This article is by Nate Williams, an outstanding illustrator, letterer and all around creative guy. Check out his work here:  http://www.n8w.com

—

There are 3 things that have really helped me with idea generation.  Feed the subconscious, record and retrieve inspirational moments and ideas and find patterns in  ”good ideas”.

• Feed the subconscious – Spontaneous ideas are usually the best ideas and one of the best ways to fuel your brain with material for spontaneous ideas is to have  many diverse life experiences swimming around in your subconscious.  When youbrainstorm you will have more ideas, make more connections, associations, analogies and in a nutshell you will have more “dots to connects“.   Curiosity, inspiration, play and discovery are essential to having great ideas. Personal work  will allow you to explore, play and discover. We experience the world through our 5 human senses (Sight, Touch, Smell, Taste, Sound),  so spend some time celebrating them. Do it this week! Each day pick one of the 5 human senses and focus on experiences specific to that sense. The more human senses you can engage the more memorable the experience will be.
• Record and retrieve inspirational moments and ideas – The best ideas usually come at inconvenient times, such as, walking the dog, taking a shower, waiting in line at the supermarket, etc. The key is to record these ideas and moments of inspiration so you can later develop them into something great when you are in the right place and have the time. Sketchbooks are great for recording and developing ideas, but not so great for retrieving them.  I can never remember which sketchbook??? I wrote my genius idea in. A solution for this problem is a program called Evernote. It’s probably the program I use most next to email and Adobe Photoshop. Evernote is not paying me a dime to endorse them, I just love their product and highly recommend it to any creative.
• Find patterns in  ”good ideas” – By looking at various  ideas we can classify them into “idea categories”. We then can use these categories as a framework to help explore any particular “subject”. Confused?  Below I explain a little more in-depth.

Define

So say you are creating an illustration about “music piracy”. First, define your subject.music and piracy. The better you define what you will be brainstorming about, the more possible associations you will have to work with. Here are some ways to help you define your subject.

• Function - Does it have a function? Is that function part of its identity? example: Shovel=dig, Telephone=talk, bridge=cross, Madonna=sing, etc
• Physical Characteristics – Are its physical characteristics a key part of its identity? example: water=clear, sun=fire/hot, knife=sharp, ice=cold, etc
• Non-Physical Characteristics – Are its non-physical characteristics a key part of its identity? example: Mother Teresa=unselfish, Albert Einstein= intelligent,  shark= dangerous, etc
• Human senses – When you think about your subject in terms of the 5 human senses, Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste, Touch , are their any characteristics that have a strong association with a particular sense? example: ice=cold, grass=green, lemon=sour, jalapeño =spicy, jackhammer=loud,etc
• Association – A big part of editorial and adverting illustration is playing with visual cultural symbols. What are the first things that come to mind when you think about your subject? example: racism= swastika, money=dollar sign, crying=tears, etc
• Can & Can’t / Is & Isn’t – Another good way to define your subject is to think of things that are the opposite of it. example: order=chaos, peace=war, snow=sun, etc

Idea Categories

Once you have “defined” your subject you will now have lots of material floating around in your head to work with. By looking at various creative ideas we can classify them into “idea categories”.  With your subject in mind look at each category and see if any ideas come to mind? Are there symbols I can merge to illustrate “music piracy”? Can I change a physical characteristic of a pirate to make the association of music? etc.

• Merge
• Word Play (Pun,Rhyme, etc)
• Juxtapose / context
• Physical Characteristics
• Non-Physical Characteristics
• Comparison / Analogy
• Function
• Can & Can’t / Is & Isn’t
• Time / Consequence
• Irony / expectations / literal meaning
• Parody

Note: lots of ideas have elements from more than one idea category.

Ideas for Generating Ideas | Nate Williams Lettering, Illustration, Art Licensing.