Attention ideas!

Ideas are elements of thoughts generated in the mind based on memories, interpretations of past and present events, and their future projections. The ideas gain power from your attention and interest. Your attention is the fuel for your ideas, and the skillful use of ideation tools will help you stay focused. So every time your mind generates a creative idea, give attention to it, capture it with your tools. This will cause your mind to attract more ideas, setting in motion a true creative cycle.

Ideation tools

Ideators have a range of ideation tools to choose from, including words, sketching, and modelling (physical and virtual). But given that tool use is situational and contextual, there's no such thing as an all-purpose ideation tool.

Let's Face it: Drawing is alive and well

Draw Something is a title of a mobile app developed by Omgpop. It is a game where two players alternate turns between drawing a picture for the other to guess. The app has done so well, that on March 16th, 2012 it was reported that it was the most played game on Facebook, registering 10.8 million daily active users.

To bring ideas to life

While drawing is his speciality, graphic artist and illustrator Jamie Hewlett of Gorillaz fame, says he has no fear of exploring different media to bring ideas to life. "I'm always having ideas," he says. "I'd like to continue being able to realise the ideas I have." At the moment he is enjoying writing.

Ideation cycle

Conceptual tools support the ideation-cycle, from capturing and developing the idea, to communicating and converting the idea into action. Moreover, the tools, and whether words, sketches or modelling, not only support but influence and help articulate the ideation process: Concept > Context > Creation > Communication

Why studio?

"A studio changes depending on what you need at a particular time. It can be a laboratory of ideas; it can be a safe haven; it can be somewhere you don’t want to go because the work’s not going right." Jenny Saville, UK: Oxford.

"What I try to use the studio for is what I call ‘thinking with material’. To do that you need an arena. You need a page to write on. You need a space to work in. That is what a studio is." Tony Cragg, Germany: Wuppertal

Ideation, groupthink, and brainstorming

“Decades of research have consistently shown that brainstorming groups think of far fewer ideas than the same number of people who work alone and later pool their ideas.”
Keith Sawyer, a psychologist at Washington University, in summarising the science of brainstorming:

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/30/120130fa_fact_lehrer