Includes index.

Introduction -- The design process -- How to define problems -- Brainstorming -- Mind mapping -- Interviewing -- Focus groups -- Visual research -- Brand matrix -- Brand books -- Site research -- Refining the creative brief -- How to get ideas -- Visual brain dumping -- Forced connections -- Action verbs -- Everything from everywhere -- Rhetorical figures -- Icon, index, symbol -- Sandboxing -- Co-design -- Visual diary -- Lost in translation -- Concept presentations -- How to create form -- Sprinting -- Alternative grids -- Kit of parts -- Brand languages -- Mock-ups -- Physical thinking -- Take the matter outside -- Unconventional tools -- Regurgitation -- Reconstruction -- How designers think -- How do you get in the mood? -- How do you create form? -- How do you edit?

MMC915 UOWD

Creativity is more than an inborn talent; it is a hard-earned skill, and like any other skill, it improves with practice. Graphic Design Thinking: How to Define Problems, Get Ideas, and Create Form explores a variety of informal techniques ranging from quick, seat-of-the-pants approaches to more formal research methods for stimulating fresh thinking, and ultimately arriving at compelling and viable solutions. In the style with which author Ellen has come to been known hands-on, up-close approach to instructional design writing brainstorming techniques are grouped around the three basic phases of the design process: defining the problem, inventing ideas, and creating form. Creative research methods include focus groups, interviewing, brand mapping, and co-design. Each method is explained with a brief narrative text followed by a variety of visual demonstrations and case studies. Also included are discussions with leading professionals, including Art Chantry, Ivan Chermayeff, Jessica Helfand, Steven Heller, Abott Miller, Christoph Niemann, Paula Scher, and Martin Venezky, about how they get ideas and what they do when the well runs dry. The book is directed at working designers, design students, and anyone who wants to apply inventive thought patterns to everyday creative challenges.