Elaboration & Analogical Thinking

 12/8/21, 7:45 - 9:52 pm, 2.12 hours

I was starting to feel overwhelmed by ideas and the potential to waste time and money I did have just to try ideas - yet, I know creativity needs to be a little messy and try out different things. So, I did some research on different websites and found some apps that will allow you to try out different things and essentially do your own interior design online. I still haven’t broken ground on DOING the thing - as in painting and decorating. However, I’m going to use this journal entry as a “creative process” today. I found using CPS as a starting point for this process to be really helpful, and as I completed our readings in this course I kept thinking I should apply these different strategies to my creative planning time. 

For today, I am going to use this entry AS a part of my creative project. Today, I will be doing an elaboration technique that we practiced in our Creativity Skills and CPS activity. 

Elaboration:  20 ways I can modify this office to make it more appealing and more “me”.

Add plants (Hanging plants, shelves/plants on the walls, art work of plants)	Include places for brainstorming such as a white board, bulletin board	Add a practical bed or daybed to allow sitting/lounging but also accommodate friends	Little place for “cabinet of curiosities” inspired collectibles
Build a storage system in the closet (instead of just putting a shelf and a filing cabinet)	Make as much furniture and decoration double as practical storage	Lighting that can be changed to increase focus and productivity	Keep surfaces clear (really emphasize dual functionality furniture with storage)
Use a modern/dark color pallet	Add a desk that can allow “spreading out” such as a round table	Brown “slats” used in a corner or nook for decoration on the wall to separate the “office” portion from the daybed/guest portion	Designated place for Jacque (dog bed?)
Use earthy colors to paint the walls	Yellow or light colors to brighten it up	A sliding door for the closet	Something for the kitties (cat tree? Cat corner?)
Travel themes	Artwork or Photography	Designated “goals” or inspiration wall or area (does this overlap with brainstorming area?)	Decorative lights (twinkle lights?)

Just the above exercise alone has really helped me think of some unique ideas for the layout of my room. 

Now, I’m going to move on to some analogical problem solving. I’m going to try to find ideas for the above elaboration activity by asking the questions listed in chapter 6 (p.105) to stimulate analogical thinking. I’ve just created Pinterest boards to save images and ideas that answer the following questions - 

1. What else is like this? 

2. What have others done?

3. What could I copy?

I’ve made each of my “elaborate” ideas hyperlinks to their own pinterest board so you can travel through my ‘analogical thinking’ research.