The short answer to what a good concept is:

A good concept narrows your focus and therefore eliminates possibilities.
A good concept narrows your focus and therefore guides you to possibilities that are a bit less obvious.
A good concept inspires the design and production process.
A good concept is a guideline to the design and production process.

I’m rereading and checking everything I have written for my book on concepting and here’s another chapter I’d like to share.

From consumer to producer

Way back when we used to work for God. Ploughing, sowing, harvesting to make as much from the world as we could. The official line was that this all benefited the glory of God. We needed machines to ramp up production. We were increasing production and our goal became being the best cog in the machine you could be. But after a while we were producing so much we weren’t needed primarily as producers, but as consumers. And here we are today.

We are surrounded by branding, marketing and advertising. Companies want to sell us products and services. So we need to crave their products and services. And never be completely happy. The craving is what keeps us buying. Stand a few feet away from your life and consider the impact that our consumer society has on what you see, feel, want and eventually buy. Unless you live in a convent there is no denying the omnipresence of brands and companies in your life.

All that screaming and yelling, all those flickering lights, subtle seductive voices, funny videos you want to share: they all eat away at our time. Time we could spend talking to friends, making something, being bored (very important!), we spend watching commercials, playing Angry Birds, checking up on facebook. (Just by writing that I felt the urge to take my phone out of my pocket and check facebook).

You need to make the rules.

You need to stop being a consumer of the news, the entertainment, the friend-updates, the weather, games and bags of crisps. Be a warrior instead, or an archaeologist of culture, an inventor of entertainment, a shrink for the masses, whatever you want to be. Just stop wasting time. If you already are one of these, I am terribly sorry for yelling at you.

Now, since you have changed so much as a person by me writing these lines, I’d like you to take a look at the world around you. H&M is selling designer clothes once a year. All our cars need to be ‘sporty’. We have just realised we spent all of our allowance for the next twenty years. People who never take the train, hate the train. More and more people are single and don’t want to be.

Since you are a producer: you need to get to the bottom of all of this. What is this world about? Why do people do things they regret so often? Read books. Talk to people. Talk to other people. Interview a hero. Interview another hero. Work on the knowledge that is important to you.

I know it’s sort of off topic, but it’s worth sharing: I just finished the book ‘The decisive moment – how the brain makes up its mind’ by Jonah Lehrer and it’s a fantastic read. It was given to me as a thank you by my talented ex-student Melissa Nakken. Either consciously or subconsciously giving me ammo to finish my own book.

Lehrer writes about everything from dopamine neurones to risk aversion strategy with great examples ranging from poker games to how to pick the right type of breakfast cereal.

About twice a month someone asks me how my book is getting along. I generally have to tell people that it’s not going anywhere fast. I have refocused a few times, added on some chapters, but have not found the form yet, nor enough time to solve that particular problem. Yesterday I spoke about my book with Lykle de Vries, Ronnie Zeemering and Ronald Mulder and that has kickstarted the process once again. I have now made a nice map overview of the book to work with, which revolves around two things: building creative capital and finetuning your creative process. A small step for mankind, a giant leap for me.

Yes, I am still writing my book on concepting. Yes, it is taking way too much time. But no, I am not giving up. Things you should know that have happened since my last post:

1. I’ve decided to change the title
2. I still haven’t decided what to change it into
3. I’ve decided it’s not so much a handbook as it is something else
4. I still haven’t decided what that ‘something else’ is.
5. I’ve written a few new chapters, thanks to some brilliant feedback by Marije Kuiper
6. Here’s one to enjoy: feel free to add your own tips in the comments.

I’m stuck, now what?
Annoyingly, brainstorming is seldom as glamourous as it seems when you first hear about it. It’s not a room with creative people in tune with eachother and their surroundings churning out miracle after miracle. Most of the time there’s bad ideas, politics, people that stall the process and egos involved. And you might get to the point where you have to conclude: I’m stuck. So now what?

First off: flip back to the chapter with brainstorming rules (I know you can’t do that on this website, but just pretend). Nine times out of ten most of these rules are broken in a brainstorm. Now if you’ve got a good vibe going you can stray off the path of the righteous brainstormer, but you’ll have to come back to it as soon as you can. So check the rules, check the proceedings so far and make adjustments. Make sure everyone wholeheartedly agrees with the method, otherwise you’ll be stuck again in no time at all. Look alive!

Now even if you’ve all been behaving quite nicely, you could still get stuck. A lot of the time there’s plenty of ideas flying across the room, but none are in themselves the total concept. And different people like different ideas. A great way to not get stuck is by making a timeline or a model of your endproduct. Write down what you know and what’s lacking, so you can fill in the blanks. This is a lot easier then trying to come up with the mother-of-all-ideas in one go.

Another method is remixing: look for an ideal mental image of what your product/design should look, sound and feel like and try to compose it using parts of existing products/designs. Then analyse what you’ve made and make your own version using the same principles.

A totally different way of brainstorming might help you move forward as well. Instead of talking, let all the participants sketch. Have them cut out images and work with those. Listen to music. Or take a step forward into the process and start designing. Look at what you come up with and take that back into the brainstormphase.

Asking silly questions can help you with your process as well: What if the queen used our product? What would happen? What if we can only use cardboard as a material? What if colorblind people had to be able to use it, what would happen? All these questions restrict your attention and make you focus.

What if you think you’ve come up with a fantastic concept, but you’re not sure. Only one way to find out: start exercising your concept on a design. For example: I’m organising a party with the theme ‘Zero budget’. Now how do I translate this into the invitation, the drinks, the cups, the toilets, etc. Make sure you don’t cut corners. If the concept is ‘zero budget’ you should really think radically with zero budget.

People can’t brainstorm for hours: so if you feel the energy is starting to dissipate, take action. A radical break is usually the best option. This doesn’t mean standing outside with a cigarette and continuing the brainstorm there. But really take a break. Have a good lunch. Don’t stay in the same place. Move away from your project.

Another thing that brings back energy is writing down everything you’ve agreed on so far. From planning to implementation, everything that should stay that has been mentioned.

Take your brainstorm somewhere else. If you don’t have the time for a radical break cause it takes too much time, just move to a new brainstorming place. Or at the very least switch chairs.

If you still can’t get out of your slump with these tips, have a sabbatical or change jobs.

What: Concept to creation session
When: January 20th, 10:00 to 15:00
Where: Academie voor Popcultuur, Achter de Hoven 23, Leeuwarden
For whom: anyone interested in concept development and creativity
€: Free admission, please e-mail me if you are planning to attend
Speakers: [EDIT] Victor Ponten / Habbekrats (confirmed), Sef / Flinke Namen (confirmed), Rutger Middendorp / Academie voor Popcultuur (confirmed), Lenno Verhoog / HKU (unconfirmed)

If you are a creator of any type: be it a writer, a musician, a painter, a designer or an architect, the core of your business is getting all those flashes of inspiration, crazy ideas and sketches into a product. The end result may be very different depending on your line of work, but the process is roughly the same. Unfortunately finding information on the subject to help you improve isn’t straightforward. So as a little help to my friends I’m organising a session at the Academie voor Popcultuur in Leeuwarden.

Of course our own students are invited, but to make sure as many people meet that are interested in the same subject, I’ve also invited students of the Minerva Art Academy and the HKU. But it’s not a student only affair, professionals who are interested in developing and discussing the step from concept to creation are more than welcome. Give me a heads up by email if you are planning to attend.

Social Media Tag
To make sure information discovered on the day or after it can be shared and found by all in attendance I’m suggesting a tag that can be used on Delicious (if you’ve found a nice bookmark on the subject), Flickr (for photos regarding concept to creation), Twitter, and so on: please use concepttocreation. That way we can all find eachothers online material.

Eigenlijk zou ik deze zomer een badkamer bouwen, een boek afschrijven, een methode ontwikkelen voor conceptontwikkeling voor HBO hoofdfase en en congres opzetten over de relatie tussen Concept en Ontwerp. Naast mijn reguliere werk uiteraard.

Vreemd genoeg is dat niet gelukt. Dus wie op mijn boek (of mijn badkamer) zit te wachten, moet nog even geduld hebben.

Na het nodige topoverleg tussen getalenteerd studente Marije Kuiper en ondergetekende is besloten om de eindexamencatalogus 2009 van de Academie voor Popcultuur en mijn boek een titel te laten delen: Here We Are Everywhere. Een thema dat we delen, maar ook een samenvatting van de boodschap die ik over wil brengen in mijn boek. Een goed concept schept een (kijk op de) wereld. Een goed concept brengt het hier en nu dichterbij. Maakt alles even overbodig.

Gezien de titel in het Engels is en we de catalogus en het boek willen gebruiken om de Academie voor Popcultuur te definiëren en aan de buitenwereld te presenteren, wordt het boek ook in het Engels geschreven. Hier een sneak preview. Graag uw commentaar.

I’ve bought a house that was built in 1828. And there’s a lot of DIY work to be done in there. And during that DIY work I came across a pencil scribbling that said “1896, P. Kremer”. So this mister Kremer was doing DIY work in 1896 and wanted a future generation to know that he tried his best. Which was a bit like finding a message in a bottle.
I suppose this Mr. Kremer had work. Let’s assume he was a baker. Everybody in this village would have known he was the baker. And whether he was in church on Sunday, at the butcher on Monday or at someones birthday on Friday, he would be identified as being the baker.
When I’m at the butcher I’m a man with a young son. When I’m at work as a teacher I’m a pseudo-serious encyclopedia of modern day trivia. When I’m at work as a freelance copywriter or strategist I’m a young person with connections and a ton of ideas. I am perceived as someone different everywhere I go. The reality that is me as a person of flesh and bones has little impact on the way I am perceived. Big change in a 113 years.
But the same goes for the reality that I live in. Mr. Kremer was constrained to his physical surroundings. If he wanted to talk to his mother, he’d have to make time to visit her. I can whip out my mobile phone and make that wireless connection more important than the couple of square feet I am standing on in an instant. Place is irrelevant to me to a certain extent.
Mr. Kremer lived before TV, radio, youtube or twitter. He could have bought a newspaper, but most likely got his news from the local cafe. Where news was supposedly pretty local. No need or possibility to be frightened about people dying of Mexican flu in Mexico or Koreans having a rocket.
We on the other hand can be driven mad by all the news and knowledge we have access to. Should I worry about a flu breakout on the other side of the world? Should I care about people in Africa that have nothing to eat? Should I protest against Guantanamo Bay? How can I relate to all these things? And how can I choose what to act upon?
I have no choice but to chose. I can’t act upon everything. I can’t even act upon everything that intrinsically touches me in any way. So by default I need to filter my sources and perceive my reality in a way that I see fit.
You can possibly see that as a constraint. But also as an opportunity. And since I’m a DIY type of person, I’d like to see the positive. How can I mould this world to my advantage?

There’s no rulebooks anymore. So here’s the rulebook for that.

With different angles of approach in every chapter, this book sets out to be a guide in our world today. Avoiding to become victim of the chaos around us, and setting out to make everything out of this opportunity.