27/08/2024
As promised, here's another snippet from my book "Eureka!".
"... The truth is that the creators themselves often avert a deeper understanding of creativity. Whether out of fear of revealing their creative methods and thereby losing originality or within the tradition of exceptionalism to see and feel the artist differently than everyone else, it's almost always about ignorance.
That's actually understandable. Having a life built on originality and revealing what makes me original seems counterintuitive.
When I interviewed designers and architects as part of my doctoral research on initial sketching and the birth of ideas, I often encountered resistance to sharing something as intimate as ideation process and creativity. However, the longer we talked, the more we discovered the reality of creativity—the truth that creativity has its own rules but doesn't lose any of its magic if you know them.
By the way, now we have another opportunity to lean on the "image" mentioned in the introduction. Almost all designers and architects, not just the ones I interviewed, use sketching as a tool to help them think. And here's the catch. This sketching, or doodling if you will, rarely results in an exhibition piece worthy of a gallery or publication in an art book. If you spend many years at the academy studying drawing, you won't boast of some so-called ugly. Unsurprisingly, it then happens that these drawings remain at best at the bottom of a drawer and are never seen by anyone except the author.
So, it is necessary to realise that these drawings do not aim to be a work of art but to serve the act of thinking. And so, rather than an artefact, they are a record and image of our ability to reason and develop ideas within the problem-solving framework. So, this is not about quality drawing but about quality thinking.
By the way, I once had dinner with the chief designer of a major car company, who told me about the quality of job applicants' portfolios. He described how all portfolios are predictable and often dull because the digital techniques of creating designer illustrations are now at such a level that all applicants greatly exceed the required quality of visual presentation. Unfortunately, he lamented, it rarely demonstrates a designer's problem-solving ability. That is to explore them, play with them and think about them."
If you enjoy it, remember to check out the full book on Amazon or Gumroad. As always, the links are in the first comment. And, of course, let me know what you think! Comment or even share ... I am looking forward to it!
