It is important to come up with a diverse range of ideas when presented with a brief.  Spider diagrams can be seen as the foundation of idea-generating.  When drawing a spider diagram, you write the keyword in the centre, write down any words that occur to you, and expand outwards, adding words. You can also include other people in your idea-generating, which gives a broader perspective on the subject.  It seems like the more people you involve, the richer the outcome is going to be.  In this exercise, I will explain why the strategy of including other people suited me the best to come up with more ideas. 

I created a spider diagram for each of these words:

• Seaside
• Childhood
• Angry
• Festival

After completing the diagrams with a black pen, I included two other persons to come up with words without seeing what I have written.  I marked the duplicated words in blue, and the extra words for the two persons are marked in orange and green.

Seaside Diagram

In the seaside diagram, the “green” person generated words about what you will find underwater, like coral, seahorses and dolphins. In contrast, the“orange” person was more perceptive of family and the people around him. 

Childhood Diagram

The childhood diagram is more personal, and it makes less sense to involve other people. Still, if you need to get a general idea of the childhood of a group of people, for instance, orphans, it will make sense to involve more people during idea generation.

Angry Diagram

The angry diagram was the most difficult to work with, as ideas will just not flow, but there were more words to work with when I included other people.  Words like yelling, kicking, screaming, and shouting, did not occur to me, even though they are typical behaviour outlets for being angry.

Festival Diagram

The festival diagram made me realise that each person’s perception of a festival is different.  Some people think of candy floss, ice cream and amusement rides, while others think of warm clothes, hot chocolate and ice skating.  

Overall, the strategy that suited me the best to come up with more words was to include other people.  I think this is an excellent way to discover the words that resonate the most with your target audience when creating an illustration.