6. Synectics Definition
• The term Synectics is from the Greek word
synectikos, which means “bringing forth
together,” or “bringing different things into
unified connection.”
• Synectics is about making connections.
7. Since creativity involves the
changing of things into new
structures, every creative thought
or action draws on synectic thinking.
8. Synectic thinking is the process of
discovering the links that unite
seemingly disconnected elements.
9. It is a way of mentally
taking things apart and
putting them together to
furnish new insight for
all types of problems.
10. Synectics Definition
• Creative discovery comes from analogical and
metaphorical thinking, the process of linking
unlike subjects.
• You must create VISUAL analogies and
metaphors.
11. Thinking to Connect
• Analogical thinking is a comparison between
two things that are similar in some respects,
often used to help explain something or make
it easier to understand.
• Metaphorical thinking is when one thing is
used or considered to represent another
13. The Synectic Process
• Make something strange familiar…
• Create something new…
• Personal analogies-do you feel like a sponge,
doormat? Do you see yourself as a lion, a mouse?
• Direct analogies-A school is like a salad…life is like an
elevator.
• Conflicting analogies…War-creative and destructive.
Talent is a blessing and a curse.
14. Metaphorical Thinking
• A metaphor is a soft thinking technique connecting
two different universes of meaning.
• Examples: Food chain, flow of time, fiscal watchdog.
• The key to metaphorical thinking is similarity. The
human mind tends to look for similarities.
• A road map is a model or metaphor of reality and
useful for explaining things.
• The Dolby Sound system is like a sonic laundry.
15. Architect Buckminster Fuller summed
up the essence of synectics when he
said all things regardless of their
dissimilarity can somehow be linked
together, either in a physical,
psychological or symbolic way.
16. The Synectic Attitude
• Synectics encourages the ability to live with
complexity and apparent contradiction.
• Synectics stimulates creative thinking.
• Synectics mobilizes both sides of the brain,
the right brain (the dreamer), and the left
brain (the reasoner).
• Synectics provides a free-thinking state of
consciousness .
17. The Synectic Ways of Working
• Synectics is based on the fusion of opposites.
• Synectics is based on analogical thinking.
• Synectics is synergistic. Its action produces a
result which is greater than the sum of its
parts.
18. The Synectic Pinball Machine
• Synectic thinking is like a mental pinball game.
Stimulus input bounced against the scoring
bumpers (the Trigger Questions) is
transformed.
• Ordinary perceptions are turned into
extraordinary ones; the familiar or prosaic is
made strange.
• Synectic play is the creative mind at work.
19. The Synectic Triggers
• Synectic Trigger mechanisms catalyze or
create new thoughts, ideas and inventions.
• Synectic Theory is based on disruptive
thinking.
20. The 23 Design Synectic Triggers
Subtract Change Scale Prevaricate
Repeat Substitute Analogize
Combine Fragment Hybridize
Add Isolate Metamorphose
Transfer Distort Symbolize
Empathize Disguise Mythologize
Animate Contradict Fantasize
Superimpose Parody
21. Take Creative Action!
• Ideas are not born in a vacuum.
• Use the 23 synectic triggers to transform your
ideas into something new.
• The triggers are tools for transformational
thinking and may lead you to some great
discoveries.
22. Art Think: Ways of Working
1. Identify: Set the problem or task, identify the subject.
2. Analyze: Examine the subject; break it down, classify it.
3. Ideate: Think, fantasize, produce ideas. Generate options
towards a creative solution. Relate, rearrange,
reconstruct. What design synectic triggers can
you use?
4. Select: Choose your best option.
5. Implement: Put your ideas into action. Realize it. Transform
imagination and fantasy into tangible form.
6. Evaluate: Judge the result. Think about new options and
possibilities that have emerged. Go back to
step #1.
23. Your Assignment
Draw a picture you can use to
transform using the 23 synectic
triggers. Be sure it is a complete
drawing of an object. No heads,
people or cartoons!
50. • Ex4. Draw the above Trilobyte as #1 shape, and the shell as #6
shape, then morph the inbetweens #2-#5 shape
51. • "The form of an object is a diagram of forces.
We can deduce the forces that are acting or
have acted upon it; in this strict and particular
sense, it is a diagram." ~ D'arcy Thompson
52. Home Work
• 1. Find a shape and its force field
• 2. apply the forcefield to a basic shape array
• 3. use 6 synectics rules when applying
forcefield
61. • "Invention is the process of discovering a
principle. Design is the process of applying that
principle." ~ David Pye "To design is to plan and
to organize to related and to control.
• In short it embraces all means opposing disorder
and accident.
• Therefore it signifies a human need and qualifies
man's
thinking and doing."
• Joseph Albers
79. • "Invention is the process of discovering a
principle. Design is the process of applying
that principle." ~ David Pye "To design is to
plan and to organize to related and to control.
• In short it embraces all means opposing
disorder and accident.
• Therefore it signifies a human need and
qualifies man's thinking and doing."
87. HR Corian Vertebrae Couch Backs Innovation at
Toronto Interior Design ShowGiger
• http://www.dexigner.com/news/17002
88. Vertebrae recliner rocker by Anna Franco from
the Art Center College of Design
• http://www.icsid.org/feature/current/articles1053.htm
89. Vertebrae recliner rocker by Anna Franco from
the Art Center College of Design
• http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/interiors/index.php?fuseaction=prod
uct.productview&pdid=113