Pandemonium

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Pandemonium: Creative process, experimentation and chance

In John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Pandemonium is the capital of hell, the place where demons have a board meeting in order to discuss their plans. It also means confusion, chaos, and commotion. Such a metaphor can be used to describe the creative process of a graphic designer, whose mind functions as an overflown cauldron filled with interconnected information in a complex network. Contrary to popular belief, ideas are not a result of divine inspiration or orderly and predictable thinking. They come to life due to repetitive practice, effort and experimentation, which are characteristics of the designer´s own repertoire.

The purpose of this dissertation was to understand chance and experimentation inserted in the creative process of graphic design. This dissertation was based on the lines of a practical and theoretical research and consists of reflections from the bibliography on processes of design and creation, interviews with graphic designers and experiments that present, in practice, the design creation process, which is unique for each person, since it involves many aspects that will determine the final result. Thus, only deep involvement might eventually prove that unpremeditated elements collaborate in this process.

Therefore, Pandemonium was organized as a notebook of experiments and experiences that can be read in full or leafed through freely. It is a research that takes the personal references and the reports of the theoretical and practical learning of a student, designer and professor into account. It was based on the eight stages of the creative process described by Robert Keith Sawyer, who has studied creativity for more than twenty years. These stages form the structure of the dissertation and aim to provide clarity and understanding of the whole creative process, which does not occur in a linear way; therefore, the eight stages do not necessarily happen in the order presented in this work. Creative process is formed along with project development as there are always deviations, mistakes, improvisations and surprises which promote its shape.