Brief: Create a spider diagram for each of these words: Seaside; Childhood; Angry; Festival
Comment on strategies used.
Comments:
- For all four words I started by writing down anything that came to mind based on my experiences, memories, feelings and also objects that I associated with each of the four words. I then expanded on these ideas by including words associated with the first documented words I had written down and therefore by association the secondary and tertiary words became linked to the original word/concept. I also used a dictionary, thesaurus and the internet to supplement my own ideas and words.
- Using this technique did not come as naturally as I had anticipated and I found it a challenge to only include words in the description and no images.
- Angry was the hardest word to mind map as it is an abstract concept and thus more difficult to make tangible and concrete. In contrast to this I found Childhood the easiest word to do. Although this word is in essence also abstract ie: you can't touch, feel or see childhood, it has many objects associated with it and from these objects come associated words and associated memories thereby providing a plethora of concrete and abstract concepts.
- Testing the spider diagram on my hubby was really interesting as he came up with words that I would never have thought of.... especially when it came to childhood. His words reflected the memories of a little boy which were quite different to mine as a little girl! (In the above spider diagrams his words are in turquoise and our common words are ticked.)
- This highlighted how much our own experiences influence the ideas that we generate and how differently we as individuals perceive, understand and interpret ideas. It also demonstrated that if we only rely on our own thoughts we may be in danger of coming up with one sided ideas.
- As an illustrator communicating an idea through images is key and if an image is too closely related to our individual experience it may or may not convey the message we wish to get across.
- Will I use this technique in the future when preparing for a brief? I recognise the value in using a spider diagram to expand on original ideas and I have never used it when preparing for a brief before. I can only imagine that it will get easier and more natural with practise and thus I will persevere with it as a tool and try use it whenever possible. I will also continue to bounce ideas off of my family and friends but will now try to include them right from the brainstorming stage wherever possible to ensure a diverse selection of thoughts before tackling an image/brief.
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