5 Simple steps to come up with great ideas

There is always a common misconception around creativity which is “You either have an idea or you don’t”

Step 1: Understanding the brief

This is a crucial step where we are trying to absorb all the information available to us around the brief, asking the key questions such as

What’s it for?
Who’s it for?
What kind of emotions are involved? or How should it make people feel?

What we really want to do is to drill down into the essence of what we’re trying to communicate, it can be helpful to break it down into a few keywords that really sums up the essence of this communication.

What inexperienced designers tend to do in this step:

Take arbitrary decisions
Jumping directly into design tools

Step 2: Clear your mind

The essence of this communication is to stop thinking now, this might sound a little weird but coming up with ideas is like trying to sleep, “The harder you try, the harder it gets”.

This is an important step to distance yourself from initial knee-jerk solutions and allow yourself to fully and freely explore your creativity.

My suggestions:

Try doing some desk stretches
Head outside for a walk or get some coffee
Take a quick 15 minutes nap