VCD Divergent Thinking.
What could
I do?
Takeaways
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Divergent thinking
Divergent thinking is about opening your mind to new possibilities and going on an exploring journey, not knowing what you might find. It means keeping an open mind, challenging assumptions about a problem while being open to new ideas and iterating in the design process.
- Divergent thinking happens twice in the design process with different purposes. In the left diamond, it involves seeking ideas, insights, information and perspectives freely in the widest range of contexts, while in the right diamond, it focuses on trialling, expanding, combining and building on concepts using visual language in unexpected ways.
- Time limits and constraints can actually boost creative thinking. Setting strict time limits like 2–5-minute sprints increases your capacity as a creative thinker and works as a brain workout. Rather than needing endless time, quick bursts of focused creativity often produce the most productive and innovative results.
- Innovation often comes from combining existing elements rather than creating something completely original. Techniques like forced connections, imagining how famous people would design something, or using SCAMPER to modify existing ideas can lead to breakthrough concepts. Building on the past and making unexpected associations is a key path to creative solutions.
- Breaking normal working methods opens up new creative possibilities. Working differently by drawing with your non-dominant hand, using unconventional materials, deconstructing and reconstructing designs, or trying alternative grid systems can refresh your thinking. These techniques help you abandon rules and discover approaches you wouldn't find through conventional methods.
Pushing outwards, expanding horizons
Divergent thinking means keeping an open mind, challenging assumptions and finding new understandings about a problem. Divergent thinking in the left diamond of the VCD Design Process refers to ideas, insights, information and perspectives that are sought and expanded freely in the widest range of contexts. Divergent thinking in the right diamond refers to trailing, expanding, combining and building on ideas and concepts using visual language in multiple and sometimes unexpected ways.
Let’s explore ways to use divergent thinking:
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Divergent Thinking routines
Find below a large range of strategies and routines to promote the use of divergent thinking. They are arranged so that ones used earlier in the Design Process appear first and then those shown later are used in the later phase.
Teachers may set these routines as activities, or students may select the most appropriate ones.
Mind-map
Purpose
A Mind Map is a technique to help explore and understand the scope of a design need.
It is used at the discovery stage of a design process to help students define a problem and consider as many different ways as possible to approach solving a design need.
Method
Place the topic or design need at the centre of the page.
Create branches reaching radially from the centre by writing words associated with one way of looking at the topic. Colour can be used to separate the branches visually.
Organise the words (usually done as they are written) into topics or themes like the styles, or materials used.
Mind-maps can be a combination of words and imagery. They are also useful for making links between ideas. This can be done with arrows and connectors. Students should check with their teachers exactly how a mind map is to be prepared as there are different styles of Mind-maps that might be required for assessment.
Reference
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Know the back-story
Purpose
Method
Research widely using a range of on and offline resources. Collect pictures of the most significant designs in the category of your object at different points in history. Find out how designs are linked to stylistic or artistic movements. Find out what social or technological motivations there were for the designs. Why were they made like they were made, then?
Sort your images to reveal trends. These might be in the use of colour, materials, forms or details.
Reference
Ingledew, J 2016, How to have great ideas. A guide to creative thinking, Laurence King Publishing, London.
Images: Red and blue chair 1917. Gerrit Rietveld. (https://www.chairish.com/product/ 364626/gerrit-rietveld-style-red-blue- chair). Marcel Breuer “B32/Cesca”. 1928. (https://steelform.com/produkt/marcel- breuer-cesca-chair-b32/). Ludwig Mies van der Rohe “Barcelona” 1929-31. (https://www.designcollectors.com/en/ knoll/ludwig-mies-van-der- rohe/chairs/2046-barcelona-chair). Eero Saarinen “Tulip” (https://dominidesign.com/gb/eero- saarinen-dining-chair-tulip-chair-swivel- seat-no-arms.html). Charles & Ray Eames “Lounge". 1956. (https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/ seating/lounge-chairs/eames-670- lounge-chair-ottoman/id-f_1961442/).
Arne Jacobsen “Egg”. 1958.
(https://fritzhansen.com/en/egg). Verner Panton “Stacking Chair”. 1960. (https://www.dwr.com/dining-chairs-and- stools/panton-chair/6044.html? lang=en_US)
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CONSUMER AUDIENCE PROFILES
Purpose
Method
Determine the target audience for the design you are researching. Begin with a written profile to describe two or three different consumers of the design. Refer to a wide variety of audience characteristics in your description. Imagine each member of the audience as a real person - create their back story. Detail their lifestyle preferences.
Collect pictures to illustrate the aspects you have identified.
Place the pictures carefully on a clean layout using a crisp white background. Use hierarchy to draw attention to headings and key images.
Reference
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GO FOR THE REAL - PHOTOS AND SCRAPBOOKING
Purpose
Method
Get out from behind your desk. So many books discuss the need for 'real' research experiences, yet so few of us do it. Take a walk around your home. Give yourself one hour to take fifty photos on your phone. Look up, down. Find the details in buildings, footpaths and shop windows.
Collect bits of paper everywhere you go. Free newspapers and postcards. Put them in a box. Put them in folders. Keep track of the years you collect them. Buy old magazines for 20c at the opp shop. Wait till you hold them. Forget about pixel pictures on your computer. Real is real and that's inspirational. If you're collecting for research for a folio, make it relevant.
Reference
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SEE, THINK, WONDER
Purpose
Method
Reference
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FORCED CONNECTIONS
Purpose
Method
Reference
Lupton, E (Editor) 2011, Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming, Princeton Architectural Press, New York.
Images: Victorian Chaise Lounge Dormeuse.(https://victorianfurniture.us/product/victorian- chaise-lounge-dormeuse/) Douglas DC3 1936-1950. (http://rvnewsletter.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html) Lockheed lounge by Marc Newson, 1988. (http://marc-newson.com/lockheed- lounge/) Sharp GF-9494 (22W) picture by Stephen Michael Barnette, 2007. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sharp_GF- 9494_(22W)_Ghetto_Blaster.jpg) Renegade 2.5KVA 6HP Portable Generator. (https://www.tradetools.com/product- range/outdoor-power- equipment/generators/renegade-25kva- 6hp-portable-generator)
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WHAT IF SOMEONE ELSE WAS DESIGNING THIS?
Purpose
Method
Consider the communication need that was defined in your brief. Choose (or your teacher will allocate you) a person to pretend to be. (See a range of people from which to choose below) Then gather a little information about the experiences the person may have had. Anything we know about their personality, gender and when and where they lived will help us get inside their head.
From that information determine what aesthetic (what something looks like) and functional (how something is made and works) preferences you think they may have had. Would they have liked things simple, complex, traditional, avant-garde, strong, or light, portable, for example.
Finally, pick up your pencil and see what comes. It's entirely up to you. Or should I say, them... Suggestions for personalities to be are:
- A Geisha
- Albert Einstein
- Buddha
- Isaac Newton
- Wonder Woman
- Aristotle
- Martin Luther King
- William Shakespeare
- Mary Quant
- Sigmund Freud
- Winston Churchill
- King Charles
- Marie Curie
- Barbie
- Anne Boleyn
- Frida Khalo
- Madonna
- Ivanka Trump
- Oprah Winfrey
- Your teacher
- Your best friend
Reference
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SCAMPER
Purpose
S.C.A.M.P.E.R. is a set of rules designed to elaborate on ideas by making variations. It can be used at the Develop stage to help form new ideas from existing ones or at the Development stage to help re-form existing ideas.
You may choose to use the whole set of actions or focus on those more relevant to your design.
Method
Begin with one initial drawn idea.
Research the SCAMPER technique to find elaborations on the key questions proposed by each letter of the acronym.
Sketch at least one new design using each letter of SCAMPER as a guide for developing your existing design.
Keep an eye on your brief. New and wacky ideas are good but if you are trying to fulfil a need, try to direct your ideas towards the need described in your brief.
Reference
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FURTHER ACTIONS
Purpose
The set of verbs shown here are intended to stimulate experimentation with spatial and volumetric form. This means it would be suited to Industrial or Environmental design. Each action represents a simple concept, pure and without any connotations.
This technique can be used to extend thinking and generate endless possibilities.
Method
Extremely simple from the outset. One should just take an existing form or motif and then apply an action to it. No second guessing in the process, see where it leads.
To extend these actions, apply them in more than one way to each form. Alternatively, apply more than one action to each instance of your form. Furthermore, apply several actions in sequence. For example, one could merge, branch then grade a form.
Don't limit yourself to these operative actions. Test some more;
- duplicate
- separate
- make transparent
- etc.
Reference
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Time limits
Purpose
Do you really need all that time to come up with an idea? Think of a picnic. A car race, a can of Coke, a beach holiday? The picture is instant, isn't it?
Setting strict time limits increases your capacity as a creative thinker. It's a workout for your brain.
Method
Use the timer here and draw 10 different designs using one approach. Take a one-minute break between ideas to think of a new approach. This will be the best, most productive 20 minutes you have ever spent.
Set a timer on your phone for 2 or 5 minutes to draw in more detail. Get used to completing work efficiently.
Reference
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LEAST NUMBER OF SHAPES OR FORMS
Purpose
Method
Take one of your ideas then simplify it. Use only one font. One image. Round off corners or sharp edges. Remove distracting backgrounds. Get rid of overlaps.
Eliminate complex forms. Consider if an object could be made with only one form. If not, do it in the least amount.
Reference
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WORK IN A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT WAY
Purpose
Method
The actual way you will work differently is up to you.
Here are some suggestions;
- draw with one line
- paint with a scrubbing brush
- draw with your wrong hand
- draw with the paper upside down
- draw with two pencils
- tear paper for a collage
- walk around someone as you draw them
- paint the tires of your bike with black paint and ride around a big piece of paper!
Reference
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Sprinting
Purpose
Do you need all that time to come up with an idea? Think of a picnic. A car race, a can of Coke, a beach holiday? The picture is instant.
Setting strict time limits increases your capacity as a creative thinker. It's a workout for your brain.
Method
Reference
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ALTERNATIVE GRIDS
Purpose
Method
Observe, Notice. Get out and search for shapes, patterns and fields in the environment around you. Look in buildings, gardens, shops and artworks. Photograph your observations.
Deconstruct. Use tracing paper or place your image in Adobe Illustrator and replicate the composition. Use shape and line to support your analysis.
Organise the content from one of your concepts according to the structure you have identified.
Reference
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KIT OF PARTS
Purpose
Method
Observe and record stimulus material in the real world. Sketch or use photography to record what you see.
Represent the forms you see in simplified and stylised visual devices using the least amount of shapes, lines, or other design elements. Ensure that your shapes are generic so the same ones can be used in different places to form an image.
Deconstruct your first image into a tool kit of reusable parts.
Build something new from your kit. I tried an alphabet. Another figure or a house would be good. Use the design process. I found I needed to go back to the steps above and modify how I represented my initial figure. When doing the alphabet step I found I needed to make changes to my kit of parts.
Reference
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Method stations
Purpose
Method
As a class
Your teacher might set up various 'method stations' around the room. You will be expected to work around the classroom using as many as you can in timed exercises.
Independently
Think back to every media, method or technique you have ever used in art or vis comm at school. Take one of your concepts. A logo is a great motif for this activity. Then use as many different media, methods or techniques as you can. Work 2d and 3d. Have you ever made a model of a letter?
Reference
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DECONSTRUCTION & RECONSTRUCTION
Purpose
Method
Use any of your images as starting points for deconstruction and eventual reconstruction. Work manual then digital, print it out, cut it up, stick it down, scan it and bring it back to digital again. Cut it, rip it, delete it, scrunch it up, photograph it, disassemble it. How many processes can you give one image?
Check out the new collage work by the master of grunge and deconstruction; David Carson.