Design Inspirations: The Creative Process

By Steven Wilson posted on Thu, 2009-10-29 12:11 , 1120 reads, 0 comments

The third in the fall Design Dialogue series, this presentation challenges our current design process and conventions. The hour long discussion was led by a panel representing architecture, interiors, urban design, and landscape architecture. The group presented a broad look at our current process, and alternatives from a wide range of inspirational sources including: product design, product display, food design, sculpture, painting, architecture, fashion design, ecology, and landscape architecture.

 

Have elements of our design process become formulaic? If so, how might we do things differently?

 

The PowerPoint presentation is attached and you can follow the narrative in the comments section.

 

  

 

  

  

Deadline, what deadline? Is the absent minded artist really on to something? The linear process while good for production can get in the way of a creative breakthrough. Its very focus on efficiency, constant progress, and achieving the goal often blinds us to unexpected connections and new ways of thinking.

  

 

 

 

How many hours do we spend on stakeholder interviews compared to hours we spend with our users? How much do we know about users' culture? Can we develop our own distinctive "Brown Paper Exercise"?

  

 

 

 

Beyond the case for or against the design committee, it seems clear that GM's production system was unable to give their creativity a chance. How can we improve production systems to nurture creativity?

 

 

 

Are we investing the right amount of input into our understanding of the places we are designing for, particularly as it relates to sustainable aspects - are we seeing our designs as static elements – a final product to produce – or do we consider them from the very beginning as evolving systems – and if we do consider them as evolving elements what does that mean in terms of our process and our product?

 

  

 

Has our facility for producing awesome graphics become too much of a substitution for a truly thoughtful and creative design practice? Has technology removed us from a more tactile understanding of the specific contexts we design for?

 

 

"My Inspiration this season was having no inspiration.....I just worked and it came from function. It's not as easy as having a concept." Isabel Toledo