Monday, August 04, 2025

Practice makes ideas

Design ideas, or creative ideas in general, are typically considered new if revealing novel forms, patterns, methods etc. and perceived by others as being meaningful or useful. Ideas, then, motivate and drive many aspects of human activity. Yet often creativity is thought of as a special faculty, or gift even reserved for certain individuals, notably in the arts. But while creativity may come instinctively to some, everyday experience shows that creative ability or capacity is not only open to the few but to the many if not everyone. Moreover, creativity can be cultivated through sustained and deliberate practice. That is, simply making time for creative pursuits and activities, from doodling and clay modelling to playing with paper and crafting prompts. Designers, then, learn the core fundamentals of their discipline, including ideation, and then practise practise, practise. And so, to produce good ideas, one needs to generate a lot of ideas. In short, practising ideation. See also: https://ideation-workshop.blogspot.com/