Turning dreams into schemes.
When we brainstorm we ignore the limitations of reality to fantasise about a world that does not exist… yet. And that’s perfectly fine, as our aspirations will almost always outstrip our current resources, energy, time, capacity, patience and appetite for risk. So we have to pretend reality does not apply.
But if we want our dreams to come to life then sooner or later, we’ll have to get real.
That’s when it’s time to design.
Design is the process of reworking new possibilities to fit within existing realities, and it’s what is supposed to happen once brainstorming has yielded a viable set of ideas. It’s the bridge that gets you from imagination to decision and ultimately, action.
Working Inside The Box
Creative thinking Inside the Box.
Whereas imagination takes us ‘Outside The Box’ the designer’s mind wants to explore the very edges of The Box… from the inside. They want to know the real world constraints of time, space, resources and risk and test them to their very limits.
Most of all, they’ll want to challenge every assumption they can identify, especially any that imply limitations that simply don’t exist. They’re always thinking ‘who says we can’t?’
They’ll also want to be crystal-clear about what is Sacred [what the final outcome Must Be and Must Not Be] and what is Negotiable [things which are nice to have but not critical or things you’d rather not have but are acceptable, I guess]. With that understanding they consider every possible way to make sure The Sacred fits inside The Box, hopefully with a little room to spare for as many of The Negotiables as they can squeeze in.
That demands gentle but constant pressure, a subtle series of questions intended to shape a half-baked notion into something beautiful, functional and ideally, both.
