How to be a Creative Sponge

Slide 1: HELLO

Slide 2: BE A HOW TO IVE EAT CR GE! ON SP jon hicks : hicksdesign

Slide 3: \"How do you do it? How do you get the ideas to actually design something??\" “Mr F” from London

Slide 4: \"Designers need to be visual leeches, constantly cataloguing and recording information like a camera that’s always snapping photos\" Jason Santa Maria

Slide 5: \"It seems to me that if you're a designer, then design runs through your veins like Pantone 7418. You can't stop looking at things through your designer eyes. \" Ben Terret, “The Design Disease”

Slide 6: Visual Leeches ? Creative Magpies Visual Vampires Creative Sponges

Slide 7: CREATIVE JUICES! mmmm!

Slide 8: The 3 stages of the Creative Sponge COLLECT! CATALOG! CREATE!

Slide 9: COLLECT What do we collect and where from?

Slide 10: What are we collecting? It’s not necessarily ‘Inspiration’ It’s not necessarily ‘Ideas’ It’s Raw Material It’s Ingredients It’s FUEL

Slide 11: \"Things I’ve collected always have relevance at some point later on\" Georgie Bean, Interior Stylist

Slide 12: Sources to collect from...

Slide 13: ©Khoi Vinh observing life

Slide 14: books

Slide 15: magazines

Slide 16: magazines

Slide 17: found typography

Slide 18: stuff off t’internet

Slide 20: t-shirts

Slide 21: ©DJ Damien: http://www.flickr.com/photos/djdamien/366246293/ leaflet racks

Slide 22: clothing labels and tags

Slide 23: packaging

Slide 24: photos that go wrong

Slide 25: photos using other objects

Slide 26: doodles from your head

Slide 27: ...OK, you get the idea...

Slide 28: ...except websites!

Slide 29: CATALOG What is your ‘trusted system’?

Slide 30: \"Designers are magpie-like creatures. If we see a style or approach that we enjoy we’ll absorb some of it, sometimes consciously, sometimes not\" Michael Johnson, Johnson Banks

Slide 31: your head

Slide 32: the good ol’ sketchbook

Slide 33: the good ol’ sketchbook

Slide 34: binders

Slide 35: box files

Slide 36: Design spongery 2.0...

Slide 37: iPhoto

Slide 38: yojimbo

Slide 39: The ‘Killer App’ for the web-savvy creative sponge... flickr

Slide 43: CREATE How do we use these collections to create stuff?

Slide 46: the fear : a blank piece of paper!

Slide 47: \"Collecting things stimulates the brain. It helps you think of something fresher. \" Wieden + Kennedy

Slide 48: Creative Catalysts • Deadlines! • Change of environment - walk/drive • Go to Bed! • Peace & Quiet (go for a wee) • Take a shower • Brainstorming / Mind-mapping

Slide 50: Critique it!

Slide 53: But are these really any better?

Slide 54: Moodboards

Slide 55: I can has moodboard? kthxbye!

Slide 57: another moodboard

Slide 58: Advantages of using moodboards 1. Concentrates on the concept/mood 2. Stimulates conversation with stakeholders 3. Quick to make 4. Clients can make their own!

Slide 59: Spot Design Patterns

Slide 60: “Reuse, recycle, but don’t reinvent the wheel unless necessary” Brian Christiansen, UI Engineering.

Slide 61: “Patterns are optimal solutions to common problems, tossed around a community and are resolved, solutions spontaneously emerge. The best of these rise above the din and become refined until they reach the status of a Design Pattern.” Design Patterns

Slide 64: Sample colours

Slide 65: =

Slide 66: =

Slide 67: Finally, a couple of my own examples...

Slide 68: = hicksdesign’s new logo

Slide 69: = open doors student site

Slide 70: \"Soak up everything, you never know when you're going to need it\" Jon Hicks

Slide 71: The 3 stages of the Creative Sponge COLLECT! CATALOG! CREATE!

Slide 72: SOAK IT UP! http://del.icio.us/jonhicks/sponge http://hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/ be-a-creative-sponge

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