Concepts and Critical Thinking
Cultivating Creativity:
Seven Characteristics of Creative Thinking
1. Receptivity: Creative people are open
to new ideas and welcome new
experiences
Cultivating Creativity:
Seven Characteristics of Creative Thinking
2. Curiosity: A good designer brings and
insatiable curiosity to each project
Cultivating Creativity:
Seven Characteristics of Creative Thinking
3. Wide Range of Interests: With a broad
knowledge base, a creative person can
make a wider range of connections
Cultivating Creativity:
Seven Characteristics of Creative Thinking
4. Attentiveness: Realizing that every
experience is valuable, creative people
pay attention to seemingly minor details
Cultivating Creativity:
Seven Characteristics of Creative Thinking
5. Connection Seeking: Seeing the
similarity among seemingly disparate
parts has often sparked a creative
breakthrough
-Rosetta stone
Cultivating Creativity:
Seven Characteristics of Creative Thinking
6. Conviction: Creative people value
existing knowledge
Cultivating Creativity:
Seven Characteristics of Creative Thinking
7. Complexity: To be fully effective, a
creative person needs to combine the
rational with the intuitive
Creative people often combine:
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Physical energy with a respect for rest
Savvy with innocence
Responsibility with playfulness
Risk taking with safe keeping
Extroversion with introversion
Passion with objectivity
Disregard for time with attention to details
Modesty and Pride
• Goals you set are goals you get.
Establishing priorities and setting
appropriate goals will help you achieve
your potential. Good goals are
challenging but attainable, compatible,
self-directed, clearly defined, and
temporary. Deadlines encourage
completion of complex projects
• Collaborative work can help us expand
our ideas, explore new fields, and
pursue projects that are too complex or
time consuming to do alone
Diane Gallo and Nancy Callahan, Storefront Stores,
1999
Problem Seeking and Problem
Solving
Problem Seeking:
The Design Process
• 1. What is needed?
• 2. What existing designs are similar to
the design we need?
• 3. What is the difference between the
existing designs and the new design?
• 4. How can we transform, combine, or
expand these designs?
Marcel Breuer, Armchair, 1925
Alvar Aalto, Paimio Lounge Chair, 1931-33
Overstuffed Chair
Adirondack Chair
Charles and Ray Eames, Side Chair, Model DCM, 1946
Frank Gehry, Cross Check Armchair, 1992
The Fine Art Process
• Contemporary sculptors, filmmakers,
painters, and other fine artists generally
invent their own aesthetic problems
Sources of ideas
• Transform a common object
• Study nature
• Visit a museum
Characteristics of a Good Problem
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Significant
Socially Responsible
Comprehensible
Open to Experimentation
Ambitious yet achievable
Authentic
Convergent and Divergent
Thinking
• Convergent thinking involves the pursuit of a
predetermined goal, usually in a linear
progression and using a highly focused
problem solving technique:
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Define the Problem
Do Research
Determine your objective
Devise a strategy
Evaluate the results
Convergent and Divergent
Thinking
• In divergent thinking, the means determines
the end. The process is more open-ended;
specific results are hard to predict. Divergent
thinking is a great way to generate completely
new ideas:
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The problem definition is elusive or evolving
A rational solution is not required
A methodical approach is unnecessary
Deadlines are flexible
Ray Rogers, Vessel, 1984
Vera Liskova, Porcupine, 1972-80
Beau Dick, Mugamtl Mask (Crooked Beak), 1993
Yves Tanguy, Multiplication of the Arcs, 1954
Giorgio de Chirico, The Mystery and Melancholy of a
Street, 1914
Brainstorming
• Brainstorming plays an important role in
both convergent and divergent thinking.
It is a great way to expand ideas, see
connections, and explore implications:
-Make a list
-Use a Thesaurus
-Explore Connections
-Keep a Journal
Visual Research
Examples of thumbnail sketches
Model making
• A maquette is a well developed threedimensional sketch
• A model is a technical experiment or a
small-scale version of a larger design
• A prototype is a well developed model,
as with the fully functional prototype
cars developed by automobile
companies
Peter Forbes, Models for Shelter/Surveillance
Sculpture, 1994
Peter Forbes, Shelter/Surveillance Sculpture, 1994
Variations on a Theme
• Professional artists rarely do just one
painting or sculpture of a given idea-most do many variations before moving
to a new subject
Katsushika Hokusai, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji: Under the
Mannen Bridge at Fukagawa, 1830 (Edo period)
Katsushika Hokusai, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji: The Great
Wave off Kanagawa, 1830 (Edo period)
Katsushika Hokusai, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji: Near
Umezawa in Sagami Province, 1830 (Edo period)
Leslie Leupp, Three Bracelets: Solidified Reality, Frivoulous
Vitality, Compound Simplicity, 1984
Lisa Gralnick, Three Bracelets, 1988