MiNi

Dr. Maria Vieira, Adelaide University researcher specialising in design thinking in education, writes extensively on the positive feedback loop between creativity and confidence.

Though we might assume one needs to come before the other, in reality they are dependent on one another.

“Design thinking doesn’t have to be complicated. Remember, it is just a process that helps us solve a problem. (…) It is more than a framework. In reality, Design Thinking is a mindset.”

Dr. Maria Vieira, Design Thinking for Creative Confidence (Catalyst Report No. 18)

What are the important parts of design thinking? While there are many number of ways to break down this inherent cognitive process, these five steps can help us understand where to begin.

1. 1.  Empathise  – Who is impacted by this problem?
2. 2.  Define  – What is your problem?
3. 3.  Ideate  – Explore all possibilities, experiment by combining and refining ideas.
4. 4.  Prototype  – Make a quick model to try your solution.
5. 5.  Test  – Does this work to solve the problem? Iterate if required.

Tim Brown, founder of global design and innovation firm IDEO, frequently speaks about the value of design thinking, creative leadership, and innovation. In his book Change by Design he puts forward a conceptual understanding of how we can make better solutions for everyday problems using divergent thinking (exploring many directions) and then convergent thinking (bringing it back together).

Emma Sainsbury, a.k.a. ‘Eluize’, is an Australian-born classically trained instrumentalist, sound designer, audio engineer, vocalist, label owner, studio operator & mentor. As an electronic artist she has taken her music far and wide, curating and creating a spectrum of house and techno.

As a music producer for MiNi she knows the struggle of combining disparate elements into a harmonious composition:

“When we’re asked to be creative sometimes it’s hard to know where to start. With sound design and music tech this this might look like – What base sound we will try first?
What happens when we manipulate it or effect it in different ways? How does it sound and feel now? And so on.”

“As we combine each element the bigger picture begins to come into focus, then we can go back and tweak. It’s a constant listen, question, feel, adjust, repeat (…) I’ve enjoyed weaving all these threads together.”

Emma Sainsbury, MiNi Music Producer

Luke Million, a.k.a. ‘The Synth Lord,’ is an artist and producer from Adelaide, South Australia. For over 15 years Luke has shared his love of vintage synthesizers and drum machines, beaming their analog waveforms over radio stations and dance floors across the world.

As a music producer for MiNi he reflects on problem solving in the creative process:

“We started with a creative vision of what Mini would sound like and problem solving began as we worked out the best way to achieve this vision – How will the individual components work together? How will we create audio? What sound design tools can we use?”

“Creativity is at every step of the problem solving process.
Every potential solution to a problem is spawned from creative approaches that continuously repeat until the final solution is achieved.”

Luke Million, MiNi Music Producer