[Book] Graphic Design Thinking

Creativity is more than an inborn talent; it is a hard-earned skill, and like any other skill, it improves with practice. Graphic Design Thinking: How to Define Problems, Get Ideas, and Create Form explores a variety of informal techniques ranging from quick, seat-of-the-pants approaches to more formal research methods for stimulating fresh thinking, and ultimately arriving at compelling and viable solutions. In the style with which author Ellen has come to been known hands-on, up-close approach to instructional design writing brainstorming techniques are grouped around the three basic phases of the design process: defining the problem, inventing ideas, and creating form.

Lupton, Ellen; Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming, Princeton Architectural Press, 2011.

Tim Brown urges designers to think big

"Tim Brown says the design profession has a bigger role to play than just creating nifty, fashionable little objects. He calls for a shift to local, collaborative, participatory "design thinking" — starting with the example of 19th-century design thinker Isambard Kingdom Brunel."

At http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_brown_urges_designers_to_think_big.