About Word Associations

One of your goals as a graphic designer is to come up with original, fresh concepts. Sometimes, the only way to do that is by exhausting your ideas on a topic. In order for that to happen, you have to really dig deep, which is actually something most of us don't do. If I asked you tell me what you think of when I give you the topic of "Egg," you are probably thinking this and the rest of you will think this. That's normal. It's what everyone initially thinks of. In terms of graphic design, if you don't "dig deep" into the topic, then you designs will look the same as everyone else.

Let's think about a logo design. If I asked you to come up with a logo for a hardware store, what would be the first things that come to your mind? Like, seriously, I'm asking you to take ten seconds and think about the ideas that come to your mind when you think of a hardware store...



.... keep thinking...




Did you take ten seconds?
Would your idea look something like this? If so, that's actually typical. Most people will come up with the same initial ideas. Without really challenging the brain, designs tend to lack substance and originality. Here's the family feud video that I showed in class -- How many answers did the person in round 2 duplicate? What does that say about original thoughts?

Without digging deeper, you will most likely come up with the exact same ideas as someone else. So, we are going to start several processes that will help you generate new and original concepts. The first is a word association. Really, you don't have to think about it as a "word" -- it's more like a concept. What words come to mind when you consider the concept of "FAST?" How many times can you expand off that topic?

 Don't limit yourself to words, consider phrases and other connections as well: