Restating Problems and Developing Ideation Fluency

When you have a design brief, there will always be a goal to achieve, usually a task involving getting information across in a simple, efficient and interesting manner. The way we approach these tasks is to think of ideas, develop them and execute, however because we spend the shortest time on creating ideas and the majority of time trying to make the final piece, most of the ideas will be narrow and cliche. If we correctly analyse the brief, highlight keywords, or just concentrate on certain themes, ideas can branch out that might not seem to relate to the goal. However using metaphorical visual language, we can always find a way to make it relative to the task, and this is usually a more appealing an interesting way to get the information across.

The first step to creating innovative and new ideas, is to make as many as you can, write every idea down, I find that one idea usually leads on to another, but when we inevitably cannot think of anymore, approaching it sub-consciously is the next step. Taking a break from just thinking and doing other things, playing a game, reading, going for a walk, any other activity can trigger a new idea. That's why it is important for us to be able to record an idea as soon as we think of it, anyone with a phone (so everyone) can do this by just texting the idea and saving it. The first ten to twenty ideas are likely to be simple and familiar, but as you continue to think of more, its more likely that you will begin to create ideas you wouldn't usually, or connect multiple ideas together to create a stronger, more refined one.
An example I can think of from my own experience is the project I am working on at this time. To create a magazine cover based on the theme of 'the dark and grim side of Birmingham.' I began by thinking of boring and mundane ideas like a picture of Birmingham at night with some dark creatures edited in. Not very original or exciting, but a starting place, then I moved onto a silhouette of a boy in a hoodie, and inside the silhouette placed some graffiti from the city. It looked better but still the theme was weak. The more I have thought about it, the more creative my ideas are starting to become. If i had just settled on the first idea, I would have known it wasn't the best I could do.


Other ways to easily create ideas are through the use of techniques such as mind mapping, brainstorming and classification. Mind mapping allows you to quickly note any ideas and expand on them. If you think of something that can be broken down into smaller ideas, you can easily branch off and see if those lead you to more and more related ideas. The process improves your recall as you are continually revising your ideas.

Brainstorming is a process for generating new ideas, it is usually done in groups where people say an idea, and then others expand on them and develop them. No idea is criticized during this period so that people are not afraid to speak any and all ideas that come to them. After the session, ideas are discussed and evaluated.
The point of these exercises is literally to increase your chances of constructing an idea that is original. Instead of spending time trying to develop one idea into a great idea, if we create as many as possible, it is more likely that by combining them, it will be easier to develop.