Most managers believe creatives to be some sort of free mysterious creatures. You throw them in some rooms with whiteboards and weird furniture that they can rearrange and they will do their thing. There is a general misconception that constraints will inhibit their creativity. While this might be true in some settings like working while not getting paid or in an environment where ideas cannot be exchanged, well-formulated constraints usually have quite the opposite effect. “Constraints shape and focus problems and provide clear challenges to overcome. Creativity thrives best when constrained” (Mayer, 2006). Well, here I was with my D&AD design brief: Use Creative Cloud to create an inspirational film, that spreads a positive message through Ladbibles channels. This is a very broad brief and there are little to none constraints which makes it hard to focus. This meant that I would have to set my own constraints. But how do I go about that? Now after several weeks, I find that I have obtained a general idea of where I would like to go with the project. I have taken some of my learnings from my design thinking startup and combined them with learning from class. One tool that gives me some orientation and constraints was understanding the design process.
So far I had been missing out a very general visual representation that helped me through the process. Because this one is not as complex as, let’s say visualisations of the lean startup process or agile PM I find that it speaks more to me and helps me understand where I am and what I still need to do.
I have been ideating back and forth between Step 1, 2 and 3 so far. The constraints I set myself were connected to what I wanted to do after D&AD. What topics interest me and how could tackling the D&AD brief help me in my future career. To understand how my interests can be formulated in a meaningful design question looking at the reframing exercise from the IDEO Design Kit helped me. The five-step process they are going through is iterative by nature. It starts with a problem definition from which a design question is formulated. The next step is writing down what kind of impact you want to have. I found for myself that at this point I can already see that my original problem is not in line with the impact. If that is the case I would go back and reframe the problem and subsequently the design question – A first step of iteration. In the next step, you write down some possible solutions. “A quick test we often run on a design challenge is to see if we can come up with five possible solutions in just a few minutes. If so, you’re likely on the right track.” Lastly, you write down the constraints you phase and see if taking these into consideration, your design question needs a tweak.
It would make sense for me to go back at the end of the module and reflect on how my process has changed and which best practice methods are that I can use. I would be furthermore interesting to compare my working process in this environment – meaning working alone on a project while getting feedback from the class in weekly sessions – with the working process I have with my team in design thinking for startups.
Mayer, M. (2006) Creativity Loves Constraints. Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2006-02-12/creativity-loves-constraints (Accessed: 09 February 2019)
Song, J. (2019) ‘EXPERIENCING THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES’. BS7709_A_ACYR_18: Experiencing the Creative Industries. Available at: https://canvas.kingston.ac.uk/courses/9282/files/937398/download?wrap=1 (Accessed: 09 February 2019)
Jonas Kniel 