Idea management in creative lives

This research explores how ideas occur in creative work and the strategies and tools used to represent and develop them. We describe the analysis of an open questionnaire survey of creative practitioners' use of devices to represent ideas and capture inspirational material. Unconscious processes, novel experiences and time away from practice frequently provoke ideas. Our analysis finds that ubiquitous devices are important to practitioners for making initial representations for personal use. Paper and pen remains by far the most common device employed, however respondents perceived organisational advantages in new technology. Representations are created as initial memory aids, platforms for development, or to share ideas. A single representation is rarely suitable for all these purposes.