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Designers find stimuli in a number of ways. Stimuli give designers ideas for solving a problem and help them to create new and original designs. You may find stimuli in:

• Your design brief – this outlines the requirements of your project and should give you some useful starting points.
• A source of inspiration – this can help to generate ideas for the style of your design.
• Social influences, such as design trends or consumer needs.
• Cultural influences, such as a particular design movement.
• Market research – investigating designs already on the market might inspire you. You could carry out a survey or questionnaire if appropriate to your brief.
• The work of specific designers may influence your approach.

When choosing a stimulus for design work, try to do the following:

• Select a stimulus which relates well to your design brief.
• Consider different sources for your market research and investigations – the world around you, shops or online outlets, books, magazines, design websites.
• Keep an open mind - it is a process of exploration.

Responding to stimuli in design work

There are many different ways to respond to stimuli for design work. You could:

• Base a list or a spidergram on your design brief to explore possibilities.
• Make a collage of market research images in your sketchbook or make a moodboard .
• Make a collection of images of designers’ work that you particularly admire.
• Make a collection of images relating to your source of inspiration.
• Make 3D forms based on your source of inspiration, if appropriate.
• Take photographs.
• Doodle some initial ideas in your sketchbook.
• Make drawings based on your source of inspiration.

The spidergram below shows how you might explore the design problem of creating a poster for a musical of The Great Gatsby.