How to improve Creativity & Lateral thinking - part 1

Your are here Creativity > Improve creativity part - 1

Welcome back friends, before discussing the actual topic, let me state the definition of 'Creativity' in my
own language.

"Creativity can be defined as an art of thinking/imagining/writing/acting/doing or even speaking

something NEW - that differs from the rest and that is probably :

 Unique
 Astonishing
 Appreciable
 Acceptable
 Adoptable and in fact
 Practical"

The definitions of Creativity and Lateral thinking are closely related, more or less both can be assumed
same. Therefore, I will be discussing about them synchronizingly. For the convenience of readers, I
divided the topic on 'how to improve creativity' under two separate categories :

1. Behavioral practices
2. Habitual practices

In this article, we will understand the behavioral aspects of improving creativity, while in the next article
we will learn the best habitual practices for improving creativity. You may also see the complete guide in
the form of inforgraphy in my other blog post - Inforgrapy on creativity and lateral thinking
Both of the above listed articles are best suited for the following categories of people :

 Students
 Designers and design aspirants
 Photographers
 Artists
 Film directors
 Content writers and bloggers
 Teachers
 Engineering and software professionals

You may also watch the video tutorial of this article at the end of this page.

Lets dive into the topic !

1. Feel the need for changes & requirements

Necessity or requirement is the main source of creativity. Once we feel the need for a change or feel like
we were uncomfortable with the present, we will be in a position to innovate. In other words - make
ways to new ideas. We won't eat unless we are hungry, right ? same principle applies to lateral
thoughts. So, in order to boost our lateral thinking, we should frame our surroundings/environment in
such a way that we are always left with many requirements, necessities or to-do tasks.

"Necessity is the mother of creativity"

2. Finding faults

Yes, you heard that right ! A creative person (especially a designer and content writer) should find faults
in the existing things/designs/writings. Let me clear this with a day-to-day example, We are already
having n number of mobile phones in the market, right ? still then - why we are seeing new advanced
phones everyday. That's because; in some way or other every phone lacks in perfection. Same funda
applies to whatever products we see around. It is to be noted that - the designers 'looks for problems'
so as to upgrade the existing one; even if there's no fault in it.

Time to think - what would've happened if 'Thomas Edison' couldn't found any fault in using candle light
? the whole world would've stayed in candle light ! No question of inventing electric bulb. Every
innovation begins with requirements and requirements are proportional to fault findings. So, develop
the attitude of finding discomforts, mistakes and faults in whatever you come across.

Do you know one thing ? Almost all the posts that I wrote in this blog is based on my findings. I
understood that there is a necessity for the topics to be dealt - by noting the requirements from the
users. Just as I started writing in this blog, many approached me and made me aware of the topics that
they had been searching badly for a long. The design suggestions and other guides that I covered in this
blog is based on my mistake finding on others works ! That is the power of finding mistakes/faults.
That's why I strongly recommend you to look for faults/mistakes - that are genuine and acceptable.

"Every innovation begins with requirements and requirements are proportional

to fault findings"

3. Being different - not satisfying

Most of the people perceive things in usual (normal/same) way, but very few observe things differently -
they are the actual creative individuals. Be different, think differently and do differently. Don't get
satisfied with whatever others are doing. Find your own way of perceiving things. Don't try to notice
casual things, try to analyze/look for unusual things. For example, if you are given a photograph or a
cartoon; then try to focus mainly on the background rather than what others does i.e on the character
of the picture. This way, explore/perceive things differently and be keen to each and every part of the
issue. Always make the habit of raising questions.

"What else can we do with a used tooth brush ?"

"Can safety pin be used as a electric connector ?"

4. Exposure

Well, one can open-up his/her mind and can explore various thoughts only when he is exposed to
different situations. To be creative; you should be aware of as many things as possible - that too in
various areas. Say, if you are a graphic designer, then don't restrict yourself to that particular
specialization. Instead, educate yourself to various related design fields like interior designs, visual
communications etc. This way you can remove the restrictions (so called 'boundary walls') and hence
would think in diverse ways.

Most importantly; wherever you are and whatever you are doing - observe things observe surroundings
and be keen to the current ongoing. An ant is a tiny living creator on earth, but it does have heart, lungs
or any other organs like we (humans) have. Even a tiny thing is worth observing because it does carry
matter ! Don't neglect small details/issues.

"The world is very big, explore it"

"An electronic chip (IC) is small, but it's almost equal to a human brain ! explore
and expose to everything"

5. Share your thoughts

Sharing your creative ideas with your friends, family, teachers or any others, would help you as follows

1. Others are the good judgers in finding the loop holes of your's. Same applies to their work ! That
would help you correct yourself
2. They might suggest you for some changes by giving their own ideas. In this way you are working
in a team and thus indirectly exploring multiple ideas
3. Analyze the mistakes from what they have suggested, thus avoiding it without doing it from
your side.

"Learn from the mistakes of others"

6. Go through others ideas

Just like you shared and got creative suggestions/ideas from others, go through others ideas and
analyze :

 What are all the possible mistakes that they made, what is to be avoided
 How their concept went
 How that concept can be changed and incorporate in our concept
 What other ideas (alternatives) can be derived from their's
 How that differ from your's
Well, this can also be applied to content writing. Writers may check others work and understand for the
above list

7. Live in assumptions

You might have watched some of the famous cartoons/animated movies. It's really great to see how
directors imagine the impossible things and showed them with clean and decent script form. That is the
power of assumptions. Directors live in a world of assumptions, and that is what makes them creative
than most of us. Consider any topic and make suitable assumptions on how to deal with the situation.
You must be in a position to unwrap your imaginations and think crazily. Don't mind even if you are
thinking in an impossible manner, who knows that might come possible !

8. Observe and analyse others

Watching and understanding others is a big deal. It's a psychology and this would definitely help you
develop analyzing power. Find how creative others are, how they are behaving etc. If possible; read their
face to analyze their characters, let it go wrong, no issue. It is recommended to watch childrens
activities. Children are really crazy, and they obviously showcase crazy thoughts. It's upto you to grasp
what they are doing. The faster you observe what they are doing (differently), the more observing
power you get.

"Sometimes; children could beat elders or even scientists in idea generation !"

9. Risking - eliminate the fear of failure

For one to be creative, one should be ready to take risks ! Remember, doing different or being different
is the key indication of creativeness; and to be different mean you should be ready to face the risks ! The
risks could be any of the following :

1. Failure
2. Criticism and
3. Rejection from people
Well, even if you fail in meeting the exceptions of your creative works, don't let your hopes down. When
you fail, you will be moving one step towards the success ! and hence keep creating without the fear for
failure. It was said that : 90% of the people fails because of NOT TAKING RISKS, (most of) the remaining
10% succeed because others couldn't even start ! The fear in you might refrain you from even starting or
trying the thought idea, this is the biggest drawback of all. Whether your work is going to make a blast
or whether it will get utter flopped, don't worry, just give it a try.
"Until you start/try, you won't be knowing whether it's a success or failure !"

10. Confidence

Like I said before, there might be the risk of criticism or even rejections from many. Criticism from
others are the root source of disappointment or down-break of once confidence. When confidence is
lost, you will be stuck with NO ideas. So, in order to overcome such situations, appreciate yourself -
appreciate your own ideas and try to boost your confidence/interest to make further progress.

11. Group-up your thoughts (write down)

Creative ideas/thoughts comes in flow, while doing related or even unrelated works. Ideas strikes your
head and might flash like a thunder. But if it's not caught, then you will be loosing that idea ! It happens
most of the times, that's because human brain tends to forget those that flashed in mind even after few
seconds ! That's the reason why most of the creative people carry a notepad, a book or any of today's
digital gadgets just to write/note down the ideas that strikes their mind. So, make the habit of writing
down (in some where) the thoughts no matter where you are and what you are doing. Don't forget to
revise that some time later and try to utilize them for your other ideas.
"Group of water drops makes an ocean !"

12. Being comparative

Comparison is required; wherever you are and whatever you are doing. For example, in your primary
school you might have competed with your fellow school mates so as to stand in the top position of the
class. If you are a blogger/content writer, you might have compared your Alexa rankings with that of
your fellow bloggers. If you are satisfied with your results (however it is) then you won't be taking
further steps for progress. Develop the habit of comparing your tasks/activities/writings with that of
others and find the difference. Compare and understand to what extent you are creative than the rest.

13. Avoid routine & uninterested activities

Well, doing same and routine works bore you. Such environment acts as the main obstruction for your
lateral thoughts. Avoid doing uninterested and repeated works continuously. Instead, take a break from
your regular works and go for some of your habits. The following are the best acts/ways to keep away
boredom due to routine works.

 Reading and writing stories

 Watching movies
 Music and gaming
 Travel and site seeing

"Robots do routine things - not humans !"

14. Positive minded friends

Move greatly with positive people who supports you the most - just to boost your confidence. Mind less
of people whom discourage you. The company (surrounding people) with whom you move or live,
greatly affect your work and thinking. It's always advisable to move greatly with positive minded people
- those who supports you or inspires you. It's also good to move with people whom gets inspired by
your works/actions. Such people will make you understand your importance and capabilities. Hence
your confidence level will not weaver.

"You are judged by your surroundings"

15. Be practical

Well, from the very beginning I have been speaking more about 'crazy thoughts'. It's good to develop
those thoughts, but make sure that almost all of your thoughts are practical, especially if you are a
designer. If you are a writer or director, then your thinking may go beyond imagination but all that
should be framed and represented as practical ! Almost all animated movies show talking animals as
main characters, best example is 'Kung Fu Panda'. It isn't possible, but it was represented in a practical
manner. That is the creative power of directors !

The above points discuss about the behavioral aspects of improving creativity. You may also learn
about habitual practices for creative thinking here

Inforgrapy on creativity and lateral thinking

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Well, the above concepts are just my views based on my experience and analysis into the topic. In order
to strengthen the above facts, I approached a creative blogger - Suchitra ; whom is the owner of
easycrafts blog - who blogs about crafts, travel, finance and Indian food recipes.

One of her blog address being Easy-crafts blog

Here is how our conversation went

1. How do you get creative thoughts ?

I get inspired by everything crafty that I see and then try to put in
my thoughts to make it look different .... the thought of not creating
an exact replica itself gives new ideas. Also I am very keen on using
up waste or leftover materials to make some crafts.

2. What are all the steps/activities/hobbies that you do habitually to sustain creativeness in you ?

 Browsing the internet

 Following lot of creative and craft blogs
 Taking lot of time in craft materials shops to see what new
materials have come up and the way they can be used
 Staying updated with new techniques and popular crafts.

I appreciate our friend - Suchitra to the fullest; for sparing her valuable time to answer the questions.
Well, in our previous session, we had seen 'how to improve Creativity and Lateral thinking by behavioral
practices'

In this session, we will go through Habitual practices to develop creativity as well as lateral thing. As
usual, we will be discussing the topic under separate sub-headings as follows :

(Source - Pixabay)

1. Work on patterns and puzzles

The best way of developing lateral thoughts (fastly) is by brainstorming. Brainstorming exercises such as
Puzzles and math games have to be practiced regularly and of course repeatedly. It was proved by
research that one can develop lateral thoughts when he/she spends most of his/her time with patterns.
Observing the trend of the pattern or framing a new pattern are all some good ways of brainstorming.
It's easy to see many designers (or) creative people around, but it's difficult to find designers with
mathematical ability, and I can say - a creative person with good/average mathematical ability (puzzle
solving capability) performs superbly in his career. If you don't have any mathematical background, then
I strongly recommend you to go through some basics. Trust me, puzzles really puzzle you, as well as
keep you entertained !

"Solving puzzles and patterns are one of the best habit one can have"

2. Do multiple activities
Every time, handling a single job/work reduces your diverse capabilities and hence diminishes your
creative thoughts. It's good to work in focused and concentrated manner, likewise it's even more good
to master multiple thoughts by doing simultaneous things. Cultivate the habit of doing multiple
activities. For example, listen to music while say browsing. Think for ideas while you are travelling by
bus/trains or even while you are jogging. Engage yourselves busy with lateral thoughts. Otherwise your
mind will get rusted like iron gets rusted when it's idle !

"An empty mind is always dangerous"

3. Supportive environment

The surroundings on which you live/work will greatly affect your lateral thinking ability. Make the
surroundings of your living place most comfortable to you. The following nature of environment will
greatly boost your creative thinking :

 Calm and noiseless environment

 Away from negative people
 Active state (without feeling sleepy)
 Free from stress/tension conditions
 Access to natural pleasure - fully ventilated room with fresh air flowing, greenery etc.

As far as possible, spend less time on TV. Television is the best dis-tractor of all time, as we usually get
addicted once we start watching that. If interested, spend time on interesting channels like Nat Geo, fun
and humor channels etc

4. Productive - not wasting time

A 'Time waster' can be more or less considered as a 'Loser'. Time is the most precious of all. Spending
time Idle is the worst thing one can practice. Instead try to analyze the surroundings, analyze whatever
appears to your eyes or instead stick to some music. Spare greater time to think ! spend more time for
internal thinking rather than wasting time on chats, television, dating etc.

You could utilize your time by any of the following activity.

 1. Puzzles
2. Gaming
3. Reading - stories, comics
4. Browse web for new topics
5. Visit places
6. Animations etc

5. Play Games

Research confirmed that playing games - especially mind, action and puzzling video games are the best
source of lateral thinking. These days children are active and creative, right ? that's because they spend
considerable amount of time for games. Offline games like sudoku (and many more to mention) also
helps one to develop mentally. Remember; age is not a restriction for playing games, many feel that
"am I child, to play these games ?" and so they don't even put their hands on games. I can say there's no
wrong in playing mind games except for the case when you get addicted to it. If possible; play online
games on lumosity as well as some other brainstorming exercises. Lumosity is a great place to practice
as well as to improve our capabilities. Give a try !

"Think like a child but act like an adult !"

6. Crafts/art and DIY

Creativity can be best demonstrated through sketches, paints or any other art works. Sketching and
painting are the best ways of exploring our thoughts. Try to do these, even if you are not good at
sketching ! Cultivate the habit of going through crafts, creative art works as well as paintings of others
(as many as you can). These kind of works go beyond imagination and if one observes these with utmost
care, then one can learn new dimensions in creativity.

Today's internet world is filled with countless number of websites, where we can find many creative
people - those people whom are unique, thinkable and of course guide-able. Find those people and get
connected with them. Keep updated with their creative works by analyzing their ideas. This process will
definitely help you in learning the new possibilities in creative field. Of course, this will also reduce your
fear of being different, because you will be involved in the environment of such crazy and different
people !
The following list shows some of my favorite websites, where you can find good number of creative
people -

 Pinterest
 Behance
 Devianart
 Flickr
 Coroflot

DIY stands for "Do it yourself". The following pictures shows some of the DIY works that I found in
Pinterest. As you can see, most of the works were carried with already used or waste things. Utilizing
already used/waste things to make something new is the best possible way of opening our doors to
lateral thinking. Our mind will run in all possible ways to generate ideas of alterantive uses. In fact DIY
objects might be helpful to you. So, try to develop DIY thoughts at leisure especially with unused or
waste things. Like you observed crafts and painting works of others, observe the DIY ideas of others too.
The first two social networks (that I listed above) are the best place to find those. You could find me in
Pinteret here.
 (source - craftideas)

(source - hercampus)

7. Try to be alone for quite a part of a day

To be creative, one should find time to develop ideas. So, you need to cater a part of a day for yourself.
Remember, when you are always with some company, then you would be getting very less time for self
thinking as you would be engaged with them either discussing on something or simple chatting etc. So,
there's no time for your thinking ! Research says that one who keeps alone for quite a time develops
lateral thinking fastly !

8. Learn new and unrelated topics

Like I discussed in 'Exposure' section in behavioral practices, learning is a continuous process and the
more we learn, the more we get ideas. Try to learn or go through the topics that you never came across.
Going through unrelated topics demands once presence and therefore he/she would concentrate more
on that subject.
Did you ever tried making chapattis/rotis with an iron box ? Crazy you know, I too never tried that
before, it just flashed while writing. OK, to get such ideas, you should know that something like an iron
box exists and that is meant to heat and iron clothes. Without aware of the iron box, you couldn't have
framed this idea, right ? What i'm trying to say is - you should expose yourself to as many things as
possible by learning about them, their working principle etc (preferably day to day used
things/products), in order to incorporate/use them in other ideas.

9. Mistaking rocks

Do you ever felt guilty of doing some fault designs or decisions ? Well, never feel like that. Mistake
doesn't mean a failure, it is the process of learning, an art. But make sure that you learn from whatever
mistakes you do - In other words; don't repeat the same mistakes repeatedly. If you fear for committing
mistakes, then you won't be taking the initiative of starting the thing. And like I said earlier, when you
don't try, you won't get to know whether your thoughts are true or not.

10. Listen to aspiring music

Music boost our mood and helps in creating ideas ! I can say 98% of this world's population loves music.
That may be of different genre's, everybody has their own tastes. Experiments confirm that slow
melodies and classical music are best for soothing mind (calming mind) while rock/pop songs boost the
confidence and hence keep the mind active. Make the habit of enjoying music as much as possible.

11. Open up

The world is filled with good and bad people. There will be many people - who try to pull you when you
are about to grow to higher level. In this process, you may come across people whom criticize you or
laugh for what you have done, or proposed. Eliminate the fear of being criticized by others. Let the
world laugh today only to find the importance in it tomorrow !

"When you move away from the regular track, then whatever you do will assume
creativeness and will be different to the surrounding people !"
12. Photography guides you

Carefully observing each and every part of the photography is also a good mind exercise. Capturing
things in different/unique views or observing others photography are all some of the best ways of
improving visualization or observation skills. Remember, the more you observe, the more creative
thoughts you will get. Here is a list of best social networks that will help you find creative photographers

 Pinterest
 Flickr
 Instagram
 Google +
 Tumblr

13. Inspiring/Interesting work

Here is my 80-20 thumb rule -

"If you are doing interesting tasks, then you might complete 80% of the task in
just 20% of the time, but when you are doing uninteresting tasks, then you might
complete only 20% of the task in 80% of the time."

That's the huge difference. Your productivity is directly proportional to your interest. It's really difficult
to tackle a task that doesn't entertain/interest you. Therefore try to focus on areas where you feel like
never (or least) bored with good interest. Take some inspirations to speed up your tasks. Creativity can
be expected only when you are interested ! Work with satisfaction.

14. Illustrate a story board

Story making is one creative way of delivering your ideas. If illustartions (sketches) join them, then that
would be even better. Try to frame an interesting story. Preferably concentrate on a particular character
(call him/her/it the hero of your story) and communicate your story in the form of either writing or
sketches (just like you see in Tinkle books or manga).

15. Visit knowledgeable places

Sounds interesting, right ? but it's true, places like museums, paint galleries, science exhibitions and of
course historic places would teach you a lot. Most of the ideas are framed by taking inspirations from
earlier works. Those works might give you some ideas or at least make you aware of what the historic
are up-to. Science exhibitions is one knowledgeable place for technicians. For others (say
photographers, writers, directors etc.) museums and paint exhibitions serves a lot. Go ahead and visit
such places at times.

16. Physical practice

Well to activate your brain for lateral thinking and creativity, mental exercise alone can't contribute to
the fullest. Physical exercises are also required to some extent. Physical activities make all the muscles
of the body move and hence avoid laziness of the body, directly eliminating procrastination. The
following are some good physical activities that might help you exercise your body as well as your brain :

 Meditation
 Walking or cycling for at least 15 minutes a day
 Swimming
 Outdoor games like tennis

17. Being humorous - jokes

Laughing is both physical and mental exercise and that's why doctors recommend that to keep us free
from tensions/stress etc. Joking often is the best way of getting laugh. Watching comedy is another way
of relaxing mind. Those who are humorous are in fact creative ! framing a laughable content for
whatever situations arise demands once brain to work quickly in all possible ways - in other words think
laterally.
18. Teach people

Teaching is an art, not all can teach at first instance ! it requires practice. If you are teaching something,
then you will be thinking in all possible ways on

1. How to make it deliverable

2. How to make that understandable by listeners
3. What questions has to be answered

When a listener poses a questions, then it requires your lateral thinking on how to come-up with
concepts so as to make him/her understand the concept. You will be thinking in all possible ways and
solutions. That in fact is a good exercise to your brain ! Isn't it ?

19. Food habits

Surprisingly, maintaining a good food habit would support your thinking ability. Nutritious food intake is
required to activate the most important nerves of the body. Experiments confirm that consuming liquid
drinks (especially water) helps to keep us active. Therefore, consume water as much as you can.

20. Cartoons and animated movies

Watch cartoons or creative animated movies to understand how impossibilities were shown possible -
the biggest booster for lateral thinking ! Animals talking, showing imaginative places, crazy characters
etc are all the imaginative things that we come across in such movies. You can see how the film makers
were thinking beyond the limits without limiting their boundaries. So, do watch good number of
animated movies frequently, rather than just wasting time on normal movies.

21. Culture - meet different culture

This seems a bit out of subject topic, but this might help you at least a little. The whole world is filled
with different cultural people. Unfortunately; most of us stick to a particular culture and we are not
interested in knowing about others. Exploring others culture is just like visiting a historic place and so it's
not a bad idea in doing so. Cultural explorations are particularly useful for designers and photographers.

22. Read short stories

Short stories that leave some morals at the end are good for developing and learning new ideas. Stories
with illustrations/cartoons are more preferable (manga type and books like Tinkle) than ordinary
writings. Make it a habit of reading stories. Learning is a never ending process. New things can be
grasped either by exposure or reading. So keep reading as much as you can, that can be either online or
with the help of books.

"Learning is a never ending process"

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These are the topics that I wished to include under habitual practices for lateral thinking and creativity.
You might also want to see "how to improve creativity through behavioral practices"

I had also prepared a Inforgraphy on these topic in my other blog. you may check 'Infography on
improving creativity and lateral thinking'
In-spite of including many online resources for helping you learn about math solid geometry and
their manipulation, I'm getting number of comments on how to solve them; especially the
question "unfolding of solids". So, in this post, I'm gonna cover their basics and will try to make
you understand the process in a simpler way for your easy understanding - by considering and
elaborating the process for some example. I begin with basics and then move to the topic 'How to
analyse/visualize unfolding by imagination' at the end of this session.

3D solid in different views

Math solid shapes are usually viewed best in isometric drawings. View which the solid is usually
30 degree inclined with the horizontal as shown in the sample picture below are usually
isometrics. They are best examples of 3D because of solid being represented in 3 co-ordinate
directions.

The four common projection we come across in drawing or Engg. graphics are - front view, left
side view, right side view, top view. Although bottom view is there, but it has not much
significance coz most of the times, it will be a single plane surface shape.

For your additional info, let me add other types of views as taken from Wiki (note: the list
includes photography views too!)

 Bird's-eye view
 2.5D
 Cross section
 Cutaway drawing
 Exploded view drawing
 Fisheye lens
 Panorama
 Worm's-eye view
 Zoom lens
Now, consider a solid shape (first angle projection), and when they are unfolded, you can get the
following transformations as shown below.

unfolding of the first angle geometry

unfolded views
Ok, above are some basics, now let me add an example that I drew personally (in color) for your
better understanding, the solid has been rotated in different directions for you to realize how it
gets oriented. Also, it's important that you should note the continuation or break of surfaces in
every view.

Figure also shows the direction of view, which I consider as front instead of our regular way of
taking arrow in left! The following set of figures shows the same solid viewed in different 3D
positions. Note that any black surface that you might see in the pics are just their shadows and
has nothing to do with actual solid.
Now, the front view!
right side view is shown below, notice that the yellow box on top of the rectangular box covers
the view of the blue triangle and so the triangle won't appear from left side.

Below figure shows the backside view. Observe how the view is similar to front view except the
swapping of positions of the blue and yellow positions. This is not always true but for this
specific geometric shape.
Below figure shows the left side view (little distorted). Actually the blue triangle width and the
yellow square/retangle width are of same size and so they must lie in the same line. But because
of little distortion while making the picture, it turned little. Hope you understood and don't get
confused.

Ok, now that we have seen some basics, we will move to solving the question "Unfolding of
solid shape" by taking an example.

Unfolding solid shapes

Below image shows the example that I considered with unique alphabets for each surface - for
easy identification. I also included back view that depicts clearly the visible surfaces, such that
both the views covered all the surfaces except the bottom surface, which I think is not necessary
to show here as you can easily assume that.
(Note: You may want to click the image for enlarged view or to download)

Now, let's say I unfolded the surface with tag 'A', which when unfolded will assume the below
shape. A is unfolded from vertical position to the horizontal position by rotating towards us as
shown by the arrow in the image below (just like opening the front door of a box).

Unfold B now from vertical position to the horizontal position by rotating to the right as shown
in the below image. (Note: You can unfold in any order, it really doesn't matter, I took this way.
But if in exam they show options in unfolded view, then you may have to put extra effort in
determining which way they unfolded. If you understand the way I proceed here, then it will be
easy to identify any unfolding!)
Now, I will unfold both E and D surfaces together to vertical plane as indicated by arrow in the
below image.

In the above two images, note a line tagged 'p' which will actually not be a line when A and B
are unfolded but an empty space, I just included there for your visualization, in the next image, I
removed that to show you how in actual the solid looks when the surfaces A and B are removed.
Now, I unfold surfaces C and F as shown in the below picture. C to the right and F to the back
(indicated by arrows in the image).

Now, I'm interested in bringing all the surfaces to the ground. I mean make them flat/plain by
unwrapping as indicated in the below image.
Finally, to put together, and when viewed from top, the unfolded solid looks like below

The above is only one possibility, like I mentioned there are many possibilities, I took time to
draw some possibilities as I showed in the below images, can you try yourself to make some
more if you get free time ? I bet you can, if you understood the above steps :)
Doesn't the above looks like opening a card box? or unwrapping your gift packs or
consignments ? Okay, then consider this as your gift wrap for Pongal or new year :)
(ok, if it's late delivery, you can put fine on me :P)

I hope you enjoyed this, as well as understood how to deal with similar questions. I'm expecting
your imaginative skills to be better from now especially when dealing with solid shapes and
manipulations.

Good luck :)

Topics list

General topics

 Color schemes
 Mirroring
 Background on civilization, revolutions, archeology
 Knowledge about various measurement 'Index' in Indian context (index for measurements
like GDP, inflation etc)
 Doodles - concept behind designer related doodles
  Knowledge on print/packaging standard, logos/symbols representations like 'disposable',
'recyclable', R -registered, trademarks, copyrights etc
 Basic idea about materials used for daily products, process of manufacturing products
 Pug marks, patterns on animal skins, footprints etc, Biology symmetry
 Geographical knowledge about countries, places etc
 Logos of Indian brands and government department, institutes etc
 Odd man out series
 Paper cuts, pattern fitting, image manipulations
 Pictorial Mensuration
 Properties of materials like iron, solids, plastic, wood, rubber etc
 Inertia concepts, how solid and hollow objects behave.
 Mechanical ability
 Reasoning
 Inference from pictures. correct word representing the meaning from the given image.
 conclusion drawing from paragraphs, images etc
 Basic solid Shapes (as in mathematics), and their properties (number of surfaces/faces,
edges, corners etc)
 Basic mathematical aptitude (simple formulae and mensuration concepts)
Image patterns, observation - finding patterns/match from similar/different small shapes.
 Shadows
 Probability
 Aesthetics
 Riddles/puzzles
 Paper cutting, folding etc

Design topics:

Terms and techniques related to

 weaving/stitching
 construction
 pottery
 Building
 Architecture
 Principals and Fundamentals of Prototyping (modeling), related terms, techniques, media
and tools used, basic knowledge on materials for prototype making, steps followed,
 basic knowledge on molding and crafting. Crafting media, tools, related terms etc, theory
on black box
 Terms, techniques, methods, movies (famous as well as related) in Animation related
movies
 step-by-step animation process

General GK and GA
  GK on generally (day-to-day) used products/objects/things, gadgets, appliances,
vegetables
 Knowledge about books, authors, great personalities including sports, politicians,
designers, revolution activist etc
 Epics and Renaissance
 Form of products, regularly used things like vegetables etc
 GK on environment and pollution - terms, categories, methods, ideas,
 GA about paintings/art - statewise as well as glimpse on international art
 Terms and techniques related to sculpturing, webpage design,
 GK fact on sciene, earth, findings,
 Full forms of famous abbreviations (like UNESCO etc)
 GK on natural disasters ioccured in history, including recent one's especially in India
 Roots/source of famous writings, books (like 'Amar charithra', panchatantra, Jataka tales,
tinkle etc)
 Symmetry in biology
 GK on books published through designers/design teaching professors basein IIT's/NID
 GA on Art/Media, Font, linguistic,

English

 English Comprehension, completing sentences,

 deducing meaningful statements from paragraphs

Since most of you can have access to aptitude and reasoning books, cost of which is
comparatively less than any NID/UCEED/CEED books, I, therefore, list out the topics from
those books. I will list out the topics with their ranking in brackets. A very high rank (high being
5) means you are advised to prepare to the full for that topics, and a very low rating (low being
1), means you are advised not to spend much time on that and any rating in between means you
are advised to give importance accordingly (time).

Verbal Reasoning

 Syllogism (5)
 Logical Sequence of Words (1)
 Blood Relation Test (2)
 Series Completion (2)
 Cause and Effect (3)
 Dice, Venn Diagrams (1)
 Cube and Cuboid (3)
 Analogy (2)
 Seating Arrangement (3)
 Character Puzzles (4)
 Direction Sense Test (5)
 Arithmetic Reasoning (2)
  calendar (2)

Non Verbal Reasoning

 Series (4)
 Analogy (4)
 Classification (5)
 Analytical Reasoning (5)
 Mirror Images & Water Images (4)
 Embedded Images (2)
 Pattern Completion (5)
 Figure Matrix (3)
 Paper Folding (5)
 Paper Cutting (5)
 Rule Detection (4)
 Grouping of Images (3)
 Shape Construction (2)
 Image Analysis (4)
 Cubes and Dice (4)

Aptitude topics - Average, Area, menstruations, odd man out series, height and distance, speed,
trains,
---------------------------------------------------------

Overall, apart from memory related questions like GK, GA etc, most questions are every day
appearing common sense based and hence it calls for lot of observation from your end, apart
from searching for some materials offline or online. So, start observing your surrounding
things/products, and try to answer some of your own questions. I will try to gather relevant
materials in my next post, covering some/most of the above topics.

Like I mentioned in the beginning, above list is purely base don my analysis of the sample test
paper and hopefully, all the topics are been of concern for NID DAT exam. And this list is still
not complete and needs to be added with more topics. If you find something missing, you can
always leave comment below for others benefit.

Good luck :)
1. Drawing exercises of scenarios

1. Draw the scene of a school-boy studying a book, intensively, with no power but only
candle light in the room, being seated on the floor
2. Draw the scene of yourself sitting on your rooms sofa and taking selfie
3. Draw the scene of a mother, feeding her 2 year child with a milk bottle
4. Draw the scene of a grandfather narrating a story from a book to his grand-daughter of 9-
12 years old during bedtime. Show the excited state of the grand-daughter.
5. Draw a creature, upper half human and lower half a tree trunk with some branches,
watering itself.
6. Assume you are sitting in front of a laptop or a desktop PC adjacent to a wall, draw how
your eyes see the scene
7. Draw different facial emotions of a human (boy or girl) - only face/portrait is sufficient.
Maintain the same person in all the scenes
8. Draw the scene of an artist making art in his/her living room.
9. Draw the scene of a manager in his office room, in front of a system (Computer) with
files piled on his desk.
10. Draw the scenario of two kids competing for one another on video game
11. raw the scene of a room with at least one person, dating back to early 40's, 1940-1950
time. The very look of the image should give the perception that the scene dates back to
40's
12. Draw a gadget tab (iPad or big sized mobile phone) showing that video was running on
the screen. No background, only the gadget and the view of the video
13. Draw a villager preparing chappatis/rotis, sitting on the floor, rolling the dough while a
pan/tava with a chappatis on top of a natural mud made stove, burning using wood/twigs.
14. Illustrate the last scene of the thirsty crow-pebbles story, the scene of crow drinking
water while it had already dropped some pebbles up to the half of the jar.
15. There was a power cut. Draw the scene of your father fanning you, while you're fast
asleep at the comfort of the fanning. Your father being happy at that moment.
16. Draw yourself with head over phones on, enjoying the music like anything
17. Draw yourself in a superhero costume
18. Draw yourself sitting on a sofa exhibiting ur happiness in watching the winning match on
TV

2. Human/Object sketching exercises

1. Draw a portrait of a pretty girl with curly hairs, cheering up, with appropriate details in
the background.
2. Draw a 6 years kid weeping on his/her study table with some books. Show appropriate
details including the background.
3. Draw a 2-3 years child, just learnt to walk using the support of the adjacent wall. Show
appropriate details including the background.
4. Draw a portrait of a cheerful farmer with a turban and moustache, holding a plough.
Show appropriate details including the background.
 5. Draw a girl kid (6-10 years old) with a puppy in her hand.
6. Draw the sketch of a basket of vegetables on top of a table, visible in the dimness of a
candle light. Show appropriate details, shades etc.

Choose two Homonym of your choice and draw them.

Note: Homonym is a word that is spelt the same or sounds the same as another word but is
different in meaning.
Ex:
(pray, prey),
(sell ,cell)
this page has a very long list of Homonym

1. Draw the two meanings of the word "Spring" and write a one-line explanation for the
sketch.
2. Draw the two meanings of the word "tire" and write a one-line explanation for the
sketch.
3. Draw the two meanings of the word "desert" and write a one-line explanation for the
sketch.

3. Story writing exercise

Frame stories using the following set of words, don't exceed 7 lines

1. Iron box, doll, shirt, table

2. Tiffen box, stove, wall clock, mother, cat
3. grandma, shoes, car horn, TV
4. Ants, Laptop, cookies, Sleep
5. Water bottle, monkey, window grills, fridge
6. Doctor, sweets, salt, grandma,
7. Bulb, plant, carpet, glass jar

If possible illustrate one frame of the story (pick any scene of your choice from the chosen
story), which you've written.

4. Poster making exercise

(you may use colours, rulers or other media)

1. Population reduction - a theme poster that shows the downside of population growth.
Give appropriate title and caption
 2. Make a poster for avoiding food wastage showing at least one kid in hungry or starving
mode
3. Create a poster advertisement to promote 'Swachh Bharat' campaign, showing at least a
kid involved in the activity,
4. Make a poster for bringing awareness of digital India. Include the key elements like e-
payments, govt. apps, digishala, govt. digital services, prevention of corruption, reduction
of documents, hence papers, fast services/processes,
5. Your college is organising a cultural festival, make a poster showing the details of events
or diff. kind of cultural.
6. Create a poster advertising men to join Indian armed forces for a minimum of one year.
Use Indian flag, Indian emblem, a Soldier. Use the form of them (texture, pattern, outline
etc)
7. Design a poster to bring awareness about education focused on the rural parts of India.
Illustrate visually the benefits

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Below is a Supplementary Exercise)

5. Replicate exercises

Exactly redraw/replicate the below images, giving form and details - as much as possible
 (just replicate the front girl and the table, no need to draw other kid in the backdrop)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

P.S.: I will update this page with more exercise and other variants of questions as soon as I finish
next phase of previous paper analysis. Until then I hope the above exercise practice questions
would come handy to during your preparation.
Strategies

1.

Start with basic sketches and then move on to making sketches minding details like texture, shadows,
and, by giving importance to the shape of the object/human, size/proportion, view etc. In parallel, you
can choose to study 'English' or 'comprehension'' part of Part A.

2.

Observe through existing sketches/drawings and understand

 Details (shading, shadows, proportion of objects/human)

 Perspective and view
 Picturization
 Imagination of the artist - what is he trying to portray or communicate?
 Simplicity etc.

3.

Set a weekly timetable - Based on your time and availability, plan for the preparation. You can choose to
do weekly, bi-weekly or even every day. Spare some time for your preparation. If you've time and have
good memory power too, dedicate some time for GK study too. Latest GK topics would be helpful to you
apart from general knowledge questions including those studied during school days.

Here's my strategy - as part of weekly timetable for NID preparation

4.
If you are a beginner or average at sketching, then you need to do more work. Start by simply copy-
sketching and after you improve on copy sketching, move to the next level of drawing those sketches in
some other view/direction. This calls for your imagination skills. Once you do sufficient amount of
practice on this, move on to the next level of creating your own sketches out of your imagination. You
can consider some real-life examples or if you are out of questions, you can refer to this page on
subjective questions for practice.

5.
Practice first on object sketching (drawing objects, humans/animals in a particular situation or in a
particular instant - like an infant playing with a toy etc.) Practice lesser on scenarios or keep it as
secondary practice giving priority to object sketching.

Subjective practice questions for BDes

Subjective practice questions for MDes

6.

As you approach near to the exam (say only a few weeks are left for the exam), alter the preparation
schedule. Give more time for general studies and comparatively less time for sketching. By then you
should be able to do perform well on subjective questions. Regardless, keep working on your creative
ideas because the more you think of creative solutions for problems, the more you will be benefited -
both for the exam and for your career as well. You don't need to draw/sketch every time you think of
some idea. Just that draw mentally in your mind and imagine how your IMAGINED idea would look like
or make a rough sketch. This exercise would be fun btw.

Other than the above, you can have variations in your study pattern. No timetable can suit everyone. So,
have your own. But, I would recommend you to go through a weekly timetable that I prepared keeping
in mind everyone (student, working profession etc.) You can have a look at it and either follow it as it is
(if you find it workable to you) or alter to as per your timing.

Last but not least - it's your confidence that takes you to greater heights. All the best :)