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'.

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.