Client contacts you and says they need a project by tomorrow. You say, no sweat and get the pencil and paper out, boot up your computer and you realize you have absolutely no inspiration. what now? Well do not fret my friend! here is an effective and quick way to develop a solid concept.

conceptualizing an idea will show you how all the pieces fit together and let you visualize the final result. —Karl Aspelund

Very wise words. This is crucial to making a concept work. Too often we want to just jump into drawing and visual elements of an idea.  This approach for the most part is counter productive for a few reason.   If you just start guessing what will work what wont you have anything solid backing your idea.

Even if your on a tight deadline here are a few things you always want to keep in mind:

The questions

1. What is the most important thing you want to say about what you’re going to present?
2. Who are you communicating with? Students, Teachers, People with lots of time, Someone passing by?
3. Once you have what the most important thing is, how are you trying to say this?
4. Are people familiar with what you are presenting?
5. What do you want people to think of the thing being presented?
6. What is the history of the people/thing being presented.
7. What is the emotional connection and how do you make it resonate with them?
8. What tone or attitude do you want to want to convey.
9. Where will this be presented and how can you make it stand out from other things presented in the same way?
10. What is in it for the demographic?

One great tool to get those gears grinding is *dun dun dun* brainstorming. There are several ways to do this.

Mind map:

• this is simply just a random list of webbed connections. it can be really neat and organized or totally sporadic. That’s the fun  part of brain storming, There really is no wrong way of doing it.  Remember to always write down everything no matter how silly it might be because it can trigger a great idea. Use those neural synapses!

remember this can be done as a list too. It doesn’t have to be done with visual arrows. It can simply be a list of words or phrases in a notebook. What does the idea smell like? what does it feel like? what color would it be? what season?

I prefer to do it on paper so I can have access to it wherever I am, however if you’re not much of pen paper kind of person you can try some internet apps. Here is a good one to try out:

MindMeister
http://www.mindmeister.com/

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