Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming (Renowned Designer Ellen Lupton Provides New Techniques for Creative Thinking About Design Process with Examples and Case Studies) (Design Briefs) - Softcover

Lupton, Ellen; Phillips, Jennifer Cole

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1568989792 ISBN 13: 9781568989792

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press, 2011

Synopsis

Creativity is more than an inborn talent; it is a hard-earned skill, and like any other skill, it improves with practice. Graphic Design Thinking: How to Define Problems, Get Ideas, and Create Form explores a variety of informal techniques ranging from quick, seat-of-the-pants approaches to more formal research methods for stimulating fresh thinking, and ultimately arriving at compelling and viable solutions. In the style with which author Ellen has come to been known hands-on, up-close approach to instructional design writing brainstorming techniques are grouped around the three basic phases of the design process: defining the problem, inventing ideas, and creating form. Creative research methods include focus groups, interviewing, brand mapping, and co-design. Each method is explained with a brief narrative text followed by a variety of visual demonstrations and case studies. Also included are discussions with leading professionals, including Art Chantry, Ivan Chermayeff, Jessica Helfand, Steven Heller, Abott Miller, Christoph Niemann, Paula Scher, and Martin Venezky, about how they get ideas and what they do when the well runs dry. The book is directed at working designers, design students, and anyone who wants to apply inventive thought patterns to everyday creative challenges.

About this title

About the Author:

Ellen Lupton is a designer, writer, curator and educator. Her books include Indie Publishing, D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself, Graphic Design: The New Basics (with Jennifer Cole Phillips), Design Your Life (with Julia Lupton) and many others. She is curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore. Her articles and illustrations have appeared in Print, I.D., Metropolis, the New York Times and other publications. She received the AIGA Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement in 2007.

Review:

"Graphic Design Thinking explores a variety of techniques from quick, seat-of-the-pants approaches to more formal research methods for stimulating fresh thinking and solving design problems. Brainstorming techniques are grouped around the three main phases of the design process: defining problems, getting ideas, and creating form. Visual demonstrations and case studies show the design processes and solutions at work." --grainedit.com, July 28, 2011

"Put down that beach read and get a headstart on autumnal productivity with Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming (Princeton Architectural Press), the hot-off-the-presses, fully illustrated guide to creativity by Ellen Lupton. The writer, curator, designer and educator guides readers through techniques ranging from rapid-fire strategies for defining design problems to formal research methods that yield fresh ideas. Lupton's creativity boot camp includes ample visual demonstrations and case studies that demonstrate the design processes and solutions at work. Pick up a copy today and hit the ground running (and creating) after Labor Day." --liquidtreat.com, August 5, 2011

"Adds the crucial final step of making forms to complete the design process... Beyond Brainstorming will appeal to anyone who understands they don't have to sit and wait for inspiration. These creative methods can loosen up thinking practices and inspire imagination." --Communication Arts, September 2011

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1568989792
• ISBN 13: 9781568989792
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 184