The first thing I look at is who am I designing for? Why are they the target? Have I designed a solution for them previously? If I have, what can I do differently?

Every target audience has issues they face that can range all the way from life changing issues, to everyday life issues. This is were I start large and funnel down the big idea.

There is competition in most market sectors that have already solved a problem to the one I have addressed, or solved it in a different manner. I use this as inspiration, and conduct thorough market research to figure out whether my solution has a USP.

Once I have my research, creative brief, and mood boards ready, it’s time to brainstorm. I always start with a paper and a pencil. Then, I create a brain dump of all my ideas, related words, and start mapping them together. Usually, mindmapping with a friend really helps at this point to get all of the ideas out.

Once I have all my ideas out, it’s time to condense them down to the TOP 3 most feasible solution and bring it for peer review. After adding and subtracting ideas, I come to a conclusion of one solid BIG IDEA.

Now is that the big idea has been established, it’s time to layout all the research, concepts, and moodboards to start designing. The creative brief keeps getting updated throughout this process. The beginning stage is a rough prototype that further gets refined over time.

After rounds of feedback from friends, peers as well as professors, there are multiple rounds of testing that take place where I make changes as I go. Eventually, the final product gets designed!