one to understand that ideas at the phase of brainstorming are simply that, ideas. No matter how bad they may seem they might spawn a new idea. There are many times that I or a colleague may say, “I know this is really bad but if I don’t say it I’ll keep thinking about it.” Sometimes it’s good to just get things out in the open.

One thing I have noticed is that there is an extreme amount of overlap in a lot of the examples in Dubberly’s “How do you Design?”. That makes believe that there might be a finite amount of differentiation in the creative process. I can’t say that there is personally anything that I would add to my process. At times I eliminate parts depending on the project. I still like the funnel system that I illustrated previously, for what would be the second part of this course, and I still use the model to this day. I even try to relay the process to clients. We must start broad and then refine from there. That takes place in a couple steps of my methodology. The first part starts in the ideation phase of the project. Sure, we as creatives will narrow it down for the client but I like to offer as many possible ideas and have them narrow it down. That way they get a say in the direction they want things to go. It is their project. The second stage of refinements comes when a direction is chosen; there can be many variations of that one direction. Again I like to funnel things down in a way that again engages the client to help with the process. Giving them many ideas based on one design will help the client feel like they are part of the decision process. Overall, I think that is good for both the designer and the client.

I would like to ask the question is there a point where one could over define the process so that an individual could get so caught up in the process that they loose sight of the creativity? I like the idea of the Magic Number 7. I think there is a good idea in limiting things so we don’t over think what we do. Part of being a designer through education and time brings a level of automatic understanding. That is something that is very powerful and shouldn’t be overlooked. I must say though, as a beginning designer these steps help a lot.

I have heard of the concept of flow before this course. I wish I could reference where I heard about it, it was a long time ago. The way that I originally heard about flow was in context to sports, “Being in the “Zone””. I have read plenty of articles in the past about flow and remember being excited when the talk moved away from simply sports and into other areas. I understood at the time that the easiest way to describe this phenomenon to a general audience was by using a sports analogy.

I experience flow everyday. Of course I wish I could experience it for longer periods of time, I miss having those days where I could work on a project all day and “Not know where the time went”. When talking about getting into that state I take a couple steps to get there.

On larger tasks I usually try to organize the area I’m working in order to eliminate distractions. If I turn my head and see something interesting I’m on it. . .in a bad way

Another step is I take is to take care of any immediate things that are on my mind. I know that I’m easily distracted, so when I know when I really want to work with no distractions, I take care of all the small things. It may sound like procrastination but it’s not.

And the last thing I like to do is put on a story. I like to listen to podcasts when I work. I’m not quite sure why I prefer this over music, but I think it allows me to get “Lost” in two ways. The fun part is that I know when I had a successful session when I realize that I missed a majority of what I was intending to listen too.

I could mention other things like, turning off your phone, and turning off your email all of the things the “Pop-Up” break the flow.

Another counter intuitive method that works for me is setting time limits. I used a timer when working on projects with deadlines. Especially since I have been attending SCAD. I’ll section off a project into timed sections and give myself say 45 minutes to complete a section. I think that fits into the goal setting area, it allows me to know that I’m going to simply focus on one area for a selected time and not worry about anything else.

When it comes to collaboration on a project, I look forward to all of the parts involved. Being an art director for so many years I rarely ever work on a project alone. Most of the ‘alone’ projects happen with my studies as I need to tackle those at a different time. I love the brainstorming process and working with and off of others. We often stop ourselves during brainstorms to make sure that we aren’t stopping any ideas too soon, as it is taught in design thinking. As a project progresses, I like to see what the designer has to offer and like giving my own input. I often encourage co-workers or students to “fight back” if they think I am wrong about something, it opens up the discourse about the project and design in general, I’m always open to learning more.

Since I have taken the second part of this course previously I’ll include my methodology to design, followed by the project I created around my personal methodology. Since I spent a lot of time working on this, there isn’t anything I would change at this time. I still follow this process.

The list of steps below is based on my personal and professional methods.

1. Question:

What is the problem, question, or task that needs to be solved? Read all of the parts of the problem. Define all of the pieces that need to be involved to accurately come to a conclusion. Define what the final outcome of the project should be.

2. Absorb:

Absorb the information needed to properly solve the problem at hand.

3. Research:

Start to research information that relates to the problem, question, or task that needs to be solved.

4. Brainstorm:

Sketch and write things down. This provides a strong starting point.

5. Filter:

Go through the brainstorm notes and sketches and pick the three best solutions. I have a tendency to start repeating ideas after three designs. Try to pick designs that are as different as possible. Variations to these designs can be made in the next step.

6. Select:

Pick a design that best suites the problem.

7. Start refining the design/solution. Work quickly to make progressive changes. Don’t get hung up on the small details. Work toward a solution.

8. Refine:

Refine the design even more. Do not to focus on one area and try to get it perfect. Try many things and see how those changes affect the rest of the piece. Work towards a final composition.

9. Final

Clean up. Make any fine adjustments to make everything as perfect as possible.

10. Assess:

Project Assessment. In the final state we gather feedback from the consumer and determine if the solution met its goals and if it was successful. It is also about documenting and discussing what could be improved.

I followed the instructions about creating a presentation based on my final concept map very literally. Instead of outlining my paper, which I saw as a different step in the process, I solely concentrated the concept map itself.

Presentation Introduction: Average. I presented the theme of the topic but did not go further into background information.

Presentation Tone: Average. Using the concept map as a base I was able to walk through the information in steps and clearly define each section as I saw it. I feel I could have backed up my information with some actual cites along the way. Because of this project and partly why I think it was requested is that I basically able to write a majority of my literature review in preparation for the presentation.

Vocabulary Presentation: Excellent and Average. If some of the terms were not taught in this class already the audience might get lost with some of the terms used. In the presentation sections of the process were each defined to help inform the audience about the process.

Visual Presentation: Average. The visuals simply followed the concept map. There were no additions visuals used to spice up the presentation.

Presentation Flow: Between Average and Excellent. I followed the concept maps in an orderly fashion and did not jump around to make things confusing.

Presentation Timing: Excellent. I felt that I took ample time with each section. I made sure that each section had the about the same amount of information discussed in order to make sure that no area was overlooked unless that was my intention which was then noted within the presentation.

As I continue to research design thinking, from where it originated to why it might not be a viable process solution anymore, I feel like I have come across one word over and over in my research and that word is empathy. One idea that I feel makes design thinking so great is the inclusion of empathy. Empathy by definition means the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another. Designers whether they are industrial designers, architects, or graphic designers base their design or design thoughts on how others will view the final product. They design with an emotional connection to the end product. This emotional tie to the end product makes the designer look outward in hopes that the design will have an emotional connection with the end user. If that happens the product becomes successful.

There have been a lot of articles written about how the design thinking process can help big business create a better product. But by creating a systematic process to what design thinking is you tend to loose the idea of empathy in the final product. Empathy shows up in parts of the process like how to boost creative thinking i.e. Not turning any ideas down while brainstorming, but can big business really turn over a new leaf and implement this process as a whole. Are there too many “numbers” that come into the equation that make it a nonviable process?

Design thinking has been a successful part of a lot of companies and they have opened up the way that some big businesses think about the product development and even process development. Where I’m at right now in my research I’m beginning to think that this process works better when it is closer to the product and further from the boardroom. Empathy in design works and companies that are empathetic to the consumer have a happy customer, but can design thinking change everything? I don’t know. I’m beginning to think that design thinking needs to stay with the designers, and businesses need to trust what the designer brings to the table. Who knows where I will end up with this internal debate as I continue to do my research on this subject.

The first method that jumped out at me was the “Body Storming” method. This method works well in two areas at the company that I work for. First is that “Body Storming” gets you into the action. It’s one thing to brainstorm movements that reflect a specific action, it’s another thing to get up and do that action and see what it actually looks like. It really changes how you see the action. We can’t always rely on what we have in our heads about what a specific action is, looks like, or feels like. Getting up and doing is the proof. The second area where I use this is in photo shoots. I know this is usually the end of the whole process, but acting is doing. Posing like you are fishing looks different than actually fishing. Do the motion that you want to capture. I have to remind a lot of models to not just stand there and pretend but to actually act out the motion.

The other method that I like and like to use is to “Assume a Beginners Mindset”. This method doesn’t always come down to simply “Assuming” it involves actually getting someone “without” that particular mindset. While developing marketing for a certain product one thing that happens is a group of like-minded individuals who all know about the subject get together and discuss the subject. The way to add to the conversation is throw in some people who don’t know anything about the subject. What this does is encourages questioning from a different point of view. It allows the “Pros” to explain to the “Beginner” and allows the “Beginner” to challenge why the “Pros” do things a certain way. I think this really helps with dropping any alienation that can happen by only using people who know everything about the project or product. In that way it opens up the audience by including aspects from people who might not know but possible want to know about the subject.