The research of Dr. Edward de Bono is important and should be understood by design practitioners who want to improve their ability to generate creative ideas in a design situation. While education traditionally has focused on literacy and maths, the ability to think effectively—in this case, generate ideas—has been forgotten and neglected. Creativity is a vague term, and is commonly regarded a gift or a talent that can not be learnt. As designers, we rely on the ability to create something out of nothing, and originality is valuable—if not necessary. Designers use a variety of tactics in order to produce good ideas, but few of these are rooted in science and an understanding of how the brain functions. The problem might be that designers are unaware that such ideas and techniques exist. It might also be based on misconceptions about what creativity is. By studying de Bono’s work one can learn how to use the brain more efficiently and—ultimately—become more able to produce a higher number of ideas in a design environment. The following text will explain how the brain organises itself, how it is a system that has to be beat in order to generate creative ideas and how it can be done. Simplicity as a value will also be discussed.

The theory of going about problem solving using unrelated stimuli: I am Creativity (And so Can You!)

A great talk from Sir Ken Robinson on creativity’s position in schools, as mentioned in this week’s essay The Brain as a System and the Creative Tool PO. Robinson argues that we do not grow into creativity; we are educated out of it. It is well worth the 20 minutes!