Acting on ideas

Ideation happens in the early stages of problem solving. It goes beyond just "having ideas" in the head. It is about "getting the ideas out", to communicate them effectively. Acting on ideas creates opportunity to design. Problem solving, then, comes to those who take action rather than hold their head in their hands and give up.

Cultural baggage

'When you get a job, regardless how familiar the subject, resist any temptation to think you know enough about it, and you're ready to design. Purge your mind of as much cultural baggage as possible. Research the subject as if you know nothing about it. Don't look for inspiration in design books. Don't sit at your computer, waiting for lightening to strike'. Bob Gill, Pentagram

Ideographic myth

Peter DuPonceau, the American 19th century scholar, refuted the opinion still popular in the West that Chinese writing is 'an ocular method of communicating ideas, entirely independent of speech, and which, without the intervention of speech, conveys ideas through the sense of vision directly to the mind. Hence it's called ideographic, in contradistinction from the phonographic or alphabetical system of writing'. Instead DuPonceau argues that the Chinese system of writing is not, as has been supposed, ideographic. Its characters do not represent ideas, but words. Ideographic writing is a creature of the imagination, and cannot exist, but for very limited purposes, which do not entitle it to the name of writing. All writing, then, must be a direct representation of the spoken language, and cannot present ideas to the mind abstracted from it. All writing, then, represents language in some of its elements, which are words, syllables, and simple sounds. (DuPonceau 1838)

Idea compulsion

Designing is a compulsion for Philippe Starck. He says he would never have chosen to be a designer: 'It's not normal to produce so many ideas like I do. It is non-stop. There's a relation with autism, I think, mild but there. As I get older the sickness grows'.

Thinking made visible

"The ideal trademark is one that is pushed to its utmost limit in terms of abstraction and ambiguity, yet is still readable. Trademarks are usually metaphors of one kind or another. And are, in a certain sense, thinking made visible." Saul Bass (1920-1996)

Robust ideation

Robust ideation suggests creative thinking informed by research rather than mere opinion. The robust idea, then, presents a well-argued position. Although the robust idea doesn't necessarily win over the sceptics, the robustness encourages an informed discussion rather than an endless discussion of clashing opinions.

Idea formation

Daniel Shechtman, this year's winner of the Nobel prize in chemistry, observed that the arrangement of atoms in a metal alloy can break the rules of crystallography by forming unrepeating patterns, much like irregular medieval Islamic mosaics found in the Alhambra Palace in Spain and the Darb-i Iman Shrine in Iran. At the time of Shechtman's discovery, the configuration found in these "quasicrystals" was thought impossible because regular patterns were considered essential for a crystal solid to form. As a result, scientists had to reconsider how they viewed the nature of matter. The way Islamic mosaics have helped scientists understand what quasicrystals look like at the atomic level highlights the role of intellectual heritage, and might also illuminate the nature of idea formation.