Unity of design and material

'"Right from the beginning I had a clear idea of what to do with that pavilion. But nothing was fixed yet, it was still a bit hazy. But then when I visited the showrooms of a marble firm at Hamburg, I said: "Tell me, haven't you got something else, something really beautiful?" I thought of that freestanding wall I had, and so they said: "Well, we have a big block of onyx" ... "And so we decided to use onyx."' Mies van der Rohe, on designing the German pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, Spain.

Constructivist ideation

Ideation, in the context of learning, can be seen as a form of Constructionism where learning happens most effectively when people are active in making tangible objects. In this way, we don't "acquire" ideas but "construct" ideas through exploring, testing and playing around with materials in the real world. In manipulating materials, then, ideas are given physical shapes and forms (2D/3D). Moreover, when using everyday items and found objects, the manipulation becomes acts of improvisation utilising techniques and processes such as assemblage, bricolage, or collage. Or, if you like, ABC of material ideation. https://www.dropbox.com/s/7orx128gkljfdzl/BEN_DRAFT02.mp4

Ideas communication: Diagram and doodling

According to Hideshi Hamaguchi, the Japanese engineer and inventor of the USB Stick, if you don’t have the talent for drawing but are good at strategic thinking, then you can still become a great product designer. All you have to do is connect the design to the strategy and then turn into a language the company management people and the consumer can understand. To keep creativity on the top and communicate the design, Hamaguchi intentionally uses both diagram and doodling to bridge logical and intuitive thinking. Source: http://www.yankodesign.com)

Non-designer designers

"The glossy, black and metal slab [of the iPhone] came about because Jobs had acquired great design taste, even though he wasn’t really a designer. Or was he? That depends on the definition we use. Jobs wasn’t a designer, because he didn’t have a degree in any design field. In his professional life, he didn’t directly engage in the kind of creative work that we usually associate with professional designers. Yet you needn’t have designer credentials to think and act as a designer. Jobs exemplified many of the traits of a great designer: He was creative, curious, exploratory, and playful. His father had taught him that it was important to care about the craft of anything you built. Influenced by Zen philosophy, Jobs paid close attention to the world around him and came to appreciate the kind of simple, refined aesthetic." John Edson

Love of ideas

"Just as Steve (Jobs) loved ideas, and loved making stuff, he treated the process of creativity with a rare and a wonderful reverence. You see, I think he better than anyone understood that while ideas ultimately can be so powerful, they begin as fragile, barely formed thoughts, so easily missed, so easily compromised, so easily just squished." Jonathan Ive

Learning how to draw: iPad, or pen & paper

In the early stages of learning how to drive a car, the learner with a manual gear box tends to look at the gear lever when changing gear. In contrast, the learner with an automatic gear box can focus immediately on the overall task: driving. Now, and using the driving analogy, do novice designers when learning how to draw with pen and paper resemble the learner with the manual gear box, struggling with technique (using aids such as rulers)? Whereas the novice with an iPad is up there with the learner using the automatic gear box, immediately focusing on the overall task: drawing?

A2Z ≠ A2B

Ideators make room for a lot of spontaneity and flexibility in their everyday life. They experience sudden insights, make discoveries, and come up with fresh solutions to old problems. They seek alternatives to the usual routine way of doing things.