Fundamentals of visual communication unit v

1. FUNDAMENTALS OF
VISUAL COMMUNICATION
Unit V

2. Ideation
Ideation is the creative process of generating, developing, and
communicating new ideas, where an idea is understood as a basic
element of thought that can be either visual, concrete, or abstract.
Ideation comprises all stages of a thought cycle, from innovation, to
development, to actualization.

3. Ideation is a process for bringing ideas to life.
Ideation means to conceive or generate an idea
and implement it. Ideas are the result of mental
activity that can be based on past or present
knowledge, thoughts, opinions, convictions or
principles.
Ideation includes the creation of original ideas,
basically focus on concept to gain insights,
understand, estimate possibility and give deeper
potential of experiences. In other word, ideation
can be considered as ‘building to think’.

4. Ideation Process
There are four basic process of ideation are;
Gathering Customer Insights: Reviewing customer
research reports, analyzing competitors, social trends,
lifestyle patterns and shopping habits are the process of
gathering customer insights.

5. Finding Opportunity Areas: Look for customer pain
points, problems, inefficient or abnormal behavior. Give
these areas names since these themes will serve as vehicles
for exploring and developing new ideas.
Brainstorm Ideas: Create actionable design statements
around the opportunity areas like ‘How might improve the
product delivery times’ or ‘what will improve the online
user’s experience’ provides motivation and guidelines for
brainstorming.

6. Prior Ideas: Developing some criteria like ‘Does this
idea improve customer’s lives’ or ‘Is the idea different from
what customers are using today’ to help evaluate, rank and
select the best ideas
Creativity:
Creativity is the act of converting new and innovating ideas
into reality. Creativity is characterized by the ability to
observe the world in new ways, to make connections
between actually unrelated phenomena and to generate
solutions. Creativity involves two processes: thinking and
then producing. If the ideas are generated and not acted
then the imagination is not creativity.

7. Characteristics of Creativity:
Characteristics of the creativity are;
1. Creative individuals have a great deal of energy.
2. Creative individuals tend to be smart.
3. Creative individuals have a combination of playfulness
and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.
4. Creative individuals alternate between imagination and
fantasy at one end and fixed sense of reality at the
other.
5. Creative people seem to anchorage opposite leaning on
the range between extroversion and introversion.
6. Creative individuals are also remarkable humble and
proud.

8. 7. Creative individuals to a certain extent escape rigid
gender role stereotyping and have a tendency toward
androgyny.
8. Generally, creative people are thought to be rebellious
and independent.
9. Most creative persons are very passionate about their
work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well.
10. The openness and sensitivity of creative individuals
often exposes them to suffering pain yet also a great deal
of enjoyment.

9. Process of Creativity:
Creativity is not a ‘talent’; it’s a cognitive skill that can be
learned and cultivated to empower individuals to express
them within their community. The process of creativity
involves different stages, they are;
Inception: The first stage of the creative process starts by
establishing the brief or the scope of the task. By defining
the task, it helps to identify the problem that need to be
solved. Once the task is identified, all the relevant
information must be analyze and absorb, which closely
understand the individual components that related to the
task.

10. Incubation: Once the problem has been defined, research
completed and basic ideation is initiated then the task
involves immediate attention. At this stage, the task must
understand the relationship between the conscious and
unconscious modes of thinking. Consciousness is thought with
attention; whereas unconsciousness works with intuition (sixth
sense). Conscious attention allows the unconscious to
efficiently process a mass of data.

11. Illumination: When discussing creativity with artists and
designers, most agree that there is an urge to change their
‘mental state’ at the point of creativity. An experienced
creative will a glimmer of an idea that emerge through a
‘feeling’ they have. Emotion is essential because it creates a
chain of associations that lead probability. Such ‘feelings’
enable the use of past experiences to subjectively
recognise the potential of certain directions.

12. Realization: Intuited concepts are short span thoughts; they
have neither context nor structure. Therefore, intuited
concepts need to be seized and brought into reality.
Transform imagination into a solid form to put into action.
What separates a great artist and designer from the
ordinary is not the quality of the inspiration, but the ability
to realise what others could not.

13. Verification: It is essential to test all ideas against the
strategy of the brief and proposed outcomes. Ideas that
created are highly personal due to the nature of the
creation. Therefore it is important to be as impartial as
possible when assessing the ideas. Invite critique from
others. All ideas must report back to the reason that
motivated the creation, if does not answer then again has
to start from the first stage of the creative process.
Creativity is a uniquely human ability that provides with
amazing potential and allows achieving designs with
glorious. That is, we create the world we live in.

14. Creativity Tools
The basic creative tools are;
Absence Thinking: Think about what is not there.
Brainstorming: the classic creative method for groups.
Brain-mapping: Combining brain writing and
mindmapping.
CATWOE: A checklist for thinking about problems and
solutions.
Forced Conflict: Using conflict to stimulate the
subconscious.
Head, Heart and Hands: Get all three systems of
motivation engaged.

15. Lotus Blossom: Unfold the flower of extended ideas.
Modeling: For the artist in everyone.
NUF Test: Check idea is New, Useful and Feasible.
PINC Filter: Evaluate pros and cons of ideas.
Problem Statement: Getting a clear statement of what
trying to achieve.
Purposing: Finding the real purpose for what doing.
Six Thinking Hats: Think comfortably in different ways
about the problem.
Storyboarding: Creating a visual story to explore or
explain.
Talk streaming: Just talk and talk and talk until unblock.

16. Unfolding: Gradually unfolding the real problem from
the outside.
Visioning: Creating a motivating view of the future.
Wishing: State ideas as wishes to expand thinking.
Write streaming: Write and write and write until
unblock
Approaches to Creativity:
Basically there are two approaches followed in creativity,
they are programmed thinking and lateral thinking.

17. Programmed Thinking:
Programmed thinking depends on logical or structured
ways of creating a new product or service. The
programmed thinking approaches can be classified into
Morphological Analysis and the Reframing Matrix.
Morphological Analysis: The morphological analysis is a
group of methods that share the same structure, which
breaks down a system, product or process into its essential
sub-concepts, where each concept represents a dimension in
a multi-dimensional matrix. That is, every product is
considered as a bundle of qualities. The morphological
analysis may be summarized with five step process, they
are;

18. o First Step: The problem to be solved must be very quickly
formulated.
o Second Step: All of the parameters related for the
solution of the given problem must be localized and
analyzed.
o Third Step: The morphological box that contains all the
potential solutions of the given problem is constructed.
o Fourth Step: All the solutions contained in the
morphological box are closely scrutinized and evaluated
with the purpose that has to be achieved.
o Fifth Step: The related suitable solutions are selected
and practically applied.

19. Lateral Thinking: The other important creative approach is
Lateral Thinking, which was developed and popularized by
Edward de Bono. The lateral thinking can be classified into
Brainstorming, Random Input and Provocation.
Brainstorming: Brainstorming combines a relaxed,
informal approach to problem-solving with lateral thinking.
Here the idea can be crafted into original and creative
solutions to the problem to be solved. This approach aims to
get people unstuck, by ‘shaking’ them out of their normal
ways of thinking. During brainstorming sessions, judgments
and analysis may exploit the idea generation, so ideas
should only be evaluated at the end of the brainstorming
session, because this is the time to explore solutions through
conventional approaches.

20. o Individual Brainstorming: While group brainstorming is
often more effective at generating ideas, study has shown
that individuals brainstorm come up with more better
quality ideas than groups of people who brainstorm
together.
o Group Brainstorming: The group brainstorming has
advantage of the obtaining full experience and creativity
of all the team members. When one member gets stuck with
an idea, another member's creativity and experience can
take the idea to the next stage.

21. Random Input: While stuck with ideas during brainstorming
or again and again going with the same ideas, it will be difficult
to come out from the normal thinking. Random Input is a lateral
thinking technique, which pullout the imagination from the fixed
thinking pattern into developing creative and innovative ideas.
Random Input is a technique for linking other thinking patterns
into the process.
Provocation: Provocation is a technique that is similar to
Random input. Generally one use to think in recognized pattern
and reacts according to it, which comes from the past
experiences and logical extensions to those experiences. The
Provocation technique often helps you to generate completely
new concepts, which deliberately make stupid statements
(provocations) of the situation that is not true. That is, the
statements need to be stupid to shock the minds out of existing
ways of thinking.

22. Innovation: The process of translating an idea or invention
into a concept that creates value or for which customers will
pay is known as innovation, which must be affordable at an
economical cost and must satisfy a specific need.
Concept of Innovation: People often use the words
‘creativity’ and ‘innovation’. Creativity is about ‘coming up
with ideas’ and innovation is about ‘bringing ideas to life’.
Innovation often results when ideas are applied to satisfy
the needs and expectations of the customers. In a social
context, innovation helps to create new methods of creation,
joint venturing and creation of buyer’s purchasing power.
Innovations can be divided into two broad categories, they
are:

23. Evolutionary Innovation: Evolutionary innovations are
brought by many incremental advances in technology or
processes.
Revolutionary Innovation: Revolutionary innovations,
which is also called as alternating innovations are often
disruptive and new.
Lateral thinking: Lateral thinking takes the indirect
approach to solve problems. Although the reasoning may
not be immediately obvious and not obtainable by using
only traditional step-by step logic, it does work in a more
indirect way

24. A way of understanding lateral thinking is through its opposite,
vertical thinking.
Vertical Thinking: A vertical thinker is analytical, careful and
precise, taking the data around a problem and analysing it with
defined methodologies to find logical solutions.
Lateral Thinking: A lateral thinker understands vertical thinking,
but chooses to deliberately outside of this bounded thought process.
Creativity is a word that covers a great deal. The Artists are said to
be creative because they do not imitate but produce something new.
Inventors are also said to be creative because, they come up with a
new invention which works. Similarly, Scientists are said to be creative
when they make a new discovery. So the common element of
creativity is ‘producing something new’. For example, creativity is like
a joke, it will not make sense until the punch-line at the end is
understood.

25. Lateral thinking is specifically concerned with the generation of new
perceptions and new ideas. That is, Lateral thinking involves changing
perceptions and flexibility. Moreover, there is confusion between
creativity and lateral thinking, because both are related with
producing something new, but lateral thinking is a more specified
definition for the process of changing perceptions or changing the
way we look at things. The term ‘creativity’ is usually a value
judgment of a result, whereas Lateral thinking is a process that can
be practiced and used. With the right training, the lateral thinking
can improve the ability to think laterally.

26. Lateral Thinking Vs Vertical Thinking:

27. Process of developing ideas to different medium.
Most people know all about brainstorming: people sit in a room and
come up with as many ideas as they can. They don’t censor themselves
for idea quality or feasibility. Some simply put out ideas off the top
of their head, while others use Google to come up with ideas.
There are better ways than the standard brainstorming method,
however, to take up problems and develop new ideas for them.
The Storyboarding Method
A storyboard is like a cartoon strip: you place pictures or written
words to do with ideas, one after the other, on a sheet of paper.
Then, you try to develop a story through them. When you storyboard
ideas for an ideating session, you take ideas from everyone, write
each down on a sticky note, paste it on a board, and then try to form
a story around it. It’s a great way to see how these ideas interact and
see if there is a connection that can be made among them.

28. The Mind Mapping Method
Creating mind maps is common in many creative fields. To create a
mind map, you write down the problem on a whiteboard and then
surround it with words that indicate the things that you feel you may
need in order to solve the problem. If the problem is growing website
traffic, for instance, the solutions are the things that you need, like
SEO or organic traffic. As a second mind map layer, you can take an
individual need, like SEO, and add potential solutions, including hiring
an SEO strategist, taking up a marketing course and so on. It’s
possible to add third or fourth mind map layers, as well. It’s a proven
creative technique that works.

29. Sketching As a Group
Sketching helps visual thinking, something that is often more effective
than discussions conducted through speech. In group sketching, a
person begins the idea-making process by sketching something on the
whiteboard. Another person then comes along and adds to the sketch
with his own idea. As everyone contributes to the idea through
sketches, they add up to something substantial.
Creating Word Banks
To create a word bank, you start with a word or a problem and then
create a large set of words that you would associate with the word.
It’s a word association activity, but it works with large groups of
words. Creating word banks helps you break a problem down in your
mind and form manageable parts. When a word banking session is
ready, you start to form relationships among the words that you’ve
thought of. When you do this, you come up with new ideas.

30. The Thinking Hats Technique
Otherwise known as the Six Thinking Hats technique, this method was
invented by Edward de Bono involves role-play. In a group of six
people, each person takes up a different role and addresses the
problem in that capacity. One participant uses logic to think about
the problem, another one uses optimism, a third one plays devil’s
advocate. The others take up roles for emotion, creativity, and
management. As each person takes up a role, they get to think very
clearly about the problem in that capacity. This method can bring up
far more

31. Brainstorming in Reverse
Knowing what not to do is just as important as knowing what to do.
When you set up a reverse brainstorming session, your aim is to think
up every mistake that it would be possible to make in a given
situation. In a reverse brainstorming session for marketing knowledge,
for example, participants would think of mistakes such as not using
social media and social media ads, not paying attention to various
metrics and so on. Bringing up problems is a useful way to know what
mistakes to avoid.
Brainstorming is a great technique. It’s important to understand,
however, that sometimes, some techniques can work better.