Abstract

Creativity is of course expected from design graduates. Creative idea generation methodologies and approaches then would be expected to be at the core of design education programs. The creative approaches employed by designers are often held up to be a model for the way business and management could and should approach the creativity they will need during changing times, (Pink, Hackett, Rogers, Csikszentmihalyi, Mcwilliam, Robinson). However commonly such courses do not educate for such a ‘creative’ approach. Either they expect students who come into the course to ‘be creative’ already — or they hope or expect that somehow they will absorb creativity by some kind of osmosis. In the Visual Communication Program at the University of South Australia creative idea generation is embedded as the foundation for the program, based on the certainty that it can be taught, that it is the fundamental part of a design course, and that students ‘get it’ if it’s embedded in their specialist interests. Through a number of case studies, this paper outlines the reasons and principles behind the structure of the course and the teaching methodologies that together consistently lead to creative outcomes.