Today in class, we graphic-designers-in-training spent an hour and a half doing something incredibly useful and productive with our time.
We played with bicycles.
Yep, there were three bikes in our design lab that we sketched, took pictures of, and played with. There was no real end goal, just finding 50 or so different ways to see or represent a bicycle.
The first half hour was time for getting all the cliches out of the way. Draw the wheel. Take pictures of the spokes. It was kind of like clearing away the cobwebs in our creative minds... just get through this mess and then explore more new and unexpected ideas further.
As time went on, we started getting more creative. We were finding new angles from which to take pictures. Finding interesting shapes that represent bicycles and drawing them more abstractly. What happens if we put a bike upside down on the table and spin the pedals? What kinds of sounds do the bikes make? How can we represent those visually? What would happen if we pour coffee grounds on the ground and roll the bicycle through them? How can we set up a light so the bike can cast the most interesting shadows?
As we started exploring these new (and kind of wacky) ideas, the process became more fun. We started talking more with each other, experimenting with new mediums and materials, and using humor. We were taking funny videos of the bikes, drawing a person riding a bike on the whiteboard with our eyes closed, pouring water on the table and using the air pump to blow the water.
Playing for an hour and a half with these bicycles and learning to see them in new ways was a great exercise to grow and enhance our creative process. I'm excited to use this method of thinking about things and generating new ideas in future projects!
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