While I'm sure every designer's creative process is a bit different, there are standard tactics they can use in order to push their creativity to its limits to ensure their final product is the best that it can be. In this assignment, we were asked to explore 6 creative strategies in relation to a simple every day object. The object I chose was one that was sitting on my desk next to me. A pen!
The first creative strategy is combination or juxtaposition. This means that as a designer you can combine your original idea with a similar concept or item, or one that is totally opposite! Doing so can highlight the differences between those things or the similarities. I decided to take the fanciest form of a pen, the fountain pen, and compare it to one of the most rudimentary writing tools, a pencil. Not only a pencil, but a broken one at that. Making this juxtaposition highlights the elegance and durability of the pen.
Title: Me VS You
The next creative strategy is isolation. This means isolating one item, or aspect in order to highlight it. In my designs, I decided to isolate the impact a pen's ink can have to be bold and stand out by making it the only legible and readable thing on a piece of paper and by placing the pen on top of it.
Title: Don't Fade
The third creative strategy is to create a metaphor to be conveyed through a design. The metaphor I used to drive my design was "words on fire" to create a striking visual design. I placed a flame around the tip of a pen to visually represent this metaphor.
Title: Words on Fire
The next creative strategy we were asked to use is a change of context or environment. This means taking an object away from where one would normally see it and placing it in an unusual context or setting. Doing so can really cause the audience to look at the item or concept in a new way. Pens are usually seen in an office or workspace setting. I decided to take a pen out of that setting and to put it in a more beautiful one, a context where this pen is only used for aesthetic purposes, as an accessory and not for any kind of work.
Title: My Favorite Accessory
The fifth creative strategy we used was physical shape similarity, in which items with a similar shape are swapped or used together. I decided to replace the filaments in a lightbulb with bright yellow pens to create a very interesting visual image.
Title: Idea Fuel
The last creative strategy we explored is a material change swap or focus. This means taking a material in an image or design and changing it out for something unexpected. This catches the viewer off guard and makes a piece much more interesting. I replaced the paper a pen would usually write on with a landscape, and the ink with a river scribbling across that landscape.
Title: Scribbler
I learned so much about the creative process through this assignment. By focusing on the 6 creative strategies we studied I learned new ways to push my own creativity and look at things from a new perspective in order to explore my ideas. I will definitely be using combination or juxtapositions, isolation, metaphor, change of context, physical shape similarity and material change in order to improve my future designs.
