Monday, September 19, 2011

re: creative process

Really great discussion of the creative process. It's always nice to be reminded that ideas are never born fully formed and ready to run.

A few years ago I read an article that showed lettering mistakes Frank Lloyd Wright had made beneath a final piece of signage. It was a great sense of relief to see proof that even the giants in our field start out with the same weak, naive scribbles and have to slug it out just like the rest of us. Whenever we see the finished piece it's easy to forget the scraps of post it notes and balled up pieces of notebook paper recording the less successful attempts that went into arriving at the solution.

One of the valuable lessons I learned from Ed's creative concepts class was that there are many processes people use. What's important is discovering the one that works for you. It helped clear misconceptions I held of a golden process which was "correct". There are certainly guideposts and exercises designers can make use but ultimately what  separates strong solutions from feeble mush is diligent work and a openness to making mistakes.

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