BY ZIXU TIAN
When you sit down, stare at such a big world and wonder why you can not find a single idea to design (every designer has this kind of experience). They will not born from empty or fly into your mind like Cupid’s arrow. So by summarizing how the good ideas are created, maybe we can find there are some methods of creating inspirations, and ideas will be made just like the products in streamlines.
First, find a traditional art or tech, explore and develop it. If you can go deeper and further beyond anyone before you, you create something remarkable. This is a very traditional way but still used widely. Just like the rings of seven deadly sins designed by Stephen Webster.
Seven Deadly Sins ring collection by Steven Webster
Secondly, problem and solution. This is maybe the most popular way now. Too many problems in our life, just find one and find a way to improve it, you got an idea. Of course, what problem you find and how you solve it will decide the quality of your work. For example, this solar house designed by the Institute of Advanced Architecture for Catalonia (IAAC) focuses on the energy crisis problem and offers a possible solution.
http://inhabitat.com/barcelonas-solar-house-2-0-pavilion-built-with-modular-photovoltaic-panel-roof/
Thirdly, invite concepts from other field into design. Take ergonomics design for example, ergonomics is a concept of anatomy, and when it is invented into design, there are great changes. The storey height is readjusted, the shape of the back of chair is bent into the shape of human spine and the word size and color of presswork is changed to fit human visual system. Another example is the Without Thought Design or Subconscious Design. It invited a concept of psychology into design, we can find it in Naoto Fukasawa’s work.
You can see this is maybe the easiest umbrella shelf, the idea is from when there is floor tile on the ground, we like to lean the umbrella in this way, so he carves a 5 mm deep groove on the floor.
This is kind of my favorite design, it makes me think how many things in our life is unnecessary – too much.
So, what is your method of creating ideas?
Design Denizens 
My method for creating ideas is typically problem and solution but I learned a long time ago to look way beyond your own industry for inspiration and ideas. That being said, if I design something for myself vs. a mass customer base, the approach is quite different. I frequently invent products for my own use but are usually limited by budget and manufacturing capabilities. Therefore, I spend many hours (sometimes days) developing the product in my head in an effort to get around the limitations. My own process of problem solving and then fabricating is very rewarding. When I designed woodworking tools, it was easy. Almost too easy. Solid modeling software is incredible but it pulls you out of the shop. I think more designers need to take back their shop time and use their hands to create instead of computers. This crazy fast paced world has robbed us of play time. The artists, musicians, scientists, etc. that make up Root-Bernstein’s chapter on Playing had it right. Wouldn’t our practices be so much more exciting and enjoyable if we could take their approach? Put some fun back into our craft. Who knows what could be discovered or invented?
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I have always marveled over the fact that there really are no “new” ideas, but rather reiterations, improvements and modifications to things already done. Its also interesting to think about how ideas and concepts have failed and why. Maybe the idea was ahead of its time and couldn’t be a success, but with changes in the way we live and operation the idea can come back around and be successful. In the creative industry you can see how trends and ideas tend to come back around after a certain amount of time. So, while trends may be recycled how we use the concepts around those trends can be bent and modified. I, along with Dan, also tend to look at what problem exists and how design can solve or serve the problem. In many ways graphic design is about successful communication. So where do my ideas come from? Generally I’m stuck by something I see or read. Music is a huge influence in my life and it tends to affect how I approach a design. Moods and the weather are a big factor as well. I also things we have lost a little bit of “fun” in our lives, there are times when I feel like I can’t create another things because my job is so busy and constantly requiring more and more work. How do we reclaim a more creative and carefree approach to our work when the demands continue to strangle us?
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Some enchanting examples you have there of ideas that seem minimal but are in fact very useful. Fukasawa’s work is brilliant. The creation process is the ‘unsung hero’ of final products that we as consumers unintentionally ignore. I’m sure most designers would say they enjoy the process of design more than obtaining the final piece. It’s the love for the grind that keeps design churning and it’s also the mistakes that we make that oils up the creative machine. As Scott Didach eloquently states in his article, wrong design is sometimes the best design, but of course, only when one has mastered the rules of design, much like how martial artists learn how to fight in order to avoid fights. Aesthetics dive much deeper than pretty pictures floating atop, it (should) teach discipline, stretch out of bounds into unexplored territory of the mind. Struggling is apart of creating and managing that practice comes from non other than practice itself. We stand on the shoulders of giants, great minds who’ve paved the way for us to struggle less and create more with ease. Rules such as chunking, MAYA and 80/20 help clear that path mentally and mathematically in many aspects of virtually every domain. A challenge for many beginning designers, and especially for me, is accepting when creating ends and where finishing touches begin, to settle on an idea and move on because as we all know, a designer’s greatest foe is time. A completed work is better than no work at all, an unmanageable ‘flow’ is no flow at all.
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Reblogged this on sundeepquick and commented:
I like the way you summered with grate examples. In a more border way the question would be “How does one find authentic creativity?”. I believe at present the word authentic has less significance because there is always a comparison drawn with some or the other. Creativity develops from need, In the present modern world we almost created every thing we need and we are just trying to improve or enhance the products we already have like your examples the solar house and the umbrella. Hence when doing so I think there is a constant reference or comparison to products that are already available.
Another question comes to my mind is “Why is there a difference in approach when we create some thing for yourself compared to creating for others?”. According to human physiology we do things because we want to and we have to. I believe this physiological approach makes the difference.
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I like the way you summered with grate examples. In a more border way the question would be “How does one find authentic creativity?”. I believe at present the word authentic has less significance because there is always a comparison drawn with some or the other. Creativity develops from need, In the present modern world we almost created every thing we need and we are just trying to improve or enhance the products we already have like your examples the solar house and the umbrella. Hence when doing so I think there is a constant reference or comparison to products that are already available.
Another question comes to my mind is “Why is there a difference in approach when we create some thing for yourself compared to creating for others?”. According to human physiology we do things because we want to and we have to. I believe this physiological approach makes the difference.
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