Exercise 2.4

Do a series of mind maps to generate associations on a single concept. Pick one of the below to mind map:-

CUTTING, GROW, HIDE, SEED, WOBBLE

Introduce images to your mind map to offer new possibilities, use your sketchbook for more ideas.

Think about sound, smell, touch and movement to your mind maps.

Identify the ideas that a furthest away from the original word.

Use the following to develop more complex words or ides from your original start point:-

HISTORIC, OVERLOOKED, MUNDANE, EXTRAORDINARY

Identify the richest connections and possibilities that you might start developing a piece of work for.

I started this exercise by picking the word GROW from the words available, I put this in the middle of my workbook and then started my mind map around it, trying to think of unusual and different ideas than normal.

I added some small doodles to my sheet, I found adding pictures actually helped the process and made it more enjoyable and creative.

I was surprised how well I got on with this mind map, usually I end up stuck at one or two points, but here you can see I managed to cover the whole page and link the words well.

I tried to use words that linked yet I felt were furthest from the original word as possible. I coloured in the pictures so they could be seen better, this also made it more fun and creative.

I looked back on the page to identify which words I thought where furthest from GROW as possible, and I came up with four:-

SWORDS, OLYMPICS, VAN, ICING

Now I am moving on to the second part and introducing HISTORIC, OVERLOOKED, MUNDANE, EXTRAORDINARY into my GROW mind map again.

I decided to start a new mind map, purely because I didn’t have any room in the first one!

I found this mind map slightly more difficult, it was trying to get to words that came from GROW to link with the other four words the hardest.

I decided to work in my sketchbook to produce some sketches and drawings to move some work forward and develop more. I picked the words FLOWER, GROW, DEVELOP for this little experiment.

I drew these doodles to reflect grow in my sketchbook, foliage, plants etc.

These more delicate drawings were for the word FLOWER.

I managed to complete the mind map and join the 5 words together with linking words, but couldn’t fill the page as much as before, but found it challenging but enjoyable.

The words that I identified as the furthest from the original GROW word again were:-

FAMOUS, HABITUAL, QUAD, NEWSPAPERS.

I also thought these words would be interesting to put forward to develop a piece of work with.

Reflection

I found this process was fun and enjoyable, made more so by the pictures and colour, I liked picking a few words and developing better pictures and drawings for them.

I have done a similar exercise to this before, and this also reflects my creative process that I use personally in my work.

I like to use a Thesaurus as well which I find give you more options and experiments with different words.

I liked the final challenge of linking the 5 words together in a mind map, it really pushes you to think more about how you can link ideas up.

The outcome is a more complex idea from a simple one, and draws out some unique words and concepts that can develop into something more from the original idea.

I would use the more complex way of working in the future.