Creativity is the skill of thinking outside the box. Based on this skill, we create slogans for advertising campaigns, come up with new names for products, design a trademark and logo, in short, we participate in creating additional value for a product in order to sell it at a higher price.

The skill of creativity belongs to highly professional skills and, like any highly professional skill, we train it. Also, an important feature of this skill is that in creative professions it is in great demand and is well paid. The fees of a graphic designer with creative skills can differ from the fees of an executing designer at times.

I suggest you study a list of just 5 tasks that will help you significantly develop your skill of generating new ideas in order to say goodbye to the creative crisis forever!

Accidental is not accidental

The task: Open an explanatory dictionary, I’m using Ozhegov, and pick two random words at random. Just poke your finger on any pages. Match the words, try to find something between them that unites them. Come up with a crazy story in which to reveal this relationship. Come up with a title for this story. Do this every time you embark on a new project to “fire up” your imagination.

Hairy pie

The task: Take any object, visualize it in your imagination, for example “jeans”. Find 10 descriptive adjectives that are organic to the subject: trendy, expensive, blue, childish, etc. Is it done? Now come up with 10 more adjectives that are absolutely inappropriate for describing jeans. Try it. You will find that this task is quite difficult to complete. Dig into your feelings and perceptions and find the words you need. Arrange all words in the form of a list.

And to whom metonymy?

Metonymy is a means of meaning in communicative design, in which one object is replaced by another, or its fragment, while the meaning of the message remains unchanged. So Hitler’s mustache and bangs can send us not only personally to Adolf Hitler, but also to the topic of fascism in general. And if the bangs are replaced with a bowler hat, then Hitler turns into Charlie Chaplin and with this the theme changes. Now we can talk about American cinema in general and comedy in particular.

The task: Think of a symbol in the form of an object for such movie characters as: Terminator, Jack Sparrow, Winnie the Pooh, Frodo Baggins, Doctor Aibolit, Carlson, Baron Munchausen, Chapaev, etc. Continue the list of characters yourself, without writing down the name, but depicting an object, bring the list to 20

Initial, but not quite …

Initial – drawn, usually by hand, the initial letter of a chapter, section or whole book. The art of the initial was formed over the centuries and it is not possible to master it in a short lesson, and this is not our task. And our task is to draw the initial letter of our name and draw it in ten different ways. I assure you that in the second or third option, you will exhaust the resources of your RAM and stall. At this very moment, you will have to connect your subconscious, intuitive experience in order to draw the remaining 8. The task is difficult, to facilitate the task, I would advise you to use different tools: a capillary pen, felt-tip pen, wide-nib pen, brush, everything that is at hand. The main thing is that your initials are completely different, not only in the thickness or nature of the line, but also in the idea and method of stylization.

Forced binding

The task: Divide the sheet into three columns. In the first, write the name of the items from the office (paper clips, buttons) In the second – from the kitchen (mixers, kettles, food). In the third – items from the garage or workshop (pliers, hammers, nails). Look closely at the list you created and try to “marry” two items from different groups, so that a new non-existent, preferably fun function appears. Example: a microwave oven with a TV in the door for simultaneously making popcorn and watching TV shows, etc. The object you have created needs to be drawn in the form of a sketch, the ability to draw does not play a special role, the main thing is that the object you invented is visualized (could be depicted in principle).

Source: romashin-design
Cover photo: ShutterStock