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'.

Jot it down

Across creative fields, and irrespective of the expressive medium, the challenge is the same: How to capture ideas? Eric Satie, the French composer, for example, was observed stopping to jot down ideas by the light of the street lamps he passed.

On-the-road ideator

Designers traditionally ideate with pen in hand using sketchbooks, notebooks, whiteboards, even drawing on napkins. That said, the processing, storage, editing, and communication benefits of computers ensure that designers also work on screen at the conceptual stages of the design process. Moreover, the hardware and software of digital drawing have evolved enough to be useful for on-the-road ideators. For example, smartphones controlled by multi-touch display now allow spontaneous on-screen sketching turning smartphones into ideation tools for out-and-about designers.