Abstract ideas

Ideas can be either abstract, visual, or concrete, and the type of idea may influence the choice of ideation tools. For example, abstracts ideas are first thoughts that can be interpreted in multiple ways, and therefore need to be visualized, as they cannot be illustrated through concrete (real) examples. This suggests that for abstract ideas, ideation starts with words or sketches, or a combination of both.

Just Do It ... Now

Procrastination is the enemy of ideation. To beat procrastination try this approach: 1. Close your eyes and visualise your idea picturing yourself realising the idea successfully. 2. In the face of immediate challenges, focus on the creative task at hand avoiding interruptions, including social media distractions. 3. Don't over-think an idea or sit around waiting for large, unbroken, smooth slabs of time on which to get started. Instead, trust your intuition and make do with more temporary, makeshift, rough-and-ready surfaces. Or simply go for a walk to get a fresh perspective or new ideas. Indeed, ideation is situated in many places.

Drawing the idea

Drawing is a powerful ideation tool that projects the form to come, that is, the visualisation of the ideated thing or the idea of the thing - the form. Indeed, drawing is a formative force (formation, reformation, and transformation), and its essence lies in the determinate thought and gestural mode of expressing an idea. Or, in the words of Henri Matisse, 'To draw is to outline an idea. The drawing is the clarification of thought.'

Just a minute!

Generating ideas tend to be a fast moving activity. But what about the development and communication of ideas? Can ideas be squeezed into just a minute, and presented in, say video format? Richard Wiseman, a professor of psychology, says he rarely finds it difficult to squeeze ideas - all of which are backed up by research and developed from his book chapters - into under a minute video. Using YouTube he believes shorter videos are the future of the medium: 'Conventional TV could spend 30 minutes on each of these items but not actually give you any more information. With any creative project, the more restrictions you put on it the more creative you are. With this you just have to be really good at scripting and cut down to the bare bones.'

Play it, Einstein

In his biography of Einstein, Walter Isaacson writes that Einstein often turned to his violin when challenged in his work: 'He would often play the violin in his kitchen late at night, improvising melodies while he pondered complex problems. Then suddenly, in the middle of the playing he would announce excitedly, "I've got it!" As if by inspiration, the answer to the problem would have come to him in the midst of the music'. This suggest that Einstein's mental processing power relied on the dynamic nature of intelligence, or how intelligence is expressed in many different forms, such as analytical, creative or emotional intelligence, or combinations thereof.

Nulla Dies Sine Linea

"No Day Without a Line," is traditionally attributed to the Hellenistic Greek painter Apelles (4th century B.C.E.) by the historian Pliny the Elder, who recorded that Apelles would not let a day pass without at least drawing a line to practice his art. Practising every day, Appelles is said to have attached great value to the drawing of outlines, and the simplicity of design. Moreover, and in the context of ideation, making a start with a line can help develop the idea. In this sense, line drawing becomes a vital part of the creative process, and sketching an ideation tool. As Plato once wrote, "The beginning is the most important part of the work." Or, in the beginning was the line.

Analogue and Digital

Despite digitisation, analogue and physical interaction remain the bedrock for ideation. Indeed pixels and paper are different technologies suited to different tasks in the design process. For example, the analogue mode offers less distraction than screen use. And pen and paper are less mentally tiring and, through its immediacy, easier to navigate and to understand.