The Creative Process: 3 Simple Steps to Infinite Possibilities

The creative process is different for everyone; there are multiple paths toward the same goal of developing a final product. It’s interesting that while teachers, students, and professionals of design alike often say that the process is more important than the product, there are no set rules as to what the process is. Maybe that’s why it’s so important. Unlike the final products, it’s hard to describe and harder still to do both efficiently and creatively.

Though every creator has their own process, their own way to generate and execute concepts, a few helpful people have developed hints about how to get started. In Design Basics, Lauer suggests a seemingly obvious and unhelpful three-step program: Thinking, Looking, Doing. He then goes on to say that these can be done in any order. I thought, “Well, thanks Mr. Lauer; you brought me back to square one.” But on reflection, I realized that those three things really were the basis for all creative processes, the essential building blocks that every creator needs to keep in mind.

You can think and come up with ideas, but if you don’t look outside yourself, you won’t know if your idea is novel or overused. Looking itself is a good way to start, but you’d best put a little of your own creativity into the work, otherwise it’d be a direct copy of something else. Legal battles over copyright infringement aren’t explicitly conductive to the creative process. And, of course, you also have to do. Whether that’s making models digitally or manually or actually getting down to paint that painting, an idea can’t come fully to light unless it’s brought to its final stage of production. Having the thing in your hands also alerts you to whether or not there are any errors in the design; it’s like the final draft, almost polished but with a few kinks to work out still. Technically, you could also just start off your creative process by doing. You can start throwing paint randomly on a canvas or start globbing clay together for a sculpture. I find it hard to believe that it’s possible to start doing without any thinking or looking steps before that though. If it is possible, let me know. I’ll start reassessing my thoughts on some modern pieces.