I love creativity and everything that has to do with it, being creative to me is being free and loving what you are doing deeply and that will reflect in your work. During the reading Steven Johnson mentioned in his book where good ideas come from that it is necessary to have your own collection of notes, images and references. That made me think of university where we were encouraged to have our own collection of books, photos and anything that we would collect for inspiration. I have found that the more we move away from the easy clicks of the internet the more we are able to enjoy and live these moments (seen in images online) by ourselves which is a totally different experience.
Above is a model of the steps I take with my creative process.
1. Description:
First of course is reviewing the design description incase I am provided with one or else create a description of a project that I intend to work on and this will act as a guide that I can always refer to at any point.
2. Brainstorming:
I have always enjoyed this process where anything and everything is possible and it is usually where random ideas are born and expanded into many different directions.
3. Research:
This is where I’d look up some concepts that I found in the brainstorming exercise like some links or connects and see how did I get to this point during brainstorming.
4. Refining ideas:
This process and research can happen together or one before the other, here I try to narrow my thoughts and focus on an area of interest.
5. Mock-up:
Another area I enjoy because I get to experiment and test approaches here, this is where the initial ideas come to life.
6: Critique:
I always love hearing what other people think of the mockup I put together, I believe feedback is always good. This will help understand how others view your work and gives you a better perspective of what you’re doing which will benefit the design at the end of the day.
7. Refine:
Based on the feedback, if there are any updates or changes to be made. This process can also follow up another critique and another phase of refining if necessary.
8. Execution:
Finally, getting to see the final design that I worked on is always rewarding especially if it came out of hard work and passion. It’s that sense of achievement you get after working and believing in a concept and carrying it out until the end.