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. Creative research methods include focus groups, interviewing, brand mapping, and co-design. Each method is explained with a brief narrative text followed by a variety of visual demonstrations and case studies. Also included are discussions with leading professionals, including Art Chantry, Ivan Chermayeff, Jessica Helfand, Steven Heller, Abott Miller, Christoph Niemann, Paula Scher, and Martin Venezky, about how they get ideas and what they do when the well runs dry. The book is directed at working designers, design students, and anyone who wants to apply inventive thought patterns to everyday creative challenges.
艾琳．路佩登Ellen Lupton
艾琳是一名作家、研究員、設計師、也是一位教育者。她是馬里蘭藝術學院（(Maryland Institute College of Art，MICA)平面設計藝術碩士學程以及設計思考中心（Center for Design Thinking）的主任，同時在史密森機構的古柏－惠特國家設計博物館（Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution）擔任研究員。
她的著作包括有：《字的設計有道理！》(Thinking with Type)、《獨立出版》(Indie Publishing)、 《平面設計：新基本原則》(Graphic Design: The New Basics)、 《探索素材》(Exploring Materials)、以及《自己玩...