Thinking is a rational cognitive activity based on perceptual knowledge such as feeling, perception and representation. It is a general reflection of reality in the form of concept, judgment and reasoning. It reflects not the individual characteristics and external relations of objective things, but the internal relations of objective things. People know the essence of things through thinking, so it is a more profound, complete and advanced reflection than the direct perceptual reflection of objective things such as feeling, perception and appearance.
The so-called design refers to a method of designing, planning, conceiving and solving problems, and the activity process is expressed by visual means. Its core content includes the formation of plans and ideas; Visual communication mode; The specific application after the plan is communicated. Design is also a summary of the designer's thinking by summarizing and refining many perceptual thoughts produced in design. Therefore, in the early stage of design, designers must carefully investigate and plan the design scheme to be carried out, analyze the specific requirements and scheme intentions of customers, as well as the purpose and intention, regional characteristics and cultural connotation of the whole scheme, and generate a series of design ideas with the designer's unique thinking quality, so as to extract the most accurate design from many ideas and ideas. After analyzing the design elements, designers will inevitably produce some ideas and ideas about the whole design, and these ideas all come from the objective perceptual thinking of design. Then we can classify these ideas according to the thinking methods of synthesis, abstraction, generalization and induction, find out the internal relations, locate the design and form design ideas.
1, divergent thinking
Divergent thinking is not bound by existing knowledge and traditional concepts. It adopts an open and active way to derive new ideas from different thinking directions. Divergent thinking is the main component of design thinking, so some psychologists think that design thinking is divergent thinking.
Divergent thinking, also known as divergent thinking and divergent thinking, is an open and pioneering thinking, seeking different and unique methods to solve problems according to certain conditions. Therefore, American psychologist bartlett once called it "exploratory thinking", and some people called it "a hotbed of creativity". It can be seen that extensive development is the main feature of divergent thinking.
Divergent thinking can diverge from a wide range of aspects and develop in different directions. In this regard, we can make a divergent thinking model from the assumption of the internal connection of some completed designs. For example, the divergence and development centered on two-wheeled bicycles form a "design circle" and deepen a design into a series of products. Of course, this process is not done by one person's wisdom, but by many people in decades. In recent decades, designers from the East and the West have often dealt with the theme of peace, and different ideas have diverged in different directions. Some take the combination of girls and pigeons as the artistic conception of beauty; Some show pigeons of peace protected by human beings in the form of "hand shadow". Some designers also developed their ideas from another aspect, reflecting the desire for peace from the direction of "opposing war" and eliminating weapons. This is also a kind of thinking divergence to overcome the psychological "stereotype", which is also very important for breaking through the convention and opening up thinking. "Stereotype" is a state of psychological preparation for a thing's cognitive orientation, and "seeing new things with old eyes" is a stereotype. We may be conservative about new things because of some kind of "prejudice". This phenomenon is more obvious in aesthetic attitude. For example, at the first London World Expo (185 1), the practical exhibits of the United States were ridiculed by most European countries, and it took decades to make a fair evaluation. In addition, the usefulness of things, that is, the function, may also have a "function set", that is, there is a fixed view on the function of things, which affects their functions in other aspects. Once the interference of this stereotype is eliminated, thinking will find another way.
A book named How to Think in Design written by Gao lists a large number of examples of inventions inspired by other things. For example, inspired by burdock seeds, velcro, which can be opened and closed freely, was invented. In the era of constant renovation of clothing styles, French fashion master St.? 6? 1 Laurent introduced the design concept of "geography", which is actually to blend the clothes of all regions and nationalities in the world with those of Europe, either Indian or Vietnamese, and so on. Inspired by this, some people put forward the design concept of "history", combining the clothing of the past era with modern clothing in order to be novel, that is, changing the horizontal design idea of Saint Laurent into vertical one (Figure 3-48) (Figure 3-49).
2. Converging thinking
Aggregation thinking is a form of reasoning logic thinking, which takes a certain thinking object as the center and seeks the target answer from different angles and directions under the guidance of existing knowledge and experience. Divergent thinking fully develops intelligence, which enables us to find various assumptions and solutions to problems in a very broad space. But the result of divergence is also unstable, because all kinds of assumptions are reasonable and unreasonable; Some are right and some are absurd. The correct conclusion can only be drawn through identification, verification and screening one by one, as the famous mathematician Poincare said: "An invention is not composed of useless combinations, but of a few useful combinations. Invention is identification and selection. " This kind of concentration after divergence and seeking common ground after seeking differences need to rely on the convergence of thinking.
Convergence thinking is one-way thinking, also known as seeking common ground thinking and concentrated thinking, and it is a way of thinking to seek a correct answer to a question. Obviously, various ideas generated by divergent thinking are the basis of divergent thinking, and concentration and choice are the verification of correct answers. This process can't be completed at one time, and it is often carried out according to the mutual transformation mode of "divergence-concentration-divergence-concentration" (Figure 3-50) (Figure 3-5 1).
The core of thinking is choice. We say that choice is also creation, because non-selective divergence can't exert efficiency in the end and can't turn design thinking into effective creativity. We have all experienced the choice of excellent people among various ideas and design sketches. However, choice is not a mechanical affirmation and negation, it intersects with supplement and correction, just like "yangko" progress with three steps forward and one step back. Rudolph, an American art psychologist? 6? 1 arnheim carefully studied Picasso's creative process, and found that Picasso had painted 6 1 Zhang sketch when he created the famous painting guernica, and it was only after several revisions that it became a published work. Arnheim concluded that Picasso's creative process is "the interaction of conflict, change, restriction and supplement, and gradually achieves the unity, coordination and enrichment of the whole work. Therefore, artistic activities are different from organisms, which grow from seeds. Its development is like an irregular jump, sometimes moving forward, sometimes retreating, sometimes from whole to part, sometimes from part to whole. " For design, the characteristics of thinking process are exactly the same. It is worth noting that design is different from many arts in terms of "limitation". In other words, due to the direct connection between design and material production or practical function, it is subject to more "restrictions" and the selection criteria are not free in some aspects. Therefore, the selection process must have an element of reasoning. Take the simple book cover design as an example, the limitation of book layout, the requirement of highlighting the title of the book, the constraint of printing technology and so on. It is rarely changed at will because of artistic effects.
To use an image metaphor, the divergent and convergent thinking of art design takes the human brain as the central point of thinking, and the way of thinking converges from the outside to this central point, or diverges from this central point. On this basis, the directional mode of thinking is derived, that is, the directional, lateral and reverse development of thinking. For the thinking form of art design, these aspects are very important factors in the process of art design. Understanding, mastering and consciously training this way of thinking will help us fully develop the artistic potential in modern art design and improve the efficiency and creativity of design thinking.
Aggregation thinking is to "aggregate" the perceived objects and collected information in the process of art design according to certain standards, and explore its essence and essential characteristics. In the process of seeking common ground while reserving differences, all kinds of information and materials in a hazy state are first displayed, which may be disorderly and have no obvious characteristics. However, with the deepening of thinking activities, the theme of creation gradually became clear, and the characteristics of various materials or information gradually emerged, becoming interdependent, interrelated and with the same characteristics, and the focus gradually gathered to the thinking center, which gradually improved the form of creation.
Divergent thinking is emitting and diverging outward from the central point of thinking, producing tentacles that capture creative inspiration from many directions and angles. If the human brain is compared to a big tree, human thinking, feeling, imagination and other activities promote the derivation of "branches". The more "branches", the more opportunities to contact with other "branches", and the more intersections (synapses) are generated, and new branches are constantly derived to form new synapses. In this way, every synapse can change and new ideas will emerge one after another. When the human brain conducts its thinking activities, it follows this model. Every time people touch something and see an object, they will have impressions and memories. The more things they touch, the richer their imagination, and the stronger their ability to analyze and solve problems. This mode of thinking is not limited by the conventional mode of thinking, but integrates the theme, content and object of creation as a central point in the thinking space, and diffuses and absorbs all possible elements such as artistic style, national customs and social trends. And integrate them into your own design thinking. Divergent thinking and convergent thinking are two complementary aspects in the process of design thinking. In the process of design thinking, divergent thinking is used to collect materials extensively, associate freely, find design inspiration and design opportunities, and create various conditions for artistic design. Then, the materials obtained are screened, summarized, summarized and judged by the method of aggregation thinking, so as to produce correct ideas and conclusions. This process cannot be completed at one time, and it is often repeated many times, seeking differences-seeking common ground-seeking differences-seeking common ground again. The two are interrelated, infiltrated and transformed, resulting in new understanding and design ideas.