Elaboration: This is the stage where you get into the details of development and test your results; you actually paint the painting, print the t-shirts, build the prototype, or beta test the software. You are moving from visualization of your ideas to implementing them, asking for feedback, and verifying the outcome. Again, remember the creative process is not a linear experience, but iterative as it spirals towards completion.
Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) described the problem facing the artist in the following manner:
“The art of pictorial creation is so complicated . . . it is so astronomical in its possibilities of relation and combination that it would take an act of super-human concentration to explain the final realization.”
A more methodical approach to this stage in the creative process and its challenges can be found in the design field of aerospace engineering. At Georgia Institute of Technology, Professor Daniel P. Schrage’s approach includes, as he describes it, The Four Challenges (C’s) of the Design Environment. They are (1) creativity, (2) complexity, (3) choice, and (4) compromise. Creativity, he believes is an idea of something that has not existed before or has not existed in the designer's mind before. Complexity is that which requires decisions on many variables and parameters; and then choice is making the decision between many possible solutions at all levels, from basic concepts to the smallest detail of shape. Finally, there is compromise made to balance multiple and sometimes conflicting requirements.
While the expression of elaboration is very different for Hofmann and Schrage, I think both would agree with what creativity expert, James Taylor, describes is happening during this stage:
“This is where Edison said that it [genius] is “1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” The elaboration stage is the 99% perspiration stage. This is where you are actually doing the work . . . testing the idea, working on the idea, those late nights in the studio, working at your desk, those hours in the laboratory if you are scientist, those days of testing and micro-testing products. This is the elaboration.”
As I close out this series, I hope you enjoy the creative process and go on to make the world more beautiful; and I encourage you to find the process that works best for you on your journey.
Godspeed.