Where do Ideas Come From?
When it comes to trying to develop creative ideas or solutions, we often wish that we could flip to the back of the book and consult the answer key.
There is no answer key, but there are practices that you can bring into your life that will increase your ability to find ideas.
Ideas are all around you; you need to notice them, remember them, and figure out what to do with them.
If you’ve spent time with someone you consider creative, you’ve probably also caught them jotting notes or sketching ideas in a journal or sketchbook. Creative people don’t carry around journals just for fun( although they are fun to use). Instead, they do it because they know that an idea can strike at any moment, and they want to be sure to capture it.
I’ll make a note on my phone in a pinch, but keeping ideas in a journal is really the best. It makes it easy to explore, experiment, and connect one idea to the next.
The next part is where most people struggle; what do you do with the idea? Ideas don’t often come with step-by-step instructions or examples.
Once you have an idea, you need to research and note what works well and isn’t.
Research can be reading, observing, or even experimenting.
Example
After agreeing to illustrate children’s books that my brother wrote, I didn’t just sit down and start creating images. I had a basic idea of what pictures I wanted to connect with the text, but I needed to explore how many pages there should be, how much text should be on each page, page breaks, and so much more.
So, I went to a bookstore and looked at children’s books. I selected a few I liked, purchased them, and brought them home for close observation. I noted what I liked about the style and experimented with creating images and spreads.
Where do ideas come from?
EVERYWHERE
- Observe
- Capture your ideas
- Research
- Give it a try
