The Creative Compass is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Design brings order to chaos. Art brings chaos to order. Both the Artist and the Designer have the same challenge: how do you create holistically balanced art or design projects when there are so many moving parts?
No matter what you are creating, whether designing a new service, a school curriculum, creating an advertising campaign, making a film, designing a game, or writing a novel, this guide attempts to help you navigate while keeping all of the various elements in balance.
I need to stress that this is a guide, not a prescriptive template. Every project is unique and this guide should be used only to navigate through the creative process, help you keep sight of the bigger picture, and maintain balance. There are no steps or start and end points. Everything has to form at once. Which can be overwhelming. So this just keeps you from tipping over. That said, there is a hierarchy of concepts:
Primary Concepts
A triangle of Person (you, your protagonist, or your user), World (the setting), Story (the narratives that take place within the world).
Secondary Concepts
A linking inner inverse triangle of Behaviour (how the Person acts on the World), Communication (engagement and how the Person reacts to or within the Story), and Experience (the Stories and interactions that take place within the World).
Bridging Tools
Tools that help make each of these concepts more tangible and practical in nature. These don’t have to be followed exactly but hopefully provide context and inspiration to help you tangibly work through creative challenges.
