2. Objectives Relate creative thinking to graphic design
Recognize the characteristics of a creative thinker
Acquire tools that stimulate creative thinking
Grasp the role of conceptual thinking
Become skilled at generating design concepts

3. Definitions
Creative thinking is the ability to stretch beyond the ordinary, to be original, innovative, and flexible in one’s thinking.
A mind map is a visual representation or diagram of the various ways words, themes, images, thoughts, or ideas can be related to one another.
Problem finding is the process of sketching or making marks that allows visual thinking, allows for discovery, for staying open to possibilities during the visual-making process; also called problem-seeking.
Attribute listing is a method for analyzing and separating data through observing and identifying various qualities that might have otherwise been overlooked; it is a diagrammed list of attributes.

4. Creative Thinking
Of all the competencies necessary to be a graphic designer, creativity is the most elusive.
Developing your creativity will enhance everything you do—from graphic design to how you live your life.
Facets of creative thinking are:
associative thinking
metaphorical thinking
elaboration and modification
imaginative thinking
Procession of the Dead: Book Jacket
© Catherine Casalino

5. Characteristics of Creative Thinkers
Courage: Fear quashes creativity. Courage coupled with intellectual curiosity fuels creativity.
Receptiveness: Being open to different ways of thinking as well as constructive criticism allows you to embrace possibilities and new ideas.
Curiosity: The desire to know and to explore allows one to grow intellectually, artistically, and technically.
Flexibility: Not only do an agile mind and flexible personality allow you to keep up with the times, they allow you to bend with the path of a blossoming idea or let go of a path that is not fruitful.
Being Sharp-eyed: Paying attention to what you see every day allows you to see inherent creative possibilities in any given environment.
Seeking and Recognizing Connections: Creative people have the skills to bring two related or unrelated things together to form a new combination or relationship.

6. Tools That Stimulate Creative Thinking
Brainstorming (developed by Alex Osborn, a partner at BBDO, NY)
Traditional brainstorming is conducted with a group of people so that one contributor’s thought builds on or triggers another’s, although it may even work better when modified for individual use, since there is no holding back when one is alone.
An uninhibited atmosphere cultivates the flow of creative thinking.
Osborn’s Checklist
An inspired checklist technique (made up of action verbs) used as a tool to transform an existent idea or object:
Adapt
Modify
Magnify
Minimize
Substitute
Rearrange
Reverse

7. Tools That Stimulate Creative Thinking
Mapping
A mind map is a visual representation or diagram of the various ways words, themes, images, thoughts, or ideas can be related to one another.
Mapping is a brainstorming and visual diagramming tool that is used to develop an idea or lead to an idea.
You can approach mapping in two basic ways:
Automatic mapping relies heavily on the surrealist strategy of spontaneous free association, trying to avoid conscious choices and allowing associations to flow freely.
Deliberate mapping relies more on the natural growth of associations, revealing the way your mind instinctively organizes or makes associations.
A mind map is a tangible representation of associations that may reveal an insight or lead to an idea.

8. Tools That Stimulate Creative Thinking
While mapping software is available, the nature of the drawing process maximizes spontaneous mapping, so doing it by hand offers superior outcomes.
Drawing your own map assures personalization and a natural flow of thoughts.
Position an extra large sheet of paper in landscape position.
At the center of the page, your starting point, draw a key visual or write a key word, topic, or theme.
Starting with the central word or image, draw branches out in all directions making as many associations as possible. Don’t be judgmental; just write or draw freely.

9. Tools That Stimulate Creative Thinking
Oral Presentation Tool: Present the Problem to Someone Else
This tool is based on two premises: (1) talking about your design problem may reveal insights, and (2) presenting or explaining the design problem to someone unfamiliar with it will force you to organize and articulate your thoughts, which might lead to a better understanding of the problem and ultimately to an insight or idea.
Solicit a friendly listener.
Give an overview of the design problem.
Once you finish speaking, the listener is then free to ask questions—questions to clarify points or questions that pop into that person’s head based on what you have presented.

10. Tools That Stimulate Creative Thinking
Creativity Through Problem Finding
Designers can employ problem finding, where the process of sketching or making marks allows visual thinking, discovery, and staying open to possibilities during the visual-making process
Problem Finding by Image Making
The act of creating art—drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, collage, photography, and any traditional or nontraditional art—activates many parts of the brain.
Problem Finding Through Art Improvisation
One of the premises of spontaneous art is that it allows access to your subconscious and liberates you from inhibitions. You create images without concerns regarding conventions, aesthetics, composition, and intention.

11. Tools That Stimulate Creative Thinking
Problem Finding Through Art Improvisation
Enjoy the process without concern about an end product or finishing anything. Choose any preferred art medium—traditional or nontraditional, nonrepresentational, abstract, or representational.
Start making art
Keep working
Move from surface to surface or medium to medium, as you like it.
Happy Accidents
According to an evolutionary model of creativity, we need two processes:
A process to generate things that we can’t or don’t plan and
Another process to assess what we have generated for merit.

12. Tools That Stimulate Creative Thinking
Exquisite Corpse
Believing in artistic collaboration while pursuing the enigma of accidental art, the surrealists played a collective word game called Exquisite Corpse.
Each player contributes one word to a collective sentence without seeing what the other players have written.
Adapted to using collective images, each player is assigned a different section of the human body, though the original players did not adhere to any conventional sense of human form.
Big Spaceship/Corpsify.com: Website
© Big Spaceship, Brooklyn

13. Tools That Stimulate Creative Thinking
Attribute Listing
By focusing on the attributes of an object, person, place, character, topic or theme, product, or service, you can find an attribute that might lead to an idea.
Attribute listing is a diagrammed list of attributes, working deconstructively, breaking down information into smaller parts that are then examined individually.
Visual Metaphors
An idea can hinge on a visual metaphor, suggesting a similarity between two nonidentical things.
A visual metaphor makes connections between two worlds of meaning, revealing an insight.

14. Tools That Stimulate Creative Thinking
Keep a Sketchbook or Journal
Keeping a sketchbook or journal is a wonderful way to practice creative thinking and visualization on a daily basis.
Carry a sketchbook with you for sketching, doodling (automatic drawing), and jotting down ideas.
Keep another book as a collage sourcebook, adhering inspiring images and typography to pages of the book.
Add interesting articles or phrases.
Keep an image file, which you can use to draw from or upon.
Journal Pages
© Frank Viva, Viva & Co.
Journal Pages
© Pep Carrió, Madrid

15. Conceptual Thinking
Concept generation—the ability to form/think up an idea, cogently state the idea, and then evaluate it—demands creativity and critical thinking skills.
Among the many thinking skills of a critical thinker, the ones that are most applicable to designing are the ability to:
Analyze
Ask penetrating questions
Identify and address key issues
Identify patterns or connections
Conceive concepts
Conceive a conceptual framework
Communicate effectively
Support one’s viewpoint with reasons and evidence

16. Generating Design Concepts
Coming up with a design concept is a form of creative problem solving—the process of understanding a communication goal, brainstorming for original ideas, and evaluating ideas for merit.
Six Essential Questions: The Kipling Questions
Becoming a good problem solver involves cultivating investigative thinking.
Rudyard Kipling immortalized the following questions, which can help solve problems and trigger ideas:
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
Why?
How?

17. Generating Design Concepts
Learning to Generate Design Concepts
The graphic design process and the four steps of the concept-generation process are preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification.
The design concept sets the framework for all your design decisions— from selecting a typeface, to a color palette, to how you visualize imagery.
Some element of the content might prompt an idea.
Poetry after 9/11: Book Cover
© Christopher King (Designer)
Eric Ryan Anderson (Photographer)

18. Summary
Creative thinking is the ability to stretch beyond the ordinary, to be original, innovative, and flexible in one’s thinking.
Designers use creativity tools for concept generation, visualization, and composition. Some tools include brainstorming, Osborn’s checklist, mapping, oral presentation tool, problem finding, image-making brainstorming, spontaneous art improvisation, attribute listing, and visual metaphors.
Coming up with a design concept is a form of creative problem solving—the process of understanding a communication goal, brainstorming for original ideas, and evaluating ideas for merit.
Any good graphic design solution is based on a design concept—the designer’s primary reasoning.