3.3 Ideation

What to remember in a creative process?

Let’s explore the very beginning of the creative process and develop ideas for how to start your own creative processes.

In sub-chapter 3.1, Creative process, we studied Wallas’ classic 1926 description of the creative process. It includes four stages: preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. The preparation stage is about gathering information, data, materials, resources, expertise and ideas. It involves activities such as sketching, brainstorming, studying, discussing and planning. In this sub-chapter, we’ll use the preparation stage to learn more about observing and ideation and their roles in creativity.

In fine arts, the idea of ​​a work of art has traditionally been considered separate from making the work of art (Siukonen, 2020). In other words, the action plan is thought out in advance, and the artist works separately as a thinker and implementer of the idea. Robert Morris (1993) defines this working method as a priori. At the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, American artists were considering a working method that was not based on thinking in advance but emphasized the entire creative process (Mäkikoskela, 2015a; Mäkikoskela, 2015b).

At Aalto University, part of radical creativity is experimentation. That means the creative process can already start without an actual idea, or the idea can develop significantly when doing experiments. Creativity nowadays is strongly tied to the possibility of prototyping and exploring ideas. It’s not just the thought that counts but how that thought can be implemented. We’ll explore this further in the Experimenting and Piloting sub-chapter.

The creative process starts with observation. We connect with people and places to sense the systems that we’re part of (Scharmer, 2016). This involves thinking deeply and accessing our memory and identifying sources of inspiration. The most interesting thoughts, initiatives and projects all come back to serendipitous encounters with open-minded people. It’s important to be able to make observations in surprising situations. Some people write, draw, or collect their observations in a notebook, sketchbook or mood board. For example, visual arts students still draw live models in their education, where they learn to make visual observations (Nurminen, 2024). The goal of observing is to find inspirational material to fuel idea generation later.

Brainstorming

How to generate quantity

The preparation stage may also involve brainstorming, ideation and allowing your thoughts to wander. Ideation is the act of generating ideas, whether through images (drawings, pictures or photos) or words (written or spoken).  There are many ideation techniques you can try. For example, Kirjavainen & Hölttä-Otto identified 76 techniques (2021).

One of the most well-known ideation techniques is brainstorming, a term created by Alex Osborn (1953). Brainstorming is typically used by groups to generate lots of ideas to solve a problem. It usually goes like this: a group of people gather in a room (or an online meeting), agree on a topic (or problem they want to solve) and start creating and sharing ideas.  Osborn provided valuable advice for running productive brainstorming sessions:

• Quantity is wanted: Ideas are the fuel for creativity in a brainstorming session. The more ideas generated, the greater the potential for creativity. People should be comfortable with suggesting not-so-good ideas because they could be useful for sparking new ones.
• Build on and combine previous ideas: When lots of ideas are on the table, it’s easier to start building up and coming up with new ideas. That’s the reason brainstorming sessions encourage quantity: to make sure there’s material to be combined and arranged later in order to settle on a few good ideas.
• Do not criticize ideas: Osborn suggested that brainstorming sessions should be divided into two parts: idea generation and idea evaluation. Criticism and evaluation might make people become defensive and therefore not share their most interesting (or wildest) ideas.
• Freewheeling is welcomed: Encourage wild ideas. Osborn suggests that participants have complete freedom to bring unexpected and unconventional ideas. Even if they’re not directly useful for solving the problem at hand, they serve as catalysts for new and potentially innovative concepts.

In short, a brainstorming session is a way of generating ideas where quantity is paramount. Participants are encouraged to have a clear separation between idea generation and idea evaluation.  This ensures that they have the freedom to come up with unusual ideas and also build upon others’ ideas to find a few that could be useful.

Although brainstorming is a common technique, it’s not perfect. For instance, dominant participants might overshadow others, limiting diverse voices. Upholding the ‘no criticism’ rule can be challenging, as we naturally evaluate feasibility. Group dynamics can also influence brainstorming, potentially leading to groupthink or undue emphasis on certain ideas.

What if…?

Breaking the rules

Now that we’ve looked at one of the most famous ideation techniques, let’s look at one that can be summarized in only two words: ‘What if?’

‘What if?’ is a simple and effective way of coming up with creative ideas and is widely used. For example, designers and story artists at Pixar—the movie studio behind movies like Toy Story and Finding Nemo—ask themselves this question to develop more creative narratives. Questions like ‘What if the toys in the playroom came alive at night?’  and ‘What if a rat could cook better than a chef?’

This simple method can help you open up new possibilities and unconventional scenarios and solutions.

Here is a longer, three-step version of this approach:

1. List all the rules. The first step is to make a list of all the current rules and beliefs in the area that you want to challenge. It helps to go through the entire process you’re questioning, step by step, to find each rule. Once you have the full list, you can choose one rule to experiment with, which leads to the next step.
2. Pick a rule to break. Pick one rule and ask, “What if?” By questioning and exploring that rule, your team can generate more dynamic ideas. At this point, it’s important to not know exactly how the rule would be broken—this uncertainty is actually a good thing. If you already know how to break it, the result will likely be just an iteration, not an innovation. Figuring out how to break the rule comes in the final step of the “what if” process.
3. Imagine if… This step challenges our usual thought patterns and explores what changes or scenarios could unfold if a particular rule could be broken. Discuss different ways to remove the rule and imagine how things would be different without it.To bring that idea to life, it can be helpful to use a sketch pad. Story-boarding is a powerful tool that helps visually communicate ideas and makes it easier to bring others along on the journey.

References

Kirjavainen, Hölttä-Otto. 2021. Deconstruction of Idea Generation Methods Into a Framework of Creativity Mechanisms.

Morris, Robert. 1993. Continuous Project Altered Daily: The Writings of Robert Morris. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Mäkikoskela, Riikka. 2015a. Ympäri, sisällä. Kolmiulotteinen työskenteleminen kuvataiteessa. Helsinki: Unigrafia. Aalto University publication series Doctoral dissertations 143/2015.

Mäkikoskela, Riikka. 2015b. There is no art without confrontation. In Göthlund, Anette, Illeris, Helene & Thrane, Kirstine W. (eds.): EDGE: 20 Essays on Contemporary Art Education. Copenhagen: Multivers Academic, 335-348.

Nurminen, Marja. 2024. The Teaching of drawing in higher arts education — Articulating the practitioners’ orientations. Tallinn, Estonia: K-Print. Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL THESES, 46/2024.

Scharmer, Otto. 2016. Theory U: Leading from the Future as it Emerges. 2nd edition. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Siukonen, Jyrki. 2020. Hammer and Silence. A Short Introduction to the Philosophy of Tools. Helsinki: The University of the Arts Helsinki.

Wallas, Graham. 1926. The Art of Thought. Turnbridge Wells: Solsis Press.