Creative Frameworks

If you ask me why I am willing to give away the valuable formula of this discovery I will confide to you that experience has taught me two things about it: First, the formula is so simple to state that few who hear it really believe in it. Second, while simple to state, it actually requires the hardest kind of intellectual work to follow, so that not all who accept it use it.
–  A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Young

What is a creative framework?

At its simplest, it is a conceptual tool that allows you to test a concept.

It has a set of rules (parameters) that must be abided by and a set of success criteria by which any concept created with the framework can be judged. 

A simple example of a creative framework is a map. A map has a defined set of rules e.g. geographic boundaries, roads, and paths, towns, etc… it also has a set of success criteria by which any journey routes created using the map can be judged e.g. distance traveled and time is taken for any given journey. 

Now at this point, you can also add more criteria to your map framework to create different journeys. For example, a new criteria might be scenic beauty. This may dramatically change how you judge what is the best journey. 

Creative frameworks also share another major idea with maps: there is not one single map or framework for all journeys or concepts. 

So when using creative frameworks to test an idea, you may have to refine a framework you have used in the past, or you might have to come up with a completely new one depending on the nature of the problem you are trying to solve. 

The following articles look at very different frameworks and how people use them to understand problems and create innovative ideas.  


Alessi Framework for products
This theory implies that all objects communicate a message to people through five possible codes: paternal, maternal, childish, erotic, and birth/death.3 We can recognize many of these codes in the Alessi product family. Indeed, according to Alberto Alessi, Thanks to this epistemological
Design Driven Innovation by Roberto Verganti
Source : Design Driven Innovation


Wordless Collaboration
The story of the project’s origins is shrouded in mystery, but what is known is that, because the residents couldn’t decide on what they wanted to build, they made three rules. The first was that, not only would they build without any plan or blueprint, they would not discuss the direction of the project at all. Second, when they were on the building site, no one was allowed to speak — at all. Third, the building would never be completed, because anyone at any point could decide to take it in a new direction.
Source : Polis 


Bauhaus: a blueprint for the future:
For years the Bauhaus building was known to the wider world mostly through a few black-and-white photographs that stress its more easily copied details, but miss the point that it was a framework for the creative energy of the school.
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Source : The Guardian


Letters of Note: C. S. Lewis on Writing
2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.
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Source : Letter of Note


Top artists reveal how to find creative inspiration
Routine is really important. However late you went to bed the night before, or however much you had to drink, get up at the same time each day and get on with it. When I was composing [the opera] Anna Nicole, I was up at 5 or 6am, and worked through until lunch. The afternoon is the worst time for creativity.
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Source : The Guardian