Sometimes things take me a long time. a little while ago…no about two weeks ago. Haha, see? I just caught myself being embarrassed about much time it takes me to get things done. oh my goodness, anyway, yes. Two weeks ago, I organized a brainstorm session for my project. I was a bit nervous about it, I find it hard sometimes to read a group when I’m in the lead. Plus a brainstorm can just go in any direction. To prepare, I followed some advice from my teachers: come with a clear question, or a single point you’d like inspiration on. Otherwise, you might end up with tons of ideas that don’t even help you.
So, I put out an invitation on Facebook, booked a classroom and got ready. Now, As simple as that sounds…it took me several hours to do even this. There were so many little steps involved: checking peoples schedules to see when I had a greater chance of people showing up, check my schedule, pick a date and time…write a little explanation/invitation (in Dutch) and put it out there, read it at least a couple times for mistakes, book a room, make a little power point as an intro to the session etc. For me…all these little steps are the hardest part. I’m quite an introvert, plus I’m suspecting a bit ADD. So each little task, combined with the communicating/coordinating aspects, just feels monumental to me. It feels like I’m wading through cement or something.
But anyway…. the brainstorm.
I had a good size group, and it ended up being really fun and encouraging! You know, sometimes it’s scary to ask for (creative) help, as cliche as this sounds. But I think it’s especially hard to share your ideas with others. Ideas are really precious things, and for me, there is definitely a time to share and a time not to. In the past, I’ve shared ideas when they were still fresh…and kinda nebulous. I’ve learned now, that I need to wait until the idea is more solidified in my brain before I try to give words to it. Once I have the words, then I usually share it with a few people close to me…then I’ll share it with a wider group.
But. Once an idea is ready to be put out there, you need to just do it. It helps so much! And it’s pretty exciting. During the brainstorm, it was so encouraging to hear people discuss my idea, add their own ideas, and give me feedback. I left feeling more confident and also inspired about where my project is going. When you see other people believe in your idea, it makes it so much easier to believe in it yourself.
At the end, I left with tons of inspiration, and so much to go through and process…as you can see from the photo, it was a lot! Once the inspiration was in, it was time to start filtering it all against my main concept framework (I’ll explain about this in another post). This was a lengthy process, it took me a couple of days of note taking, reading and re-reading, and letting my subconscious hum in the background. At the end, I had filtered it down to a small list (1 A4 page) of little golden nuggets of input, compiled using a prescribed methodology of the concept development process, and plain old gut-feeling.
I’m grateful for this list, and the people who helped to inspire me 🙂 now, on to the next things: a whole lot of research.
Until next time!