Pastiche Synchronicity Or Conceptual Appropriation reworking the idea

Many practitioners produce pieces of work that sometimes have a similar concept, or designers re-contextualize other peoples ideas and concepts.

When you mimic and imitate many elements of a practitioners known piece of work, this is called Pastiche. Personally, I see this to be copying. It's taking most of the elements of a practitioners work, and reproducing the design, there's no development with the concept and drastic changes to make it differ from the original idea.

(Above showing painting by Leonardo Da Vinchi)

http://www.monalisamania.com/art.htm

The Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinchi, is one of the most reproduced art work of all time, done in different types of mediums. Above is an oil painting done by Richard Krause, where it's clear the artist has imitated the artwork closely making slight changes.  

Synchronicity is two or more notions coincidentally created, without being aware practitioners have synchronised the same ideas that are unrelated. This could happen when designers potentially have the same thought process about a direction there exploring. Whilst developing there ideas they coincidentally come up with the same concept, having no intention of copying, and are unaware someone has thought of the same idea already by chance. 

Conceptual Appropriation is where a designer is influenced by a practitioner, and imitates there work to a certain extent but reshapes the idea in their own style to re-contextualize the design by extracting specific parts of the design and adding their own twist on it, to make their work differentiate from where the designer was influenced from. "It's not where you take things from, it's where you take things to," it's about how much you take elements of the idea, develop it in a different perspective and adapt it to the audience your aiming at. Conceptual Appropriation is used by many designers to enable them to develop there own ideas further by being influenced with different aspects of practitioners designs.

http://www.noblahblah.org/?tag=si-scott

This is an example of Conceptual Appropriation, where I was influenced by Si Scott with the use of his own detailed pattern to create a visual outcome. Here I have taken the concept of using a pattern to create a visual image, but I have illustrated and developed my own pattern in a much less detailed way, differentiating my art work in comparison to Si Scott.

Overcoming Mindsets

http://www.christophniemann.com/

In order to overcome conventional mindsets, you have to free yourself by tackling the ordinary routine and habitual modes that practitioners use. By using Practitioners ordinary approach of thinking towards their design work, it will lead to assumptions of their work making it predictable, eliminating the element of surprise in their own design work. In order to have an element of surprise in your work, you have to push boundaries and break the conventional rules, by exploring techniques and ideas out of your comfort zone to reach creative outcomes. 

To overcome mindsets there is a three step process to achieve the creative thinking;

1) Think about what boundaries you are going to test, what rules are you going to break.

2) Find ways to challenge or change the rules by questioning your ideas, how could you explore this idea in different ways, find other ways of making marks for instance.

3) Be playful and experimental, trying to avoid assumptions of your outcomes in visual language, by not using conventional symbols that are usually selected to represent a response.

Christoph Niemann demonstrates he doesn't use a conventional thinking strategy, and always explores ways he can deliver a message in an unordinary way creating that element of surprise. By using this tactical method, it engages viewers, and makes Niemann's work unique in it's own way, as the practitioner has explored a vast amount of different ways to deliver a message so it's memorable, by breaking the conventional rules in exciting ways. By studying Niemann's illustration's it has inspired me to gradually adjust my thinking methods, by always critically analysing my work will help me question how I could challenge and break boundaries to make my work original, differing from the conventional methodology. This new way of thinking will help me adopt a fresh new attitude towards my work helping me develop my creative thinking.

Managing A Creative Environment

http://webdesignledger.com/inspiration/17-designers-you-should-know-and-their-workspaces

Being surrounded in a creative work place, with collections of artefacts that reflect on what you’re personally interested in as a designer, will help stimulate and broaden your ideas as a practitioner. As an individual your creativity is influenced by your surroundings and working environment. 

The variety of culture and tradition that you are surrounded by will help you combine different elements from diverse culture to create innovative ideas. As your working environment can have an impact on your design work. I personally think it’s essential to utilise books, objects, and any visual material that you collect. This can potentially stimulate different ideas within the direction your currently working on. Again helping you create memorable unique designs as you explore your ideas in many different ways, such as by letting yourself be influenced by your environment and surroundings.

Building a reservoir of visual materials that you will find stimulating and beneficial, will make you be selective of what you choose. This will make you question and justify what you find intriguing about individual visual pieces. This process of classification will help you understand the elements of design you appreciate and select what you want to take forward with you in your work to inspire your design ideas to progress further. 

When reflecting on all the visual material you collect, it gives you an understanding of your personal interests and by being surrounded with all of the visual material you collate. You can use it as a stimulus to trigger new exciting concepts through a variety of different cultural aspects and your selected visual material that you find influential.

Develop Visual Language

Visual language enables us to express comprehensive ideas in a much more effective exciting way in contrast to pages of text.

http://hifructose.com/2012/07/31/inside-the-sketchbook-of-josh-keyes/

Instead of just using textual language, Josh Keyes has also used visual language to help develop as well as generate new ideas and brainstorm possibilities, that could potentially be the desired response that will help communicate the message effectively in a much simpler form in comparison to text. This shows Josh has thought visually and expressed ways of illustrating an idea rather than just writing it down on paper. These ideas can emerge, and and connections can become visible.

                  

Peter Brundy has created a coherent visual vocabulary through imagery showcasing a simple collection of visuals which all produce a solution of how to link to the communication goal and convey the same meaning in different shapes and forms. The use of simple words with the visuals, helps create a connection with the visual imagery and gives it a meaning. The use of visual language helps deliver the message in a fun exciting playful way, engaging the audience much more than columns of text.

http://www.grundini.com/#!/project/ubuntu1-your-cloud/storing-6852333569

In order to complete this final design Peter had to establish visual themes he wanted to include to give the target audience an insight to what you can store on 'your cloud'. By carefully selecting one visual to represent each theme from Peter's visual vocabulary, it combines the most powerful and effective meaningful visuals for the design. it's a journey he had to fulfil to finalise the simple visuals that communicate to the target audience clearly all the type of media you can store on 'your cloud', and what the purpose is. 

Utilise Your Creative Brain

There are two halves of the brain that carry out different processing functions, where you can consciously utilise these functions to improve creativity. There are two modes that work together in different ways to help you be creative, as well as organising your visual thinking ideas.

In order to improve your creativity in design work, knowing the functions of these two different modes, will potentially help you manage your work to be more inventive.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/SoInteractive/215563 

Here is an example where Michal Sycz is using the RIGHT part of the brain to be experimental, playful, and explore different visual ideas in many ways. The right part of the brain is sensitive, as it can be afraid to express itself if the outcome fails, however visually expressing yourself in the RVJ is a safe place where you can become carefree and express any ideas that you possess, where it doesn't matter if accidents occur, as it helps ideas emerge, and discover the idyllic design that delivers the thought you are trying to express. Looking at Michal's work you can see the ideas become visible on paper, and that any idea he withheld or was curious about, Michal has expressed them in many ways to give himself a variety of visual outcomes to progress further.

 This is a sample of Michal's work where the LEFT part of the brain is functioning and acting as your Accountant. Constantly analysing, thinking, organising, and clarifying Michal's previous visual ideas, and questioning how they can be developed to communicate the message Michal is trying to express. This mode manages your way of thinking, and is more organised and structured. However your left part of the brain is partially biased, as before you become playful with your ideas using your right part of the brain, you use your left part of the brain to manage what sort of direction or idea you are going to explore. To progress your ideas further and justify which one to choose, your left mode will entice you to annotate, to clarify your ideas. 

With this example, you can see the left part of the brain, has made decisions of which illustrations to include, and managed the composition of the game design to be most effective, to help deliver the message through visual imagery portraying a playful creative feel towards the game to engage you in the design and with the playful illustration shows the game will bring you entertainment and joy.

Being aware of the left and right part of the brain operating , it allows you to use the right brain to choose what direction you wish to pursue, then being playful and exploring your ideas helps you produce something creative. Justifying and clarifying which designs and layouts will be most effective to communicate the message you are trying to deliver to your audience creates a memorable unique design.

Celine Marcelle

In order to promote the different design styles available at Celine Marcelle, I incorporated an original technique to capture the vivid attention of female audience. Photography is commonly used by many designers to interact with their audience. My main focus was to show the consumer a variation of design styles and patterns in order to achieve a connection with my consumers by carefully illustrating each design to suit a variety of people. By illustrating my designs, it creates a fantasy of their idyllic shoes, and intrigues customers further, to visit there local store to finalise their decision and make a purchase. Purposely illustrating the shoes to be delicate and elegant, it reflects what the brand is about, giving consumers an insight to the high quality of the shoes the brand will provide.

Si Scott

http://www.siscottstudio.com/

Si Scott is one of the most creative designers of all time, where he molds his distinct swirls and patterns into words and images creating comprehensive memorable designs. This design piece created for Nike targeted at the public who participate in sport, it captures your attention due to the amount of detail that has been executed in this design. When I look at this design piece I believe it resembles sports people who wear the brand in many ways. The amount of detail Si Scott puts into the hand drawn illustrations, reflects how much dedication goes into sport. The use of swirls entangled and spiraled shows energy and passion, implying what sports people have to acquire, in order to be a success. I believe the way the typography has been carefully illustrated it expresses what qualities a sports person has to possess, in order to be a success. By wearing this brand, it almost implies if you wear Nike, you will obtain these qualities that make a successful participant in sport.