Play is certainly an incredibly important part of an enjoyable, fulfilling, and ultimately productive design process. Paula Scher talks about play in her work here:
http://www.ted.com/talks/paula_scher_gets_serious.html

Awesome free chapter from Jess Schells new book “The Art of Game Design”:
http://artofgamedesign.com/book/AGD%20-%20Chapter%2006.pdf

Great insights on the creative process.

Almost displace yourself from all of that, move yourself into a introvert-like environment to consciously/subconsciously mull over it a bit and add something true of yourself into the mix.

I agree with Louise, I’ll definitely be asking myself some of those questions in amidst my next design process.

Thanks for sharing Shaun!

The process I use with client work is fairly methodical and I try to stick to it, when I find I don’t, the results are not usually as developed or ‘good’ in the end. I would say I follow a mix of the introverted and extroverted approach. Working with the client to establish the brief, working in isolation to research, brainstorm, come up with initial concepts and then back to collaborating with the client to develop the chosen direction, then back to isolation, applying my ‘knowledge’ to craft the results. I find it important to collaborate with my clients and engage them in the middle part of my design process, I try to acknowledge and appreciate their knowledge of the product or service they work with/for and their gut feelings about the people they are wanting to communicate with.

I’ll definitely be thinking about applying my process to my next personal project! Thanks for the post!