Search results: "kalideascope"
Some time ago, I took James Webb Young’s kaleidoscope analogy for having ideas and ran with it, building a whole model for helping engineers (and other humans) understand…
Together, the people around you know so much more than you do. In my last post for now on Filling the Kalideacope – gathering inputs for the creative…
Humans tend be to attracted to novelty – Oo, the shiny new thing – but sometimes what we need is in what we know already. This post is…
This post is another in my series about inputs to the creative process, what I call ‘Filling the Kalideascope‘. Today’s input is visiting the site, and it cuts…
Yesterday I wrote about the inputs you might gather at the start of a creative project. These are what I call inputs in the moment. But there is…
In my last post I described the Kalideascope as a tool for having ideas. You fill it with inputs and then turn it to create new the connections…
In my last post I cited James Webb Young’s definition of an idea as being a new arrangement of existing elements. He goes on to suggest having an…
In this post I share some initial thoughts on how using ChatGPT to generate ideas changes creative thinking for engineers, and other humans. My simple model for idea…
Sometimes when I write on this blog I like to distill my thoughts around one topic. But when there’s lots going on I prefer to write in more…
I have nothing to say but lots to show you – Walter Benjamin. I heard this quote this morning on In Our Time and it really struck me….
Today at the University of Bath I am running a workshop on Analogue Skills for Design. This workshop fuses material from my conceptual design teaching with my observations…
‘Act it Out’ is my favourite technique for shifting creative thinking from the mind to the body. This post is another in my series on Turning the Kalideascope,…
Changing the key system is a technique I teach to help people develop new ideas when their thinking has become stuck. It’s one of my techniques for ‘turning…
I have had the great fortune of having spent three weeks in France, a good portion of it cycling. Touring is a great way to leave behind your…
Public speaking You can book me to speak at your event around the themes that I regularly write about. I prefer to speak to a live audience rather…
In my last post I asked how do I know if my ideas are any good? My answer was that a good idea is one that meets the…
One way I use this blog is a jotter for ideas that I’m mulling over and discussing. By having all these musings in one place, I’m creating a…
Here’s four things you can do straight away to give your project a creative boost. Write down the brief. What are you trying to do? Who are you…
Asking what if. It’s my go-to technique for stimulating rapid idea generation in groups. In this post, the latest in my series on creative thinking tools for projects,…
We move now in my series of posts on tools for creative thinking from gathering inputs to stimulating new connections. This is what I call ‘Turning the Kalideacope‘….
There are some inputs to our creative process that we build up over time so that we are ready to draw on them whenever we work on a…
We need creative thinking tools in our project toolkit to get the most out the opportunities that a new project offers. Projects provide a setting in which people…
I am grateful to the participant in this morning’s climate coaching call who reminded me of the power of asking the opposite question to the one you are…
This course, which I deliver at Constructivist for the Institution of Structural Engineers is my longest running conceptual design training course. It is an introductory course, which splits…
I spend most of my time designing creativity training for engineers. In this episode we flip the format. Alexie Sommer, Independent Design and Communication Director and collaborator on…
This week I have had the feeling that I have been struggling recently to find focus on my creative work. I have lots of projects on at the…
Superpowers for Creative Design is the name I gave to a one-page summary of my undergraduate creativity teaching at Imperial College. This is my first draft. I like…
There was great energy at today’s IStructE Academics’ Conference, the theme of which was Creativity and Conceptual Design. If you are visiting this site for the first time,…
When I’m asked, you know, at a cocktail party or some other social setting, ‘what exactly do you do’ I say ‘I train engineers to be more creative’….