How To Generate And Nurture Award Winning… Ideas

Nick Carson chats to D&AD Festival 2019 speakers about keeping the integrity of your ideas throughout the design process

Strong ideas are the bedrock of the creative industries. They keep the work fresh, but also help engage audiences who are overwhelmed and fatigued by the relentless noise coming from brands. Strip away the craft, and if there isn’t a compelling thought beneath there’s a risk that even the most beautiful piece of design risks becoming little more than decoration.

“Ideas are what engage and delight an audience,” confirms Jim Sutherland, multi-awardwinning founder of Studio Sutherl&, who delivered a playful workshop at D&AD Festival 2019 on how to cultivate ideas. “Being able to sum up an idea in a few words is a good way to know you have a strong and simple solution,” he adds. “You should be able to tell someone your idea over the phone.”

“Ideas come first, always,” agrees Matt Baxter, co-founder of Brighton-based design studio Baxter & Bailey who, along with copywriter Kate van der Borgh, explored how D&AD Festival attendees can best ‘beat the bullshit’ and ensure that ideas are expressed clearly and simply.

Design is about thinking, solving problems and innovating, asserts Baxter. And in order to have maximum impact, you need people to understand your ideas as easily as possible in order to get excited by them.

“Ideas resonate,” Baxter explains. “They can make people change the way they think, behave, act. Great ideas change culture, influence politics, shape the world. What that thinking looks like is secondary, but also vitally important – the craft or execution of those ideas can increase that resonance massively.”