Being creative and coming up with ideas should be a fun and interesting experience. While a winning concept takes work, time and dedication, never lose sight of the innovative, fun and enjoyable approach to the process. If you try too hard or attempt to think too big (and usually stress yourself out in the process) it will be reflected within your end product. While you want to show that you have thought long and hard about your idea, you also want to keep your sense of creativity and personality within everything that you do. Here are some tips on how to do that…

Who, What, When, Where, Why and How…
For each idea you come up with, or every problem you try to find a solution to, it is always a great idea to apply the ‘who, what, when, where, why and how’ formula in order to learn everything you can about the situation and the people in it.

• Who are the people involved and what motivates them?

• What are the major challenges, aims and objectives?

• When is this problem/idea taking place? How much this affect your solution?

• Where will the idea come to life? Does this pose any problems or difficulties/constraints that could affect the idea?

• Why is your idea a good one? Why does it work? And why will it solve problems?

• How do the different people and elements relate to and influence each other? And are the ways they relate problematic?

Collaborate!
Collaboration has been a key ingredient for some of the world’s most successful creative enterprises. So actively seek out different people and different experiences as it will help you to look at the world differently and inevitably become open to fresh avenues of inquiry for your ideas.

• Present your ideas to other people and consider their opinions and suggestions.

• Search for contrasting, divergent, varied, even offbeat ways of approaching your topic in order to free your mind of the confines of academic thought.

• Look for inspiration from people who inspire you and perhaps begin where their ideas left off.

Be original
Although you might look to other excellent ideas, be inspired by great work or even borrow concepts from famous inventors, always look to add a completely original element to your work. Never copy someone else’s idea. There. Is. Nothing. Creative. About. Recreating. Something. Someone. Else. Has. Done. To avoid this ask yourself the following:

•  How can you take your idea to the next level and add a completely original element to it?

• What makes my idea different? Or how can I make my idea different?

Plan
It is important to draft a specific plan for bringing your idea to life. This will help you map out how things are going to work and thus highlight any potential problems that might arise.

• Identify the resources you need, materially and financially, and how you will secure them. Are your targets realistic?

• Is each step in your plan manageable and achievable?

• Anticipate how your solutions may or may not work, how they might go wrong, what the next steps will be if they work.

•  Reflect on your work, both in terms of what’s working and what’s not.

Presentation
Lastly but by no means least, present your idea well. It should be clear, concise and look professional. PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, or designed documents are preferable if possible. However if they are not, use an easily readable font, keep it to one page of text and thoroughly check your work for mistakes.

We leave you today with quotes from previous winners of The Bigger Idea briefs and what they think makes a winning idea.

“When first thinking of a creative idea, we don’t hold back. It’s much easier trying to tone down a huge, exciting idea, then trying to jazz up a dull one!” – Rob and Stu

“A winning idea is simple, understands the brief and pays attention to detail” – Stephanie Josephs

“Creativity, Originality and most of the time – a little insanity” – Nobby and Cal

“A good idea doesn’t need to complicated or complex, nor does it need to have all types of media chucked at it. A good idea is simple, easy to execute and grabs peoples’ attention” – Charlotte and Danny