Launching the Imagination / Pg. 123-134 / 355
Visual Research
Thumbnail Sketches
-Turn ideas into sketches.
-Draw a clear boundary for your sketches.
-Make them about 1.5"x2".
- By utilizing the box, you can generate power.
-Move fast and stay loose
Model Making
-It is often necessary to make one or more full-sized rough drafts to see how the design looks when enlarged.
-Prototypes, Models, and Maquettes serve a similar purpose when you are working three-dimensionally.
NOTE: A maquette is a well-developed three-dimensional sketch.
An Open Mind
-The very best artists and designers are often accomplished in more than one field
-The more you know, the more you say.
-Read a book.
-Attend a lecture.
-Take a course.
-Use ideas from academic courses to expand your studio work.
-By engaging your heart, your eye, your hand, and your mind, you can fully use your emotional, perceptual, technical, and conceptual resources to create your very best work.
CHAPTER 6
Cultivating Creativity
I love this quote in the beginning,
"The heart of all new ideas lies in the borrowing, adding, combining or modifying of old ones. Do it by accident and people call you lucky. Do it by design and they'll call you creative."
-Michael LeBoeuf, in Imagineering
Seven Characteristics of Creative Thinking
Through creative thinking, old habits are broken and familiar patterns of thought are transformed.
-Receptivity
-Creative people are open to new ideas and welcome new experiences
-You never learn anything new when your talking
-Curiosity
-A good designer bring an insatiable curiosity to each project.
-Wide Range of Interests
-With a broad knowledge base, a creative person can make a wider range of connections.
-Attentiveness
-Realizing that every experience is valuable, creative people pay attention to seemingly minor details.
-Connection Seeking
-Seeking the similarity among seemingly disparate parts has often sparked a creative breakthrough.
-Conviction
-Creative people value existing knowledge.
-Complexity
-To be fully effective, a creative person needs to combine the rational with the intuitive.
Goal Setting Strategy
-Get a package of Post-it-notes.
-Working spontaneously, write one of your characteristics on each note.
-Lay the notes out on the table and look at them for a while.
-Consider the type of person they describe
-What are their strengths?
-What could they work on?
-On a new set of notes, this time focus on the question "why not?".
-Why not do this, why not do that, why not become this person, why not change this about a situation/ about yourself.
-Take a break.
-Organize the notes into four general categories.
-Intellectual goals
-Personal Relationship goals
-Spiritual or emotional goals
-Physical fitness goals
-Maybe even add "adventure"
-or "Organization"
-Choose one goal from each category and develop an implementation strategy
-Be specific. "I want to get better at art" is to vague, try "I need to improve my drawing/ painting/ photography skills/ ect."
-In short, don't just pick a big goal. Choose a big goal but make little goals to get there. Its inspiring to be able to knock out little goals as opposed to doing something and looking at the big goal, uncrossed off, as if you haven't accomplished anything.
- Prioritize your goals and develop a rough timetable, listing weekly goals, semester goals, and one year goals.
-Its unnecessary to list career goals just yet. Many of us explore many ideas during our first year of college.
-At least once a month, review your chart and add or delete information as necessary.
-If you achieve all your goals, congratulate yourself, then set more ambitious goals next term.
-If you achieve half of your goals, congratulate yourself, then prioritize more carefully next term.
Characteristics of Good Goals
-Ambitious yet achievable
-Compatible
-Self-Directed
-Temporary
Tim Management
-Manage your time wisely and you will accomplish your goals
-Set the stage
-Choosing when and where to work can significantly increase your output.
-Prioritize
-Note which tasks are most urgent and which tasks are most important.
-See the big picture
-Use a monthly calendar to record your major projects and obligations. A planner will work, but the days are set from page to page and you're not looking at the whole month. If you want to flip through the whole thing, then by all means have at it but a calendar works best.
-Work Sequentially
-Many activities are best done in a specific sequence.
-Use parts to create a whole
- Seen as a whole, major projects can become overwhelming.
-Make the most of class time
-Be an active learner.
-Use time before class to review notes and get organized
-When in doubt, crank it out
-Fear is one of the grandest obstacles to creative thinking
-When we are afraid, we tend to avoid action and consequently miss opportunities.
"When in doubt, don't" is the safe keepers motto
"When in doubt, do!" is the risk-takers motto
-Work together
-Working together artists and designers can complete projects that are too complex or time-consuming to be done solo.
-Collaborative thinking helps us break familiar patterns and teaches us to listen to alternative or opposing ideas.
Variations of a Theme
-When we work creatively, the idea develops right along with the image, As the project evolves we see other implications that go beyond our initial intentions.
Habits of Mind and Work
-Habits of Mind
-Flexibility
-Convergent, divergent and collaboratve problem solving strategies present distinct advantages and disadvanteges.
-Analytical thinking
-Designers are hired to solve a client's problem. Limitations imposed by time, materials and budget complicate matters. Analytical mind set helps the designer solve the real problem rather than wasting time on an imagined problem
-Capacity for Synthesis
-Synthesis my be defined as the capacity to combine separate parts to create a coherent whole.
-Two aspects of synthesis are particularly important for artists and designers
-One: they must be able to combine lines, shapes, textures and so on to create a compositional whole.
-Two: they must be able to apply past knowledge to new situations.
-Responsible Risk Taking:
-Risk-Takers are willing to risk failure in order to achieve success. They view setbacks as opportunities for growth.
Habits of Work
-Self Reliance
-Self-reliance creates an active approach to work.
- Rather than waiting for directions or blaming others for delays, each architecture student actively generates possibilities, weighs benefits, and makes choices.
-Organized Persistence
-It may take two weeks, but eventually organized persistence results in a solution.
-It gives the opportunity to prevail, even when we are faced with the most daunting task
-Daily Practice
-Daily practice helps maintain momentum.
-Work on something for an hour or so a night as opposed to working on it in one day in a month.
-Appropriated speed
-Slowing down to reframe a question and weigh alternative solutions is necessary in other cases.
-Knowing when to slow down and speed up is one mark of a "master learner"
-Valuing Alternative Viewpoints
-Listening to other, understanding diverse points of view, and considering alternatives expand our capacity to solve a wide variety of problems.
-Incremental Excellence
-Most art and design problems are best developed in a series of stages. Ideas evolve, skills improve, compositions are distilled.
-Direct Engagement
Talk is cheap, work is hard, the only way to survive most art and design problems is to get involved.
Thumbnail Sketches
-Turn ideas into sketches.
-Draw a clear boundary for your sketches.
-Make them about 1.5"x2".
- By utilizing the box, you can generate power.
-Move fast and stay loose
Model Making
-It is often necessary to make one or more full-sized rough drafts to see how the design looks when enlarged.
-Prototypes, Models, and Maquettes serve a similar purpose when you are working three-dimensionally.
NOTE: A maquette is a well-developed three-dimensional sketch.
An Open Mind
-The very best artists and designers are often accomplished in more than one field
-The more you know, the more you say.
-Read a book.
-Attend a lecture.
-Take a course.
-Use ideas from academic courses to expand your studio work.
-By engaging your heart, your eye, your hand, and your mind, you can fully use your emotional, perceptual, technical, and conceptual resources to create your very best work.
CHAPTER 6
Cultivating Creativity
I love this quote in the beginning,
"The heart of all new ideas lies in the borrowing, adding, combining or modifying of old ones. Do it by accident and people call you lucky. Do it by design and they'll call you creative."
-Michael LeBoeuf, in Imagineering
Seven Characteristics of Creative Thinking
Through creative thinking, old habits are broken and familiar patterns of thought are transformed.
-Receptivity
-Creative people are open to new ideas and welcome new experiences
-You never learn anything new when your talking
-Curiosity
-A good designer bring an insatiable curiosity to each project.
-Wide Range of Interests
-With a broad knowledge base, a creative person can make a wider range of connections.
-Attentiveness
-Realizing that every experience is valuable, creative people pay attention to seemingly minor details.
-Connection Seeking
-Seeking the similarity among seemingly disparate parts has often sparked a creative breakthrough.
-Conviction
-Creative people value existing knowledge.
-Complexity
-To be fully effective, a creative person needs to combine the rational with the intuitive.
Goal Setting Strategy
-Get a package of Post-it-notes.
-Working spontaneously, write one of your characteristics on each note.
-Lay the notes out on the table and look at them for a while.
-Consider the type of person they describe
-What are their strengths?
-What could they work on?
-On a new set of notes, this time focus on the question "why not?".
-Why not do this, why not do that, why not become this person, why not change this about a situation/ about yourself.
-Take a break.
-Organize the notes into four general categories.
-Intellectual goals
-Personal Relationship goals
-Spiritual or emotional goals
-Physical fitness goals
-Maybe even add "adventure"
-or "Organization"
-Choose one goal from each category and develop an implementation strategy
-Be specific. "I want to get better at art" is to vague, try "I need to improve my drawing/ painting/ photography skills/ ect."
-In short, don't just pick a big goal. Choose a big goal but make little goals to get there. Its inspiring to be able to knock out little goals as opposed to doing something and looking at the big goal, uncrossed off, as if you haven't accomplished anything.
- Prioritize your goals and develop a rough timetable, listing weekly goals, semester goals, and one year goals.
-Its unnecessary to list career goals just yet. Many of us explore many ideas during our first year of college.
-At least once a month, review your chart and add or delete information as necessary.
-If you achieve all your goals, congratulate yourself, then set more ambitious goals next term.
-If you achieve half of your goals, congratulate yourself, then prioritize more carefully next term.
Characteristics of Good Goals
-Ambitious yet achievable
-Compatible
-Self-Directed
-Temporary
Tim Management
-Manage your time wisely and you will accomplish your goals
-Set the stage
-Choosing when and where to work can significantly increase your output.
-Prioritize
-Note which tasks are most urgent and which tasks are most important.
-See the big picture
-Use a monthly calendar to record your major projects and obligations. A planner will work, but the days are set from page to page and you're not looking at the whole month. If you want to flip through the whole thing, then by all means have at it but a calendar works best.
-Work Sequentially
-Many activities are best done in a specific sequence.
-Use parts to create a whole
- Seen as a whole, major projects can become overwhelming.
-Make the most of class time
-Be an active learner.
-Use time before class to review notes and get organized
-When in doubt, crank it out
-Fear is one of the grandest obstacles to creative thinking
-When we are afraid, we tend to avoid action and consequently miss opportunities.
"When in doubt, don't" is the safe keepers motto
"When in doubt, do!" is the risk-takers motto
-Work together
-Working together artists and designers can complete projects that are too complex or time-consuming to be done solo.
-Collaborative thinking helps us break familiar patterns and teaches us to listen to alternative or opposing ideas.
Variations of a Theme
-When we work creatively, the idea develops right along with the image, As the project evolves we see other implications that go beyond our initial intentions.
Habits of Mind and Work
-Habits of Mind
-Flexibility
-Convergent, divergent and collaboratve problem solving strategies present distinct advantages and disadvanteges.
-Analytical thinking
-Designers are hired to solve a client's problem. Limitations imposed by time, materials and budget complicate matters. Analytical mind set helps the designer solve the real problem rather than wasting time on an imagined problem
-Capacity for Synthesis
-Synthesis my be defined as the capacity to combine separate parts to create a coherent whole.
-Two aspects of synthesis are particularly important for artists and designers
-One: they must be able to combine lines, shapes, textures and so on to create a compositional whole.
-Two: they must be able to apply past knowledge to new situations.
-Responsible Risk Taking:
-Risk-Takers are willing to risk failure in order to achieve success. They view setbacks as opportunities for growth.
Habits of Work
-Self Reliance
-Self-reliance creates an active approach to work.
- Rather than waiting for directions or blaming others for delays, each architecture student actively generates possibilities, weighs benefits, and makes choices.
-Organized Persistence
-It may take two weeks, but eventually organized persistence results in a solution.
-It gives the opportunity to prevail, even when we are faced with the most daunting task
-Daily Practice
-Daily practice helps maintain momentum.
-Work on something for an hour or so a night as opposed to working on it in one day in a month.
-Appropriated speed
-Slowing down to reframe a question and weigh alternative solutions is necessary in other cases.
-Knowing when to slow down and speed up is one mark of a "master learner"
-Valuing Alternative Viewpoints
-Listening to other, understanding diverse points of view, and considering alternatives expand our capacity to solve a wide variety of problems.
-Incremental Excellence
-Most art and design problems are best developed in a series of stages. Ideas evolve, skills improve, compositions are distilled.
-Direct Engagement
Talk is cheap, work is hard, the only way to survive most art and design problems is to get involved.
Works Cited:
Steward, Mary. Launching the Imagination: A Comprehensive Guide to Basic Design. 4th ed.
New York, Ny: McGraw-Hill, 2012, 2008, 2006, 2002. Print
Comments
Post a Comment