ArtBistro

Education >> Browse Articles >> Education and Art

How Can You Be More Original?

Featured Author:

Christopher Simmons

Christopher Simmons is a designer, author, educator, design advocate and principal of the noted San Francisco design office, MINE™. MINE™ designs identities, books, consumer products, packaging and print and interactive collateral for scientific visionaries, educational reformists, best-selling authors, museums, entrepreneurs, telecommunications giants and Hollywood producers. Christopher teaches graphic design at the California College of the Arts (CCA), is the author of three books and writes the regular column My First Time for STEP magazine. He is a past president of the San Francisco AIGA, the professional association for design. On completion of Christopher’s tenure, Mayor Gavin Newsom issued an official proclamation declaring San Francisco to be a city “where design makes a difference.”

---

Since 1977, the International Academy of Design and Technology has been a vibrant and growing college committed to providing its students with an education that delivers today's technology into the classroom and tomorrow's creative professionals into the workforce.

If you’re looking for the benefits of a college education and the flexibility that fits your busy lifestyle then online studies at The International Academy of Design & Technology may be right for you. We offer programs in graphic design, web design, advertising and design, fashion merchandising and more. Turn your computer into your classroom, anytime, day or night, from almost anywhere. Interaction with experienced Academy instructors and fellow classmates is a keystroke away.

Take your imagination and turn it into your profession with an online education from The International Academy of Design & Technology.

You Imagine. We can get you there.™

Start Your Art & Design Career Today

More articles from this author:

• How to Be Original
• Design Storytelling
• Are You a Good Art or Design Student? - Part 1

Being original

This is a continuation of my previous column in which I looked at our need to be different as a condition of “considering ourselves creative.”:“http://artbistro.monster.com/education/articles/7380-how-to-be-original” In it I shared an example of a Bielenberg-inspired “think wrong” technique for uncovering new and authentic ideas. Of course, there is no single method for generating new, interesting and relevant ideas, but here are a few you may wish to consider the next time you find yourself stuck:

2. Forget Perfectionism

In Chasing the Perfect, Natalia Ilyin writes that modern design is based on deeply idealist notions and a quest for perfectionism. She says she wrote the book because she started to “become aware of this collusion, this silent pressure that a language of design based in perfectionism had brought to bear on how [she] developed as a person.” As designers, our obsessive nature can sometimes get in the way of free thinking. When we imagine that perfect endpoint we can get so caught up in refining the details that we miss the big picture entirely. It’s important that we allow ourselves to be loose, sometimes even sloppy (with our craft and our thinking). Sometimes from amidst the mess new relationships are revealed and new ideas realized.

3. Collaborate

It’s true that two heads are often better than one, but more isn’t always merrier. Working a trusted collaborator (or collaborators) is one of the surest ways to produce more compelling, relevant and original ideas. Building a truly collaborative environment isn’t easy, and it requires several elements to succeed. First and foremost it requires that every contributor is treated as equal. I work in a small office that includes myself, a designer and an intern. When we brainstorm projects everybody has an equal say. As creative director, I may set parameters and/or have make final decision, but when we’re in brainstorming mode we’re all in it together. Our interns offer up brilliant concepts; I often contribute horrible ones. The important thing is that the atmosphere is nontoxic to new ideas. The second requirement, then, is that all ideas are equal. There’s no editing in collaborative brainstorming, and no judgment. The object is to generate as many ideas as possible and for people to later react and respond to those ideas with thoughts and perspectives of their own. A third and critical component is to make sure all the ideas are recorded so they can be revisited discussed and dissected after they’ve been collected.

4. Define the Problem

Start by following the the Reporter’s Formula and ask the famed five Ws: Who? What? Where? When? Why? (and How?). Each of these provides an angle of insight into your creative problem. If it sounds simple and obvious, it is. It’s also essential and can sometimes lead to profound conclusions.

5. Make Lists

Lists are not just aids for remembering or prioritizing; they can be tools for discovery. List making can be a valuable first step in many situations, particularly in those instances that require you to recall or realize something you already “know.” For example, you might list the steps in a process or list images that come to mind relative to a particular subject. You might also list arguments for or against something (pros and cons). I like to create parallel lists — one list of adjectives and one list of nouns — then create odd or interesting pairings between the two.

At the start if a creative process, making a list is often an easy activity to help get you started. Lists can also cause you to have associations you might not otherwise have thought of, and they provide a framework for your thinking at that initial moment. It always helps to title your list (it will keep you focused) and to make them as quickly as possible, without editing.

I’ll round out this list of creative techniques in my final column. Meanwhile see if some of the above don’t work for you..