Workshop in progress

Designing is a skill that designers are continuously building. Even when a solution has been found or a task feel accomplished, designers are always working to become even better. We might say that our development as designers is always in progress. That is to say, something that is not yet complete. And so with ideation. A non-linear, iterative and onging process that is practised in the ideation workshop. A practice that makes use of ideation tools, from words and drawing to modelling and computing. But a practice that is not prescriptive or formatted but informal and illuminating. Indeed practice makes progress.

Learning from the workshop

Digital tools, that is electronic hardware (digital devices) and software (programs, apps or platforms), are part of the ideation tool box , tools which complement analogue, or traditional tools in the design process. That is to say, ideators use digital tools for implementing text, images, audio, and video for creating presentations that convey visual concepts and ideas. Digital tools, then, as instruments both for idea generation and idea communicatiom reflect a kind of digital pragmatism where the digital is not in opposition to the analogue. In so doing, visualisation, from assemblage, bricolage and collage to drawing and video, may inspire words, and words, in turn may inspire visualisation. This picture-word dialogue, then, helps generate ideas expressed in, say, the picture book format combining visual and verbal narratives. Moreover, hybrid ideation tools applied both in the studio environment and on digital platforms can transform the ideation process by connecting ideators to a wide range of content and resources thereby improving the ideation process as both an individual and collaborative learning experience.