Graphic design thinking : beyond brainstorming / Ellen Lupton, editor.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- The design process -- How to define problems -- Brainstorming -- Mind mapping -- Interviewing -- Focus groups -- Visual research -- Brand matrix -- Brand books -- Site research -- Refining the creative brief -- How to get ideas -- Visual brain dumping -- Forced connections -- Action verbs -- Everything from everywhere -- Rhetorical figures -- Icon, index, symbol -- Sandboxing -- Co-design -- Visual diary -- Lost in translation -- Concept presentations -- How to create form -- Sprinting -- Alternative grids -- Kit of parts -- Brand languages -- Mock-ups -- Physical thinking -- Take the matter outside -- Unconventional tools -- Regurgitation -- Reconstruction -- How designers think -- How do you get in the mood? -- How do you create form? -- How do you edit?

The design process involves researching, inventing, and expressing ideas. Sometimes concepts seem to pop out of nowhere, but just as often they result from deliberate techniques. Many designers start a project wit brainstorming, an open-ended search for initial directions. Brainstorming, however, is just the beginning in a designer's quest for useful and inspiring ideas. Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming presents dozens of tools and techniques, ranging from quick, seat-of-the-pants approaches to more formal research tools, such as focus groups and co-design. At the book's core are techniques for releasing creative energy and stimulating fresh thinking to arrive at compelling and viable solutions. Each method is illustrated with visual demonstrations and case studies that show design processes at work. Also featured are discussions with leading professionals--including Art Chantry, Ivan Chermayeff, Jessica Helfand, Steven Heller, Maira Kalman, Abbott Miller, Christoph Niemann, Paula Sher, and Martin Venezky--about how they get ideas and what they do when the well runs dry.