Rearranging the Furniture: A 5‑Step Framework for Idea Generation Anyone Can Use

Idea generation is like rearranging furniture, a mental reshuffle anyone can learn.

My Mum does this thing we call Gerbilling. No- not that. It’s where she impulsively moves all the furniture around in a room to the sound of Hall of the Mountain King, fuelled by strong tea. I’d say it happens 4 or 5 times a year. Not insignificant.

We call it Gerbilling because when we were kids, my brother had two identical brown gerbils called Wallace and Gromit who lived in a fish tank full of soil. Wallace and Gromit would dig cool little burrows that we could see through the plastic sides of the tank, only to demolish their tunnels a day or two later to rebuild in a slightly different configuration.

Back to my Mum, if you asked her, she would say she just got bored of how it looked and fancied a change. Fair enough. Recently though, I’ve realised I pretty much do the mental version of rearranging furniture for a living.

AI-generated drawing of a 90's Mum moving some furniture. She looks alarming thrilled to be doing it no?

What’s Your Creative Process?

Being able to understand your own creative process is tricky. A bit like trying to look at the back of your head with two mirrors. You can catch a glimpse, but it’s difficult to see the whole thing. Where do great ideas come from?

Historically, creative people have been somewhat cagey about how they generated their ideas. Act of God, divine inspiration, or, like Coleridge, allegedly from a dream. We don’t always fully understand where or how ideas are generated, and let's face it, the lore and mystery of a mysterious inception story is a great bit of spin.

The thing is, though, the process for idea generation is quite simple. Once I figured my own out, I did a little research and found it to be almost verbatim the five‑step formula James Webb Young laid out in his 1940 classic A Technique for Producing Ideas. And I don’t think it's a coincidence.

Idea Generation is Rearranging Mental Furniture

I noticed the pattern in my creative process while updating my portfolio. Despite transitioning from fashion design to service design, I found myself returning to the same creative practices; only the elements had changed.

Instead of physical materials like metals or fabric, the “furniture” to be rearranged was data, research insights, and user behaviours.

My creative process, I realised, goes a little like this: gathering, dumping, arranging, rearranging, leaving it and doing something completely different, rearranging it again, and then refining. Along the way, elements are ditched and limitations are sought to refine the outcome further.

James Webb Young's 5 Steps, Simplified

Phrased within James Webb Young's less chaotic 5-step plan, it looks like this:

1) Gather: Collect materials related to do with your project, i.e. samples, essays, techniques.

2) Examine: Look at the materials you have gathered from many angles.

“[Look at them]…as it were, with the tentacles of the mind. You take one fact, turn it this way and that, look at it in different lights, and feel for the meaning of it.”

3) Step away: Basically, go and do something else. Let the idea stew.

4) Let your idea come to you: The Aha!' moment. 

“Now, if you have really done your part in these three stages of the process, you will almost surely experience the fourth. Out of nowhere, the idea will appear. It will come to you when you are least expecting it.”

5) Refine your idea based on feedback: Not as easy as it sounds, as you have to somehow hold onto the essence of your idea but allow it to grow, develop, and flourish within the limitations it must exist in.

“Do not make the mistake of holding your idea close to your chest at this stage. Submit it to the criticism of the judicious."

For many years, I worked with some of the most creative minds in the music and fashion industries; I honed my craft through conversations with them and seeing how they worked, yet I’m still surprised that it can be boiled down to the concept of rearranging elements, moving the furniture around. Like I said, it’s difficult to see your process.

Anatomy of an idea: The photo series that helped me figure out my creative process.

Fig 1) Gathering and examining my components. Fig 2) Arranging and rearranging Fig 3) The finished product after refining and understanding limitations. Fig 4) Get featured in Vogue and make it look like creativity is innate and you're just fantastically talented.

The Accessibility of Creativity.

Once you realise that the process of making and coming up with great ideas is a framework that can be taught rather than divine lightning, the game changes a little. Theoretically, anyone who can collect, connect, and iterate can invent, as long as they can meet their work and limitations with openness and curiosity.

When idea generation no longer feels out of reach, creativity becomes more accessible and something we can all learn to do, provided we have the right environment to do so. (See Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own)

When we can come up with ideas, we can imagine different futures.

When we can imagine a different future, we are far more likely to create it.

Original Thinking: A Democratic Muscle

“Great things are not done by impulse but by small things brought together.” Van Gogh

Creative thinking helps us see beyond the status quo and imagine alternatives. I am hopeful for a future of citizen-led action, where people truly have the power to determine the quality of their lives. This future needs contributions from people with every kind of lived experience who believe they can shift the foundations to rearrange the furniture of society until it truly reflects us all.

At its heart, "rearranging elements" is an experimental process; it’s not a quick fix for idea generation, but one where we patiently explore and research. Where we must sit with uncertainty, learning not to jump to the first ideas but letting the process play out. Testing hypotheses, embracing failures as we go, and finally collaborating to refine the concept.

What has to be true before this kind of idea generation can happen? Which hidden factors set the stage? These questions deserve attention because original thinking is the democratic muscle we all need to train.

But for now, the next time a problem feels immovable, try Gerbilling: look at what you have – no, really look – now shift it, turn it upside down, and then come back and look at it with fresh eyes after a cup of strong tea. Let me know if it helps.