Terence Conran on ideas and making ....

'I think it is vital for any designer to roll their sleeves up and get heavily involved in the making process because it helps you get a deeper level of understanding about design and how it relates to the consumer ... To me design has, and always will be, about problem solving and making people’s lives easier and more comfortable ... While we must embrace computers, we must not become slaves to them—the best ideas always start with an HB pencil and a sheet of plain paper'. Terence Conran (Interview http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2011/12/qa-terence-conran)

Small is beautiful

'There are so many more tools for the small designer, nowadays. CAD and 3D modelling is scaling down, so that a single person can produce sophisticated prototypes at home. This means that there are opportunities for designers working on their own and in small teams to use affordable technology - and more opportunity for crossing creative disciplines'. Moritz Waldemeyer, Designer.

Tailor-made with Android

London tailor Spencer Hart is using Note, an Android-based smartphone to annotate drawings for bespoke suits marking down exact measurements during the fitting process. In addition, the tailor can mark on a visual representation of the suit or jacket whether there should be any extra details around the cuffs, or other alterations. The end result will be sent immediately to the Savile Row base where the item will be made, eliminating any mistakes that could happen previously.

Boring words

'Most [graphic] designers are not very good copywriters. So, if you find yourself having to design something with boring words, don't try to make them interesting. Let the images do the heavy lifting.' Bob Gill, Pentagram

Innovative people with great ideas

"We [Brits] rally against the status quo. Look at our creative industries like advertising that win loads of awards, our TV too, and our comedians. That's down to an anarchic point of view that's always measured with a degree of pragmatism. We're not playing fairies with felt-tip pens; we're an innovative people with great ideas." Dick Powell

iLagerfeld

Karl Lagerfeld, a "paper freak" who does not use email, and has a personal library of some 300,000 books, owns four iPhones and several iPads which he uses as diaries and sketchbooks.

"I use it [iPad] mostly for sketching. I'm very good at it. I discovered a technique. It's like engraving. Really not bad. There is no Photoshop. You have to know how to sketch. It's not something done with the help of computers. I hate computer sketches because they're all the same. They have no personality. If you want to see how it works... Voila! [Click.] This is the brush. [Click.] This is how thick you want the line. [Click.] And then here are the colours. [Click.] You want red, maybe? [Click.] He sketches a line with his fingernail ... Unbelievable, no? It's better with the special pen and I'm not going to keep it because it's nothing. And so then you do this. [Click.] And this. [Click.] And it disappears. I have iPads in every room ..." (Karl Lagerfeld talks to Susannah Frankel; Article published in the Independent, November 5, 2011)

Applied ideation

The idea kicks off the creative process. But to excel in ideation, designers need to transform their creative and reasoning power into effective presentations. To achieve this, designers need the skillful application of ideation tools.

Presenting ideas

Don't take for granted that everyone will understand abstract ideas and concepts. Be patient and practical in your communication.

The designer as craftsman

In his book The Craftsman (2008), the sociologist Richard Sennett makes a case for homo faber (or "man as maker"). Harking back to the workshops of the medieval guilds and to the studio of violin-maker Antonio Stradivari, Sennett set out to prove Immanuel Kant's dictum that "the hand is the window on to the mind". It is only through making things, he says – by trying and failing and repeating – that we gain true understanding. He is not, like some latter-day John Ruskin, arguing that handmade things are better than machine-made ones. He is simply saying that skilled manual labour – or indeed any craft – is one path to a fulfilling life. (Justin McGuirk, The Guardian).

Place & space for idea realisation

'I think the studio is the place where the images we see in our imagination can be realised by controlling everything, just as a painter does on a canvas with his brush.' Federico Fellini (1920-1993)

The idea of draughtsmanship

For hundreds of years, it was central to the practice of art, that to be an artist, it is essential to learn to draw the human figure. Now, in art schools, life drawing is regarded as unnecessary. And to be a designer?

Ideas communication

Communicating design ideas is much more than presentation skills (packaging). It's about ability to communicate ideas clearly and persuasively (content, structure, and argument), and adapting communication and media to suit the audience.

Tool for starters

Is the entry point to ideation arbitrary or context dependent? In reality, at that point, what ideation tool is being chosen?

Ideation fit

The reporting that Singapore Armed Forces's recruits doing Basic Military Training (BMT) will be armed with a handheld touchscreen device such as an iPad to sharpen their fighting skills raises the question: Should design schools equally equip new students with similar sets to increase their ideation skills?

Taking a line for a dance

Martha Graham's major contribution to the art of dance was her introduction of a technique and a body of work that, far from depending on classical ballet, was remarkably different from it and highly original in its own right.

But while a classically trained dancer can learn the Graham technique quickly, a Graham dancer cannot subsequently acquire a classical technique. Yet the Graham technique has extended the range of movement available for those originally restricted to classical ballet.

By analogy, could it be that the Graham technique is to classical technique what digital drawing is to classical (traditional) drawing?

When the idea becomes a thing

"People call me a conceptual artist, as if the idea was all, but actually what interests me is what happens when the idea becomes a thing. Ideas are by their nature generalisations, something that can be applied to lots of things. But making art is about making particulars, and that particular something can be the generator of a generalisation." Artist Michael Craig-Martin

Ideator vs Fabricator

Those who are named "artists" are sometimes remote from the physical act of production because crafts people and makers have skills and knowledge of materials that artists usually do not. Says British artist Marc Quinn: "Whenever I have a new idea, we work on finding the technology to do it. It's quite obvious you can't do it all yourself, so I'm not going to pretend I did".

Leaping off with ideas

"I start sketching and trying things until, all of a sudden, something emerges that becomes interesting and I sort of follow it. But it’s intuitive. It’s not preconceived. I don’t have an exact plan of action, and I always feel like I’m leaping off a cliff", says archiect Frank Gehry.

For example, Gehry’s Dr Chau Chak Wing building for the University of Technology Sydney’s Business School was inspired by the idea of a tree-house structure with “a trunk and core of activity and… branches for people to connect and do their private work".

Ideation as craft

Maybe the art of ideation cannot be taught but there's an element of craft
involved. The craft aspect of ideation, then, highlights skills and techniques
needed for representing and presenting ideas in a range of media.

iPad as ideation tool

Given the portability, connectivity, large touch screen and a range of apps (software), such as Evernote (for multimedia notes and voice recording), Ideate (for concept visualisation), or Compendium (for managing and visually organising personal or group digital information sources and then connect ideas to them), the iPad, or similar touchscreen devices, appears a versatile ideation tool.

Ideation is reflective practice

Sometimes ideas brainstorming is so lively that you realise nobody is actually listening to anyone else. In contrast, ideation is a reflective process that encourages participant to opt in on ideas exchange in more thoughtful ways.

First step

"I'm always excited by the potential that lies within a sketch... the absolute first step towards a new building."Norman Foster, Architect.

Apple ideas

Apple designer Jonathan Ive uses Zen-like meditative processes to refine his ideas to the minimum, says Stephen Bayley, Design critic.

Quiet sketch

'I don't want an intellectual image, I'm a fashion person ... For me, to sit down and sketch quietly is a luxury'. Karl Lagerfeld

Notebook is my studio

Gabriel Orozco, the artistic nomad who prefers to work quickly, on the move, inspired by his ever-changing surroundings, says: 'I travel between my houses, and still have no primary studio. Mostly I draw and plan in my notebook, so my notebook is my studio'.