Disruptive images: stimulating creative solutions by visualizing the design vision

In a contemporary design context it is important to be able to communicate design strategy at a high abstraction level and at an early stage in the design process. At the same time, in our postmodern consumer society that is largely dominated by media, it is important to be able to communicate ideas visually. This paper describes an informal technique for developing and presenting design visions, by visualizing abstract ideas with the aid of ‘disruptive’ images. Practicing this technique with three cohorts of industrial design engineering students in subsequent design courses showed that the technique enhanced the early stage communication of design goals and stimulated the implementation of creative design solutions. The use of ‘disruptive’ images showed to be particularly effective because it stimulated the students to look for opportunities on a higher level of abstraction, and the associated visualizations tended to make out-of-the-box solution directions more plausible.