Visual Communication: The Design Process & Creativity

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers the fundamentals of the design process, creativity definitions, and Karl Aspelund's seven stages of design as outlined in the lecture.

Creativity

The ability to produce ideas or products that are both novel and useful, involving the interaction of ability, process, and environment within a social context.

Cognitive Bias and Overconfidence

The tendency for designers' instincts to reflect prior experience, personal taste, or dominant mental models rather than actual users' needs; structured processes help counteract this.

Karl Aspelund's Seven Stages

A structured design process consisting of: 1. Inspiration, 2. Identification, 3. Conceptualization, 4. Exploration/Refinement, 5. Definition/Modeling, 6. Communication, and 7. Production.

Stage 1: Inspiration

The active seeking of impulses and new experiences; designers must become 'collectors of impulses' and perform research, especially when outside their comfort zone.

Stage 2: Identification

Identifying the design problem through project briefs, self-directed designs, or improvements, while acknowledging constraints of price, size, strength, and time.

Stage 3: Conceptualization

Examining methods to come up with solutions by developing a thought structure that uses known elemental images to explain the unknown and unseen.

Stage 4: Exploration/Refinement

A focused, solution-oriented state where brainstorming moves toward specific results, often using tools like sketching.

Stage 5: Definition/Modeling

Moving a project to a definite, physical embodiment (model) that is real but not 'the real thing,' emphasizing precision and demonstrating the design to clients.

Stage 6: Communication

The designer's main responsibility to explain what is being communicated and why; it is often treated as a performance for the client.

Stage 7: Production

The final stage involving collaboration with a production team, requiring respect for specialists' expertise and dealing with budget or schedule compromises.

Parkinson's Law

The principle stating that 'All work expands to fill available time.'

Brainstorming

The process of taking all ideas and thoughts and playing with them to freely create connections without the worry of making mistakes.

Sketches

Used to explore possibilities inherent in an idea and to communicate ideas to someone, primary conveying information, then emotion, and finally a sense of the 'real.'

Functionalism

A perspective that sometimes ignores the possibility that aesthetic appeal or decoration may itself be a design function to consider.

Austin Kleon

Author of 'Steal Like an Artist' and 'Show Your Work!', focuses on sharing creativity and how no idea is completely original.