Development of Creative Thought and Structure

Developing creative thought and structure is a vital part of any practice be it Illustration, graphic design or any other creative area and a way of doing this is by overcoming mindsets.  During our lives we are constantly picking up new skills though education, training, observation and personal experience.  These help us become creative, allowing us to generate ideas or invent new solutions for old problems.  Creativity allows us to think outside of the box, make unusual connections and creates new ways to look at things. 

A common problem creative’s often find themselves facing is overcoming their own mindset.  Creative’s over time develop a certain style which is often used in their work.  Although this can be a good thing in getting your work recognised it, by tackling everyday problems in the same way often leads to predictable results, which will lack that element of surprise and creativity that really sells your work.  Breaking your own rules, taking yourself outside your comfort zone and doing something different often leads to much better results that really hold that creative edge. 

Think about the rules you often use in your work and find ways to challenge yourself, change the rules by ask yourself ‘What if?’ and ‘Why not?’, free yourself from your own preconceptions.  The work above is a great example of someone looking at the way you write a sentence and thinking ‘Why?’ and they have broken every rule to create something that shouts creativity and looks stunning.

Another way of developing creative thought is by restating problems.  As an artist/designer you have to look at problems from different angles.  A visual problem may be easily answered one way, but can also be answered better and in a more interesting way when restating (redefining) it.  Taking an unconventional route to get to a more creative answer.  Creating problems statements that are more open gives you a lot more space and depth and lots more possibilities to answer the problem.

A good way to generate fresh ideas is to set yourself a target of generating between 75-100 simple ideas without evaluating them, the first 20-30 will be the simple outcomes that you can think of straight away, but as you create more you are forced to look at the problem from different angles to create new creative ideas, there’s are the outcomes that will be the most creative and will answer the problem in a much more unconventional way and breaking your own rules and mindsets.

These are a number of outcomes I created for a brief to make 100 creative outcomes focused around a given letter form.

The random triggers that help you answer a brief can come from anywhere, an image or word not even related to the problem, so taking a different approach to a brief when you have hit a mental block can always help you find the creative outcome.