The creative search engine
Published by Nick Hall on 19 August 2009.It just occurred to me that, in many ways, the process I use to initiate the creative thinking process is remarkably similar to that of a sophisticated search engine.
When I search the internet, what I'm looking for is an answer to a specific question, in whole or in part. The search engine used quickly delivers locations that it believes possess the information I'm looking for, in various forms and formats ranging from images to text to video. The more complete and confining the search criteria, the more specific and precise the information I'm offered (assuming that it actually exists anywhere).
When I start to develop a creative solution, the process is similar. The strategy I'm working from provides the search criteria and narrows the solutions spectrum. My thinking process then sorts and sifts through however many billion pieces of reference and - here's the big difference - works to combine them and provide what it believes is an entirely unique solution. And the formats it draws from for inspiration are many, including colour, texture, sound, memory clips, advertising, song lyrics, movies, food, books, locations, fine art, smells, typography and people.
Of course, the results are never offered up in .0047th of a second, but when the idea begins to swim to the surface, surrounded by the bubbles of inspiration and influences that created it, everything else stops; my eyes glaze over and I hear nothing for the moment.
And, for that second or two, it's the most beautiful place to be.
