Graphic Design Solutions, 5e | Landa 1
Instructor’s Manual
Graphic Design Solutions
5th Edition Robin Landa
Full download at link: https://testbankpack.com/p/solution-
manual-for-graphic-design-solutions-5th-edition-by-landa-
isbn-113394552x-9781133945529/
Chapter 05 Creativity and Concept Generation
Objectives
01 relate creative thinking to graphic design
02 recognize the characteristics of a creative thinker
03 acquire tools that stimulate creative thinking
04 grasp the role of conceptual thinking
05 become skilled at generating design concepts
Overview
Concentrate on how to enhance creative thinking (and critical thinking) by building a
creativity toolkit. Focus on learning to generate design concepts. Point out that
creative and conceptual thinking can be taught and enhanced with study and
practice. Also explain that creativity must serve the design problem.
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Some students are naturally creative—we’ve all recognized those people. Others are
not and need to learn how to think creatively. Remind students that creativity can be
learned and amplified over time. The more tools they learn to use, the sharper their
overall thinking will become. Offer two fallback tools when students encounter a
creative roadblock, such as mapping or exquisite corpse.
Encourage students to keep a daily sketchbook or journal. If students need prompts,
utilize Take A Line For A Walk, which a sketchbook that provides a variety of prompts
and exercises.
Lecture 1: Tools That Stimulate Creative Thinking
Go over creative thinking tools:
▪ Brainstorming (Try a class session on a fun topic, such as, finding new
reasons to walk backwards.)
▪ Osborn’s Checklist:
>> Adapt
>>Modify
>>Magnify
>>Minimize
>> Substitute
>> Rearrange
>> Reverse
Find an image, perhaps a photo you have taken. Distribute the image to
your class. Ask students to apply Osborn’s checklist to the image.
▪ Mapping
▪ Oral Presentation Tool (This is fun to do in class, in pairs.)
▪ Problem finding. Designer/Branding expert Brian Collins says that
designers are problem makers not problem solvers.
▪ Spontaneous art
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▪ Happy Accidents
▪ Exquisite Corpse
➢ VISIT http://www.Corpsify.com, to play Exquisite Corpse online
➢ Show Fig. 5-3 /// Website: Big Spaceship/Corpsify.com
➢ Show Case Study: Kobo Abe Book Cover Series John Gall and Ned
Drew
▪ Attribute Listing
▪ Visual Metaphors
▪ Keeping a sketchbook or journal
>>Underline the notion of keeping a sketchbook or journal as a wonderful
way to practice creative thinking and visualization on a daily basis. Tell
students to carry a sketchbook with them for sketching, doodling
(automatic drawing), and jotting down ideas.
➢ Show Fig. 5-5 /// Visual Journal Pages: Pep Carrio |
http://www.pepcarrio.com/Los-dias-al-reves
➢ Show Fig. 5-6 /// Journal Pages Frank Viva
➢ Show Fig. 5-7 /// Cover and Journal Pages: Take A Line For A Walk
Exercise 5-1 Brainstorming: Movie Poster
Select an independent film or classic film you’ve recently seen.
Rent or view one online (http://www.ifc.com offers web series films online;
http://www.hulu.com).
My recommendations: Metropolis directed by Fritz Lang; Infamous directed by
Douglas McGrath; Some Like It Hot directed by Billy Wilder; Rashomon directed by
Akira Kurosawa; Midnight In Paris directed by Woody Allen; Lost in Translation
directed by
Sofia Coppola; Hugo directed by Martin Scorsese.
Write a summary (a few paragraphs) about the film.
01. Sketch four images that relate to the film. Assign emotions to each image.
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Creatively name each image.
02. Now pair each of your sketches with a (logical or absurd) related image (found or
handmade). Using the creative tool of synthesis, merge or juxtapose the images. If
you merge the two images, you bring two graphic elements together to form a new
combination.
Lecture 2: Conceptual Thinking
▪ Focus on getting students to understand what conceptual thinking entails:
>> Analysis
>> Asking penetrating questions
>> Identifying and addressing key issues
>> Identifying connections
>> Conceiving concepts
>> Conceiving a conceptual framework
>> Supporting one’s viewpoint with reasons and evidence
▪ Generating Design Concepts: Explain that each design solution is based on a
design concept. To formulate a concept, students can start by asking
questions about their assignment’s goals:
>>Who?
>>What?
>>Where?
>>When?
>>Why?
>>How?
▪ Underscore the practice of creative exercises for formulating a concept.
Explain that after executing exercises, such as mind mapping or spontaneous
art, among others, it is good to take a break and relax. When you’re doing
something unrelated to the design assignment, assuming you’ve prepared,
ideas may pop into your head. Tell them that ALL designers are stuck at one
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time or another for a variety of reasons. (Tell students about designer Stefan
Sagmeister’s self-imposed sabbaticals to recharge his creativity.)
▪ Go beyond the creativity exercises already mentioned, with the following ways
to kick-start formulating ideas for various graphic design projects:
>> Lead with a word list.
>> Join words with an image to form a cooperative message.
>> Start by selecting a typeface that is appropriate in form and voice.
>> Set up a symbolic color palette.
>> Try a “chance collage” by tearing found papers and materials, dropping
them onto a larger sheet of paper, then gluing the pieces down wherever they
happen to fall.
>>Make a list of the all the “wrong” design concepts for this assignment.
>> Begin with a simple image that relates to your topic. Then alter it in a
startling way to see it anew.
>>Using ink and brush or a digital pen and tablet, spontaneously draw type
and an image so that they are inseparable; they should be intertwined and
emblematic.
>>What story do you need to tell? Every design tells a story, whether it is a
logo or a website.
>> Identify intriguing scenes in a book or article that embody the editorial
essence.
➢ Show Figure 5-1 /// Book Jacket: Procession of the Dead
>>Define the meaning of the logo’s name.
➢ Show Figure 5-8 /// Logo: Aether
>> Visualize the theme or plot line.
➢ Show Figure 5-9 /// Book Cover: Poetry After 9/11
>> Rewrite the goal of the communication.
>> Identify one emotional connection you want the audience to make with the
design.
>>Write one takeaway from the visual communication.
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>>How can you engage people with the brand or entity or message?
>>How can you make the brand or group social, make it work/live in a social
media space?
Project 5-1 Book Cover: Exquisite Corpse
1. Choose one of the following authors and titles (or any title that would be
appropriate for a Surrealist image):
The Magnetic Fields by Andre Breton and Philippe Soupault
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Secret Life of Salvador Dali by Salvador Dali
A Book of Surrealist Games by Alastair Brotchie
2. Play the Exquisite Corpse game with a friend or two.
Use the resulting image for a book cover design.
3. Select a Swiss International Style (somewhat neutral) typeface such as
Akzidenz Grotesk, Helvetica, or Universe.
4. Compose the cover. The resulting image should dominate the composition.
Topics for Classroom Discussion
(Please note that the answers provided here are guides. Before each topic’s
discussion, students should read Graphic Design Solutions, taking responsibility for
their own learning. Each chapter of Graphic Design Solutions, 5th ed., is a “lecture” or
“lectures” [depending upon your course], providing archived content for review or
remediation, enabling a flipped classroom model.)
o How does brainstorming work?
Traditional brainstorming is conducted with a group of people so that one
contributor’s thought builds on or triggers another’s—an uninhibited
atmosphere cultivates the flow of creative thinking.
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o Why is Osborn’s Checklist a good tool?
Osborn’s checklist technique is a tool to transform an existent idea or object,
which can lead to an insight for conception.
o What’s the point of playing Exquisite Corpse?
It helps one to understand creative collaboration, the value of accidental art,
and not being dependent upon preconceived notions. (And it’s fun to play, to
create accidental art.)
o What are the benefits of keeping a sketchbook or journal?
Keeping a sketchbook or journal is a practical and engaging way to practice
creative thinking and visualization on a daily basis.
o What is the relationship between conceptual thinking and creativity?
Concept generation—the ability to come up with an idea, cogently state the
idea, and then evaluate it—demands creativity and critical thinking skills.
Designers who are creative and critical thinkers can conceptualize and
communicate their ideas visually.
o Why should one’s creative thinking have to relate to solving the design
problem?
Design is not about decoration; graphic designers solve visual communication
problems for clients using conceptual and creative thinking.
❖ Find more Graphic Design Solutons Exercises and Projects online.
