
Image credit: Ferdi Rizkiyanto
The creative attribute has always been a highly debated and researched component of the human psyche. The “designer” job title seems to be one that calls to the more creative minded among us and according to some, requires the highest level of creative processing. This idea does lend itself to the truth, web designers are called upon to find creative solutions every day. However, we certainly aren’t alone.
Contrary to previous belief, creativity does not limit itself to the “right-brained” artistic types. The ability to find creative and innovative solutions to problems holds value in almost all aspects of life. Even those with highly analytical jobs and hobbies benefit from the ability to approach a complex issue from different perspectives and foresee alternate outcomes. So perhaps it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to suggest that creativity itself is more rooted in a process than random visionary moments.
In one way or another we have all experienced that classic “aha” moment. Be it in our own experience or through those genius minds we love to follow in shows, movies or books, the light bulb moment of mental clarity is an iconic expression. But whether you know it or not you may be reaching those light bulb moments through more of a defined process than you think.
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The Not-So-Random Spark
Believe it or not, you have probably been practicing the process of creative thinking on purpose for quite a while. Have you ever been instructed to skip a question on an exam that has you stumped and come back to it after you’ve answered the others? Or maybe it’s been something as simple as facing a tough choice with the decision to “sleep on it”. This might seem to imply that our brains continue to work on our hardest problems for us while we sleep or think about something else. Unfortunately it’s not quite that easy.
Even if by accident, when you let go of a problem that you can’t solve you are actively engaging in mental incubation. As it turns out, leaving a complex issue to its own devices doesn’t generate a resolution out of passive thought processes so much as an active new approach. This different approach allows our minds to set aside failed solutions and misconceptions that we generated on our first pass. We aren’t suddenly finding a new solution so much as we are allowing ourselves to shed our fixation on all of the things we thought of before that didn’t work. As we move on with our day or the next task, those bits of information that we forget may be replaced with different pieces to the puzzle. These pieces are pulled from other tasks or mental processes and applied to the equation we couldn’t solve earlier. When something from a current and not necessarily related task locks in with the problem we couldn’t figure out earlier the light switch flips on.

Down time can be a powerful tool in the creative process.
For designers we should be able to put this into context fairly easily. Certainly there are those among us who have been plagued with the eternal judgment of the typography, layout, and color choices that we see around us everywhere. Even the task of e-mail a client back and explaining why we shouldn’t make their logo bigger sparks thoughts of alignment, positioning and weight. In processing the things that we do or don’t like we constantly build our mental database of micro-ideas that we apply to our designs.
This seems a little less fun than random strokes of genius but it does give us the power to craft our own epiphanies instead of letting them fall upon us. It is because of this, that a lot of designers find success moving between tasks on a single project or shifting to an entirely new project when they feel their creative juices waning.
At the head of all of this it is important to remember that a lot of designers depend on their skill set to make a living. So trying to implement time to let your mind rest doesn’t coincide well with meeting deadlines and “thinking time” doesn’t look great on a project invoice. Like so many things, practice makes perfect in this area and you can go ahead and plan on getting it wrong the first time around. As you become more comfortable with your own working and thinking pace it will allow you to better predict the timeline of a project that includes the mental brakes you need to find creative answers. Continuar leyendo «The Process of Creativity»
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