Ideas turned stories

Ideas can be expressed and formatted in many ways using both verbal and visual languages. Indeed communicating ideas is a creative activity in order to capture the intended audience, be they a colleague, a client or a group, say a planning committee, and convince them that the idea is worth pursuing towards realisation. Or, as put by the Danish architect, Bjarke Ingels, 'My drawing skills probably froze when I was 18 ... Now I'm more interested in the story, how the drawings, the layout can help express the stories and communicate them'. Significantly, each of his buildings has a signature visual gimmick that plays well on Instagram and on the image-heavy web sites that make up much of online architecture media. Interestingly, Ingels first wanted to be a caroonist and graphic novelist but as there was no cartoon academy in his native country, he got smitten by architecture seeing architecture not as style but comparing it to portraiture where the success lies in its power to capture the subject's soul and potential. Not surprisingly, then, Bjarke's published architectural monograph uses the comic book format to express its groundbreaking agenda for contemporary architecture.

Game, Set and Ideation

Gaming technology has moved a long way since its early days of arcade video games increasingly making inroads into many different areas of design - indeed the development of gaming technology is in itself a design activity. The advancement of gaiming technology, which includes virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI), renderings with photo realistic textures, gestural control, face and voice recognition provides accurate simulation of design situations, for example Cities:Skylines (a city building experience game). Such games point to scenarios where designers, as players, and across disciplines, immerse themselves in the world of ideas, of telling stories, of ifs, ands and buts. In short, gaming technology is set to become an integral part of ideation in innovative and collaborative environments .

Ideation language

Words, written or spoken, play an essential role in the ideation process because language forms our thoughts and ideas. Ideas as language, then, recalls the Swiss linguist Saussure (1857-1913), who argued that language is a system of signs expressing ideas. His structural model of language, that is, of relations among words, thoughts, concepts, metaphors and process, might then be applied to ideation. That is, ideators use a range of ideation tools, viz. words, sketches, models, and computing, to shape, form and manipulate design elements, which include both verbal and visual components, in order to express their ideas. The design elements, then, can be regarded as a system of signs expressing ideas. Now, when ideators use a combination of tools, say words and digital software, such combinations may help building a relational grammar or system of rules for ideation. This, in turn, may help advance not only the role of digital software in the ideation process but also that of Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning.

Mind over matter

Mind over matter is an intriguing notion used in many contexts, from parapsychology to pain control and political ideology. In the context of design ideas, and the use of ideation tools, sketching on paper or digital tablet exemplifies how the human mind directs the moving of the pen; mind over sketching. But also the mind in the philosophical sense, as explained in the computational theory of the mind that uses some of the same principles as those found in digital computing. Interestingly, then, the notion of mind over matter would apply to the whole range of ideation tools, viz. words, skeching, modelling and computing. An example of this is Frank Gehry's designs for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, in which the architect's ideas, inspired by the sculptor Richard Serra, were developed using a wide range of ideation tools, from casual sketches, crumpled paper and simple cardboard models to the most advanced computer software. In other words, Gehry's design, from first thoughts to final drawings were developed and communicated through conversations, physical sketching, model making and computing: Indeed without his office's 3D digital software, the museum, like many of Gehry's post-Bilbao ideas would never have become a practical proposal for a developer to build. Yet Gehry says the starting point is always inside his head; for him technology is a means, not an end. Indeed, mind over matter.

Ideation fitness

In the world of ideation, designers are increasingly employing digital strategies to generate, develop and communicate new ideas. And the designers who seem to achieve the most are those who bring the analogue and digital modes closer together, from casual sketching to computing. In doing so, designers not only want to show what they are capable of doing but also to communicate their level of ideation fitness. To increase their fitness level, they invest in both analogue and digital tool skills that enable them to response to the most challenging design tasks, often at short notice delivering to tight time frames and whether the deadlines are set by project briefs, design competitions or potential clients' enquiries. In fact, ideation workshops, or similar creative activities done on a fairly regular basis becomes ideation fitness excercises whereby designers improve their ideation skills in similar ways to people doing workouts to stay physically and mentally fit. Doodling, on paper or tablet or sketch modelling, then, are to ideation what squats or push-ups are to fitness.

Storytelling as ideation tool

Within the wide format of the ideation workshop, there is scope for using storytelling as a tool for generating and communicating ideas, both verbally and visually. This may be the case not least in dealing with collective issues of well-being, such as sustainability and climate change, issues which can be controversial and divisive often amounting to "wicked problems" where there is no single solution to the problem. The interactive mode of storytelling can be a particular effective tool for identifying and solving environmental issues because it allows for a diversity of voices drawing from a variety of sources. Moreover, ideation in the interactive narrative mode may not only help initiate and articulate new ideas in the eco design field but also provide different perspectives on interdependent local and global environmental issues thereby helping identify opportunities to address the climate change as well as stimulating imagination of future scenarios, actions and design solutions.

Sketching for 3D printing

Pen and paper sketching can be a standalone ideation tool but to take the idea further, say in the form of a 3D physical object the freehand sketch would have to be translated into a sketch model using a range of materials such as card, plastic, wood or clay. Alternatively, in the the digital era, the 2D pen and paper sketch would be converted into a 3D physical object using 3D printing, that is, the pen and paper sketch would be scanned or photographed, or produced on a digital drawing tablet, and imported into Photoshop, converted into a 3D digital model using CAD and then imported as an STL file to be dowloaded  for 3D printing using ABS filament plastics, the most used 3D printing material for models. How would the two ideation processes, that is, working in the analogue or digital mode respectively, compare in terms of tool skills or time consumed? Do the chosen ideation tools, analogue or digital, impact on the ideation process and if so, how? For example, do analogue ideation tools such as freehand sketching or physical sketch modelling afford more creative stimulation? Or, does the use of digital tools suggest a more linear ideation process with less scope or encouragement for iteration or improvisation? And what about hybrid ideation modes? Discuss.