MINING FOR IDEAS: A STRUCTURED PROCESS FOR IDEATION
Anne Jordan, Rochester Institute of Technology, United States of America

(Presented at the International Conference on Humanities, Social and Education Sciences (IHSES) which took place on April 16-19, 2024, in San Francisco, CA, USA (https://www.2024.ihses.net/) and at the International Conference on Life Sciences, Engineering and Technology (ILSET) (https://www.2024.ilset.net/) (https://www.2024.ictels.net/) organized by the International Society for Technology, Education and Science (ISTES) http://www.istes.org).

Perhaps the most challenging part of being a graphic designer is the anxiety one feels when facing a blank page and a pending deadline. What if one runs out of ideas or experiences designer's block? This is a real concern, especially for new designers who have not developed an ideation process that they can consistently lean on. I have created an innovative process for teaching ideation to graphic design students that can be applied to a wide range of projects, topics, and formats. I call this process "Mining for Ideas." This process is inspired by my personal experience as a book cover designer, the Surrealists' "exquisite corpse" drawing game, and Skolos-Wedell's form-to-content method for creating poster designs. The process begins with a collaborative imagemaking exercise, involving an enormous selection of unconventional tools and materials, leading to spectacular and complex sculptural creations that are altered by each and every participant. Students then photograph the sculptures, and the resulting images become content which we "mine" for ideas, much like a miner would chip away at earth to reveal valuable gems. In a matter of hours, students generate hundreds of ideas, each with corresponding examples of design elements such as typography, grids, texture, color, and image. Next, I lead students through a morphology that teaches how to expand these raw "gems" of ideas into applied pieces of graphic design. The process culminates in a surplus of ideas and exquisite finished pieces of design work. Students are able to take this process with them into their careers and apply to any future work, ensuring that they will never face designer's block again. I will illustrate exactly how I teach this process and explain how this innovative pedagogy could be applied to a wide range of design disciplines.