Grid Combo
Oddly enough, there are times where creating a simple table can act as a very effective creative jolt! If you are struggling to come up with a unique solution or a unique approach to a topic, this technique might be just what you need.
The coupling of two (seemingly unrelated) ideas can lead to very unexpected results. But coming up with the proper pairing of ideas is intimidating at times. The Grid Combo can help! To start, pick a topic or category that is central to your desired solution. Next, pick a second topic or category that is also related to your desired solution. Now, reduce each topic or category down to a single word. It is okay if these two words have nothing to do with each other - in fact, that can often yield better results.
The next step in this process involves absolutely no amount of creativity. The next step is to find 10 to 20 synonyms for each of your two words. A thesaurus is clearly helpful here but, if you get desperate, antonyms can also be used. Once you have your clusters of similar words, place they synonyms for your first word down one axis of the table and the synonyms for your second word down the other axis of the table. Don’t forget to include your original two words in these groups.
In (yet another) completely uncreative step, type in each two-word combination in each cell where the specific words intersect. Then the fun begins!…
Read over each two-word cluster and see how their unique pairing could be applied to your solution. Obviously, most of the two-word combinations will be completely nonsensical, but some of them will be brilliant! And many more will jolt you into a more creative mindset just by trying to make sense of them or trying to visualize how they could be applied.
Unexpected combinations yield unexpected outcomes. Evaluate the outcomes of your pairings and see if any of them lead you to something new.
Here’s a rather unconventional example of the Grid Combo in action…
Most of the time I will use this technique to build brand imagery around specific key words. The technique is bigger than that though. It works very effectively for big things like problem-solving, complex things like editorial illustration, and even whimsical things like comic generation!
I have still never finished filling in all of the cells in the Grid Combo example below. I couldn’t help myself! The technique worked so effectively that I highlighted seven plausible ideas and started sketching comics. I guess that was the goal but, at some point, I will go back and explore some of the empty cells.
If you look closely at the grid image, you can see an important variance from a standard Grid Combo technique. Since humor is often generated by bringing two unexpected things together, the items on each axis do not need to be synonyms or antonyms. Each item is completely unrelated to the items in the other rows or columns. In this example, one axis contains items describing a “situation,” and the other contains items describing the “person/thing” that is being put into that situation.
You can see the finished comic here (along with a few others!).