Reshape Your Way to Inspiration

Take your idea and adapt it into a dance. Adjust it to produce a soap opera. Amend it to become an Olympic competition. Change it into a game. Or have it metamorphose into pornography. Whatever you choose to do; use it to reshape your idea in other forms to keep  turning  out possibilities.

Play Hangman with New York based design studio, ghettovinyl. Their Chalkboard Wall Vinyl Kids Game includes a letter bin for used letters on the left side and a built in score board on the bottom right side.

Organic Reshaping

Reshape something organic. Raid the fridge and poke around the vegetables. Grate some carrots. Cook some beets. Mash some butternuts. Or juice some beans. And  mold. Cast. Shape. Form. Fashion. Or sculpt with it.

While most designers make use of existing materials Dutch artist Geke Wouters creates her own. Her collection of paper-thin bowls are made from carrots, peppers, beet root, leeks, tomatoes, and other vegetables. Each delicate piece of edible art is made using a drying and forming process that converts organic materials into paper thin layers, giving you the sense of a microscopic view into its intricate cellular structure. True to the natural materials, no two of these vegetable bowls are alike.

Knit Big

Dutch Artist Geke Wouters's love for fabrics and clothing is obvious  in her work. Designed by Wouters and produced by Cropus Interieur Vormen, the Clavicula sofa,  is developed from concrete-iron and 27 meters of white terry, cut into strips. The cotton ‘bandages’ are sewn together to create a single thread from which a carpet is knitted using a mammoth pair of knitting needles crafted from 2 x 2 meter broomsticks. The ‘carpet’ is upholstered around the concrete-iron frame.

Handcrafted, one-of-kind items are  key to contemporary decor. So use common techniques in new ways. Rethink knitted items. Enlarge it. Extend. Expand and magnify, the materials and tools to cover furniture and accessories in their own bespoke knits.

Heat as Creative Catalyst

Innovative artist and designer, Tom Price, specializes in modern furniture, sculpture installation and lighting design. This London native's unique Meltdown PVC Hose Chair, was created by heating and pressing a seat-shaped former into a ball of clear PVC hose. The hose begins to melt as it comes into contact with the heated former, and due to prolonged exposure to heat it starts to burn. Once cooled the seat surface looks charred and brittle but remains flexible and comfortable to sit on.

Take a spark from Price's book and introduce heat as your creative stimulus. Burning. Molding. Melting.  And shaping your way to innovation.

Go Minute to Innovate

American based, native Brazilian, Dalton Ghetti challenged himself to create the smallest possible carvings that he could see with his naked eye and started carving a working pencil. Dalton's work is a recycling process with most of the pencils found on the streets and sidewalks. Carved mostly with a sewing needle and a very sharp, triangular, small, metal blade it can take months or sometimes years to complete. Sculpting pencils is a hobby and a form of meditation for Dalton who chooses not to sell it.

Challenge yourself to make your product small. Then make it  even smaller. And then decrease the size to the smallest it can possibly be. Unexpected innovation might just linger in this tiny scale.

Reinterpret the Ethos of a Bygone Era

Bristol based basket weaver, Dail Behennah, utilizes found objects in a contemporary way. Inspired by the 17th and 18th century ethos of valuing skill and time, Behennah spends hours stitching and weaving her plates, made with re-used, gold-plated guitar strings, which are intended for display, on the wall. Traditional porcelain plates were often decorated with gilded edges that glowed in the candlelight; two of Behennah’s plates consist solely of this border, representing the most recognizable remnants of this jewelry for the wall.

So take a trip down memory lane and delve into the history of your craft. Delve through the chronicles. Roam your avenues of interest. And locate a concept. Idea. Style. Or quirk. And reinterpret it in a repurposed material to give it a contemporary slant.

Inspired By Nature

New York-based Japanese designer Nao Tamura's unique solutions are more than simply design and possess a rare balance of innovation and beauty. Her gorgeous, collection of dishes inspired by cherry leaves is a prime example. The silicone kitchenware is perfect for anyone who enjoys a bit of nature indoors. The dishes can be rolled up, used in the microwave or oven, and are dishwasher safe.

Seeing that trend forecasts predict that nature will have a major influence on design in 2013 it might be time to dabble with the blue of the sea, to investigate the shape of the pebble, or to follow the curve of a wave.

Write Your Design

Taking personalization to a whole new level 'Write A Bike' is the gorgeous brainchild of Paris based designer Juri Zaech. His typography bike is exactly as the name suggests. It is a bike that spells out your name with the tubing.

Whether concept or reality try your hand at writing your next design. You never know what power a name may hold.

Be Whimsical With a Sense of Play

A whimsical sense of play is exemplified by Katy Hackney's flower brooch. The London based artist's work is hugely material driven. Working with woods, plastics, precious and non precious metals, found objects, formica, paint & enamel; her pieces are influenced by vintage toys and folk art.

Take some time to forage around toys. Wallow in kids. Remind yourself to be playful or perhaps even quaint. Add a dash of fanciful. Mix in something mischievous. Explore all that is curious. Embrace the quirks of the world around you. And express it in your work.

Change Direction

Cut right to the chase and ask yourself whether your concept is working; or whether your design is effective.   Either you’re getting the results you want, or you’re not. If not, the time has come to change your approach. Many creative breakthroughs occur when attention is shifted from one angle of a problem to another. Even if it feels unnatural a fresh approach usually stimulates a fresh solution. So make an alteration. Try a modification. Create a variation. Or revise. Amend. Or adjust your approach. But change direction.

With his playful approach innovative Spanish Product Designer,  Hector Serrano, puts a new spin on familiar objects, materials and forms. His Superpatata looks like a balloon (or water bottle) but functions as a light and also as a pillow/bed warmer.

Synthesis Method

Combine two or more existing ideas to create a third, new idea. Generate some ideas with a spot of hitchiking by linking or combining ideas through association. Or piggyback your idea onto an already successful product by designing a small improvement. Whatever you do unite. Blend. Mix. Fuse. Or marry ideas, components or materials.

Indiana based product design company  Design Hell Yes creates elegant, simple, and fun solutions for people and spaces. Their minimalist eco lighting fixture fuses an upcycled glass jar, vibrant electrical cord and an energy-efficient CFL.

Evolutionary Method

Evolution is the method of incremental improvement. New ideas stem from other ideas. New solutions from previous ones. Creativity lies in the refinement, the step-by-step improvement which leads to sophistication. So make something a little better. Improve on.  Upgrade. Update. Refine. Enhance. And tweak it. To gradually make it  a lot better. Perhaps even entirely different from the original.

Italian Designer Ferruccio Laviani created the Evolution Dresser for furniture manufacturer, Emmemobili. A combination of an era past and contemporary ideas, the Dresser comprises the evolutionary process of this particular piece of furniture. The conventional side conserves a high detailed carving on every inch while the progressive side offers a linear design that adds a modern touch.

Associative Creative Thinking

Start with an idea. Locate its relationships. Spot some relations. Pinpoint possible links. Unearth  remote connections. Search out intricate ties. Stumble on rare attachments. Bump into historic affiliations.  And record the flow of ideas. Each idea triggering the next until ultimately reaching a potentially useful one. Allow for the natural progression of even unusual ideas, which might become a starting point for novel possibilities. Then develop only the strong, intriguing and surprising gems that stand out.

A self-initiated project. These shoes were designed and made by independent Dutch Designer, Renate Volleberg through what she terms an intuitive strategy. Inspired by the power of color,  material and shapes  she  translates her inspirations of craft traditions, historical aspects, beauty and technological craftsmanship into what she terms her free shoe designs.

Visual Creative Thinking

Intuitive and simultaneous, picture thinking, is a form of non verbal thought. In which pictures, colors, plans and diagrams are used to build entire systems in the imagination. So re-ignite the curious portion of your brain and reach for a thinking tool with a difference: a crayon. Take a crayola and draw doodles.  Improvise shapes. Include textures. Investigate materials.  And extrude functions. Exhaust all possibilities until the ideal leaps out at you.

Interested in exploring the visual impact of the  economic crisis, Dutch design studio Tjep. took an Ikea mass produced chair and started sanding it to the finest possible version. The Recession Chair goes from normal, to diminished, to skeleton like. The resulting object is barely functional and most likely won't withstand the weight of the person it's trying to support, much like a society plagued by recession.

Right Brain Creative Thinking

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift; the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.

Einstein

Abandon the logical. Renounce the rational. Discard the judgemental.  And do away with the analytical by stepping away from the left brain. Allow your intuition to set the stage. Let your feelings determine the parameters.  Permit your emotions to decide the function. And have your subconscious determine the outcome of your newest invention.

London based Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design's Catherine Verpoort designed a natural, environmentally friendly habitat or “textile landscape” that helps declining  ladybug populations thrive even in the harshest of urban environments. Framed in the form of a kit, her Urban Ladybird Habitat provides a haven for the critters to feed, hibernate, and otherwise regroup in an unobtrusive manner.

Solution Creative Thinking

Great design is not about adding features. Notable design creates tangible solutions. So create design alternatives by studying existing solutions. Generate analogies between your design problem, random objects and people.  Connect multiple ideas one doodle at a time.  And sleep on it. But be sure to come up with an elegant and engaging solution.

Italian accessories company AK47's modern storage solution the Flex chair takes on any shape needed to compliment your interior. Designer Barbara Bolis fuses material, form and function to create a genuine storage solution that saves space. Made from a sheet of hardened steel that morphs into the shape of an oval or a flame, Flex can turn into an unusual chair or an ottoman.

Possibility Creative Thinking

At an object a day for the whole of 2012 Jason Taylor transformed everyday objects. Nail Brush forms part of his design adventure in which he was pushed to produce whether he was inspired to or not.

The strategy is to generate as many ideas,  both obvious and novel, as possible, without criticism. To spark your imagination with the raw generation of ideas, without judgment or evaluation of any kind.

Make a Perfect Rose

Learn to create an exceptional rose by following Violet LeBeaux's gorgeously illustrated tutorial. Using only a ribbon with a needle and some thread. Then brainstorm. Come up with fifty innovative uses for your ribbon rose. Make it miniature. Enlarge it. Translate it into another material.  Or photograph it. But make it unique.

Innovation at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Stop being blinded by the status quo. Default consideration to design only for where the money is blinds you to a multitude of possibilities. Designing at the Bottom of the Pyramid limits your resources, promotes efficiency and genenerates a new way of seeing. Which engenders new thinking and results in innovation.

Watch the WAKAWAKALIGHT movie to experience the power of change of this remarkable solar powered LED light.

Whimsical Innovation

Change the stakes, adjust the terms, or modify the rewards of the problem solving process. And make things neat. Make things fun. Make it wonderful to look at. Beautifully balanced. Delightfully functional. Make it the stuff stories are made of by adding a touch of play.

Subversive furniture maker and master craftsman. Jake Cress delivers a range of cheeky, unusual, yet brilliantly-made pieces. His limited edition "Oops!" mahogany #10 of 10 embodies a whimsical touch of cultural mischief.