Dear Mike, Janet, and colleagues

I find the following distinctions useful when considering the  
differences and similarities between purposeful thought, design  
thinking, and creative thinking.

Purposeful thought  is primarily concerned with the pursuit of goals  
within a familiar context guided by prior experience or learning -  
riding a bicycle, solving a puzzle, expressing or interpreting a  
thought, etc.

Design thinking applies the mental capabilities required in purposeful  
thought to address needs and desires arising from a focal situation in  
order to improve the situation, subject or artifact.

Creative thinking extends design thinking by applying unusual  
strategies to modes of thought to seek a novel, significant, and  
valued revisioning of the focal situation, subject, or artifact.

In this view, Design Thinking, and Creative Thinking build on and  
enrich Purposeful Thought, using its underlying structure in new ways  
to solve, resolve, and create. This structure is outlined in A Theory  
of Design Thinking, a short paper available on academia.edu, and on  
the website idesignthinking.com

Dr. Charles Burnette
234 South Third Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
[log in to unmask]
  + 215 629 1387


On Sep 21, 2011, at 4:36 AM, Janet McDonnell wrote:

> Dear Mike,
>
> I have a paper forthcoming in Design Studies - available via their  
> in press list which is a (single) study of fine art collaboration -  
> and relates the(ir) practice to what we know about designing. There  
> is also recent work by Linden Ball at Lancaster, UK working with  
> poets - there are refs to some of this latter in the Design Studies  
> paper. Please let me know off-list if you publish anything.
>
> Regards,
>
> Janet
>
> Professor Janet McDonnell
> Central Saint Martins,  University of the Arts London, Southampton  
> Row,  London WC1B 4AP
> tel    +44 (0) 207 514 7144
> ________________________________________
> From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and  
> related research in Design [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of  
> McAuley, Mike [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 20 September 2011 23:45
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: differences in process between design and other creative  
> disciplines.
>
> I would be interested to know if anyone is doing work which seeks to  
> establish differences in process between design and other creative  
> disciplines such as music. Obviously outcomes/artefacts are  
> different, but are the processes the same?  If they are indeed the  
> same, then why do we differentiate the design process from the  
> creative process? Questions, questions.This is my new, post PhD  
> research direction and one which I seek to partly pursue through my  
> own creative practice as a musician and illustrator. In my previous  
> work I used Swann's (2002) design process model to help describe the  
> processes of my illustration students when they interpreted written  
> text into illustrations. Here is the link to the thesis if anyone is  
> interested.http://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/1046
>
> Creative practice as research method is a new venture for me, but I  
> do think that having undergone the rigours of a traditional PhD I  
> may now be in a position to develop verifiable knowledge. If I  
> don't, well I'm going to have a ball writing songs and painting! [log in to unmask]
>
> Mike
>
> Dr. MIKE MCAULEY
> SENIOR LECTURER, SUBJECT DIRECTOR,
> ILLUSTRATION
> Institute of Communication Design
> College of Creative Arts
> Massey University
> Museum Building
> Buckle Street
> Wellington
> http://creative.massey.ac.nz<http://creative.massey.ac.nz/>
> ________________________________
>
> (04) 801 5799 ext 62461
> (04 027 357 8799
>
> We've moved into our amazing new home at King's Cross.
>
> FIND OUT MORE:
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