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Contents defining problems

BrainstormingMind MappingLateral ThinkingVisual ResearchBrand MappingBrand BeaconsBrand BiblesMood BoardsDiagrammingInterviewing UsersCultural Probing

getting ideasCubingGraftingOppositional ThinkingAction VerbsRhetorical FiguresCo-Creation

creating formEmbracing ConstraintsForced ConnectionsManipulative VerbsModelingReconstructionSprintingParing DownSemioticsKit of Parts

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W hat picture comes to your mind when you hear the word “brain-storm?” Many of us conjure a dark cloud crackling with lightning and raining down ideas. The original metaphor, however, was

military, not meteorological. The term “brainstorming” was developed by Mad-ison-Avenue ad man Alex F. Osborn, whose influential book Applied Imagina-tion (1953) launched a revolution in showing people (especially business people) how to think creatively. “Brainstorming” meant attacking a problem from many directions at once, bombarding it with rapid-fire ideas in order to come up with viable solutions. Osborn believed that even the most stubborn problem would eventually surrender if zapped by enough thought rays—even random or silly ones. He also believed that even the most rigid, habit-bound people could become imaginative if put in the right situation. Brainstorming became a ubiquitous thinking technique, deployed everywhere from kindergarten classrooms to corporate boardrooms. In a group setting, an ap-pointed moderator solicits ideas from everyone present and writes them down. All ideas are welcome, from the ordinary and obvious to the absurd and outland-ish. Setting a time limit quells skepticism and keeps the proceedings lively. At the end of the session, ideas can be ranked, sorted, and recorded for distribution. Solo brainstorming is more informal but follows the same principles: work quickly, keep an open mind, and review your results. When is brainstorming useful? This simple technique is effective for defining problems and coming up with initial concepts at the start of a project. Brainstorm-ing usually yields written lists, so it’s not about visualizing a concept so much as defining or identifying it. Brainstorming is a handy way to generate the simple seeds of larger, more complex ideas, or to solve narrow problems such as naming a product or creating a symbol or illustration of an idea.

Alex F. Osborn delineated the technique of “brainstorming” in Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of

Creative Thinking (New York: Scribner’s, 1957). First printing, 1953. The method has since entered the popular

imagination.

Brainstorming

The right idea is often the opposite of the obvious.

—alex F. osborn

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appoint a moderator. Using a whiteboard or big pads of paper, the moderator writes down any and all ideas. sometimes, the moderator puts ideas in basic categories along the way. although the moderator is the leader of the brainstorming process, he or she is not necessarily the “boss” of the team or the primary creative person. anyone with stamina and a steady hand can do the job.

state the topic. Being specific makes for a more productive session. For example, the topic “new products for the kitchen” is vague, while “Problems people have in the kitchen” encourages participants to think about what they do each day and what they might have trouble with. Breaking the topic down even further (cooking, cleaning, storage) can also stimulate discussion.

Write down everything, even the dumb stuff. everybody in the group should feel free to put out any idea, without censorship. Unexpected ideas often seem absurd at first glance. it’s important to record all the dull ideas, too, as these help clear the mind for new thinking. Combine simple or familar concepts to create more interesting ones.

establish a time limit. alternatively, aim for a quantity, such as “one hundred new ways to think about hats.” People tend to be more productive (and less suspicious of the process) if they know it won’t go on forever.

if desired, rank ideas at the end of the session or assign next steps to members of the group. ask someone to record the results and share them as needed.

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brainstorm with a group

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challenge: illustrate consumerism (fast). A group of design students were asked to create illustrations for the “Letters to the Editor” page of The New York Times. The subject matter: how Americans across diverse income brackets, both rich and poor, are able to purchase a wide range of high-status consumer goods. The deadline: four hours from start to finish. A group brainstorming session got everyone thinking about clear, simple images that quickly convey ideas about shop-ping, wealth, and status. The moderator established three basic categories at the outset for sorting ideas as they came in. Although all the designers created their own illustrations, they worked from a common list of simple concepts. Their task was to synthesize this open-ended vocabulary into surprising combinations.

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design cara lichtenstein, ally stoneham, yu chen zhang, christina ricks, julia kostreva, alex roulette associate art director the new york times: kim bost. faculty ellen lupton with joseph galbreath; graphic design ii, mica.

editorial illustration for the new york times: a case study

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stuff people buy

Cars

Jewelry

Purses

electronics

real estate

Food and water

gas

Clothes

starbucks

alcohol

education

Leisure activities

entertainment

Club memberships

sports

gadgets

toys

Health and beauty

Vacations

services

Books

Liposuction

markers of status

elevation

House income

Corporate ladder

reserved parking

exclusive

artwork

marriage

Family heritage

Caviar

Cigars

Cuff links

shoes

Perception

Branding

social status

money

Bags of money

Piles

Pool charts blue/white

collar

Wine

Certificates

this list of basic ideas served as a reservoir from which each designer built an illustration of the topic. several solutions combine two or more items from the list (such as a shopping cart loaded with appliances, or a receipt listing major purchases and basic needs).

images of shopping

Bags

sales tax

Credit cards

ebay

Cash registers

Coupons

Dressing rooms

Purse/wallet

receipts

Changing hands

Price tags

giving change

sale

Parking

escalators

Displays

Carts

Fountains

Long lines

Frustration

Free samples

ads

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A matrix diagram joins two different value scales, such as rational/emotion-al and elite/popular. A design team positions various products or ideas in

relation to the matrix, allowing them to visualize relationships. Matrix diagrams commonly are used in the process of design for branding, a broad field that in-volves product development, packaging, signage, logo design, interior design, service design, and more. Designers help companies or institutions update ex-isting brands as well as launch entirely new ones. Whether performing a modest makeover on a familar candy bar or building a new product entirely from scratch, designers and their clients look at where the given brand sits in relation to similar products or companies. Brand mapping can be done with various levels of detail and formality. Design-ers use matrix diagrams to position brands in relation to categories such as name recognition, cost/value, prestige, market segment, and so on. The process of making a brand map can draw out people’s feelings about a specific product (say, a Ford Explorer) or about a broader category (SUVs). Matrix diagrams can be used to visualize other kinds of content as well. Psychoanalysts and cultural anthropologists have used them to map the human psyche and social behavior, while New York Magazine’s “Approval Matrix” is a weekly column about popular culture.

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of the obvious.—alex F. osborn

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my kind of girl Sterling Brands created this brand ma-trix to look at some of the dif-ferent ways teenage girls think about themselves. The matrix consists of two axes: indepen-dent/inter-dependent and posi-tive/negative. This particular brand aimed to address girls with an independent and posi-tive self-image. the product: feminine hygiene supplies.

Study the subject area that you are seeking to understand. This could be a group of products, a user culture, a series of events, or a collection of objects. Create a list of elements that you will diagram. These elements could be brands, people, personali-ties, logos, products, etc.

Make a list of polarities that you could use to organize your material, such as east/west, high/low, good/evil, formal/informal, expensive/cheap, fancy/plain, etc. An example we like is New York Magazine’s weekly “Approval Matrix,” which charts recent events in popular culture according to the scales of highbrow/lowbrow and brilliant/dispicable.Plot the elements in your list on the matrix. Look for meaningful patterns in the results. Do items tend to cluster in one area? Is there an empty space that should be avoided, or is there a sweet spot you want to hit?

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brand maps sterling brands, debbie millman, art director.

more positive

more inter-dependent

more independent

more negative

tortured&

troubledtomboys renaissance

girls

glamourgirls

safe&

simple

soft&

sweet

target sweetspot10

challenge: design a new brand of tea Most people don’t expect a can of dog food to be philosophical, but a box of tea is often layered with messages about well-ness, world culture, relaxation, and more. Indeed, from the tea bag to the outer car-ton, tea is a densely branded product. Shown here are proposals for new brands of tea that each have a strong visual brand. The designers studied the existing “brand space” of tea before coming up with their own concepts. These prototypes play with existing cultural ideas about the world’s most popular beverage. Speaking to different emotions, each one stakes out its own place in the cultural matrix of tea.

tea space This matrix maps the intersection of east/west and formal/informal.

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east

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formal

west

pure

black mountain

old man

origin

tea packaging prototypes: a case study

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down home Drinking “sweet tea” from canning jars is a favorite in the American South. Black Mountain is a historic town in North Carolina.

upscale asian This elegant prototype uses sleek contemporary graphics to celebrate the Eastern origins of tea.

ethnic neighbors This packaging combines Chinese characters with hu-morous illustrations to suggest Asian life in the American suburbs.

clean cure Many people see tea as a cleansing elixir. This brand responds with high-tech, pharma-ceutically inspired graphics.

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design cody boehmig, yu chen zhang, tiffany shih, julia kostreva

faculty ellen lupton with joseph galbreath, graphic design ii, mica.

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g raphic designer Andrew Blauvelt uses the term “kit of parts” to refer to his systems-based visual design methodology. The Walker Art Center is a

museum and performing arts organization in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In creating a new identity for the Walker, Blauvelt and his design team constructed an open-ended system rather than a static logotype. They devised a series of ornamental marks that are accessed digitally like a typeface in combination with written text. The diverse patterns reflect the Walker’s diverse program. The Walker design team can produce endless variations of the system by combining existing elements; they can also add new patterns as needed, creating a living visual brand. This way of thinking can be used in many situations to develop series of forms that are related to each other. The idea of a “kit of parts” suggests that some components of a design are fixed near the beginning of the process; these can be found elements or they can be originated by the designer. walker art center

(shopping bag detail)

design director andrew blauvelt

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THE

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The first step in designing a “kit of parts” is to create the kit. Elements can be made, drawn, or photographed by the designer, or they can be sampled from the existing culture. Designer Kristian Bjornard wanted to compile images of sustainable landscape using a relatively small number of repeated elements. He limited his palette to a few lines and shapes.

next, determine how to combine your elements. Bjornard found that he could describe different types of trees as well as diverse modes of technology with his minimal elements. He created these icons as part of a project aboust sustainable design principles; he believes that working with constraints constitute a sustainable methodology because it conserves mental energy.

Finally, apply your system to relevant design situations. For an exhibition about sustainable design, Bjornard used his icons to make a long, unwinding landscape, printed on a length

of waste paper from the printing lab.

design kristian bjornard

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Family of IconsLEAVES AND BULLETS

FORM : SYNTAX

This is a family of icons made from found objects in the form of leaves, civil war bullets, and an arrowhead. From the images of these (somewhat mundane) objects, graphic elements can be constructed.

The aesthetics of the shapes individualy and all together are pleasing; the harsh and soft edges create an ironic interplay within the combination of hard and organic materials of the objects themselves.

Family of IconsLEAVES AND BULLETS

FORM : SYNTAX

This is a family of icons made from found objects in the form of leaves, civil war bullets, and an arrowhead. From the images of these (somewhat mundane) objects, graphic elements can be constructed.

The aesthetics of the shapes individualy and all together are pleasing; the harsh and soft edges create an ironic interplay within the combination of hard and organic materials of the objects themselves.

bullets and leaves Leaves, bullets, and arrow heads have been rendered both as high-contrast silhouettes and as full-color images. The floral shapes were made by rotating and repeating the elements. The resulting images are at once elegant and sinister; tension arises from discordant marriages of form and meaning.

design virginia sasser

SEMANTICS : CONTENT

Together the images and graphic icons could form a pattern or mandala form, within which the meanings of the individual elements can play off of one another. This creates an interplay between the themes of danger and beauty, destruction and nature, design and inherent meaning. Variations are open-ended; relationships can therefore be intertwined and interpretable.

The organic forms of the leaves contrast a bit with the shape of the bullet, but the arrowhead is still an organic-looking form despite its intention as a means of destruction. Various meanings could be derived from the fact that pieces of weaponry are interspersed with forms of nature, and united as a family of icons.

PRAGMATICS : CONTEXT

Combined forms from both nature and human-made objects of destruction could potentially create an ironic and surprising conversation. Which is more useful? In the interpretation of antique items in relationship to crisp, fresh, living objects, does original intent (violence) overpower any potential feeling of nostalgia? Some shapes created could be more threatening than others, some more soft. In some of the mandalas, certain forms are more dominant than others, posing a question of strength among the individual objects, as well as the theme itself.

SEMANTICS : CONTENT

Together the images and graphic icons could form a pattern or mandala form, within which the meanings of the individual elements can play off of one another. This creates an interplay between the themes of danger and beauty, destruction and nature, design and inherent meaning. Variations are open-ended; relationships can therefore be intertwined and interpretable.

The organic forms of the leaves contrast a bit with the shape of the bullet, but the arrowhead is still an organic-looking form despite its intention as a means of destruction. Various meanings could be derived from the fact that pieces of weaponry are interspersed with forms of nature, and united as a family of icons.

PRAGMATICS : CONTEXT

Combined forms from both nature and human-made objects of destruction could potentially create an ironic and surprising conversation. Which is more useful? In the interpretation of antique items in relationship to crisp, fresh, living objects, does original intent (violence) overpower any potential feeling of nostalgia? Some shapes created could be more threatening than others, some more soft. In some of the mandalas, certain forms are more dominant than others, posing a question of strength among the individual objects, as well as the theme itself.

SEMANTICS : CONTENT

Together the images and graphic icons could form a pattern or mandala form, within which the meanings of the individual elements can play off of one another. This creates an interplay between the themes of danger and beauty, destruction and nature, design and inherent meaning. Variations are open-ended; relationships can therefore be intertwined and interpretable.

The organic forms of the leaves contrast a bit with the shape of the bullet, but the arrowhead is still an organic-looking form despite its intention as a means of destruction. Various meanings could be derived from the fact that pieces of weaponry are interspersed with forms of nature, and united as a family of icons.

PRAGMATICS : CONTEXT

Combined forms from both nature and human-made objects of destruction could potentially create an ironic and surprising conversation. Which is more useful? In the interpretation of antique items in relationship to crisp, fresh, living objects, does original intent (violence) overpower any potential feeling of nostalgia? Some shapes created could be more threatening than others, some more soft. In some of the mandalas, certain forms are more dominant than others, posing a question of strength among the individual objects, as well as the theme itself.

SEMANTICS : CONTENT

Together the images and graphic icons could form a pattern or mandala form, within which the meanings of the individual elements can play off of one another. This creates an interplay between the themes of danger and beauty, destruction and nature, design and inherent meaning. Variations are open-ended; relationships can therefore be intertwined and interpretable.

The organic forms of the leaves contrast a bit with the shape of the bullet, but the arrowhead is still an organic-looking form despite its intention as a means of destruction. Various meanings could be derived from the fact that pieces of weaponry are interspersed with forms of nature, and united as a family of icons.

PRAGMATICS : CONTEXT

Combined forms from both nature and human-made objects of destruction could potentially create an ironic and surprising conversation. Which is more useful? In the interpretation of antique items in relationship to crisp, fresh, living objects, does original intent (violence) overpower any potential feeling of nostalgia? Some shapes created could be more threatening than others, some more soft. In some of the mandalas, certain forms are more dominant than others, posing a question of strength among the individual objects, as well as the theme itself.

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greetings from

the new face

of asobi seksu

the

late

st fr

om

aw s

tud

ios

aw studios2803 rifle ridge roadoakton, va 22124

PRSRT STDUS POSTAGE

SOMEWHERE, PAPERMIT NO. 555

PAID

© 2008 Aaron Walser All Rights Reserved

greetings from

the new face

of asobi seksu

the

late

st fr

om

aw s

tud

ios

aw studios2803 rifle ridge roadoakton, va 22124

PRSRT STDUS POSTAGE

SOMEWHERE, PAPERMIT NO. 555

PAID

© 2008 Aaron Walser All Rights Reserved

greetings from

the new face

of asobi seksu

the

late

st fr

om

aw s

tud

ios

aw studios2803 rifle ridge roadoakton, va 22124

PRSRT STDUS POSTAGE

SOMEWHERE, PAPERMIT NO. 555

PAID

© 2008 Aaron Walser All Rights Reserved

greetings from

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letters and icons The kit of parts consists of a complete square plus a square sliced into two pieces by a circle. The designer created a relatively complex alphabet from these simple pieces. He went on to create icons of people and animals as well as flat patterns.

design aaron walser

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greetings from

the new face

of asobi seksu

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PAID