Under The Loupe #5: Visual Thinking

“After a brief hiatus, Under The Loupe is back. This week we will be flexing that lump of worms between your ears. One of the biggest things that can separate a good design from a great design is a strong concept. Strong concepts don’t always just come to us; sometimes they take work. Perhaps not real physical labor, but a process of bypassing the obvious ideas to get to the hidden ones. Some people call this ‘Creative Thinking’, but when I was first introduced to this concept, it was presented to me as ‘Visual Thinking’. I tend to prefer ‘Visual’ as opposed to ‘Creative’ as it helps to shift the focus back to design specifically. Let’s define ‘Visual Thinking’ as: A process of idea-finding and formulation, typically with simple tools like a pencil and paper, where the cumulation of ideas influences the whole.”