Designing Emotion

Unleashing Creativity with the Thirty Circles, Alternate Uses, and Make Your Sandwich Exercises

Creativity is a muscle, and like any muscle, it needs exercise to grow stronger. One of the best ways to warm up your creative thinking is through fun, time-sensitive challenges. Three great exercises for this are the Thirty Circles Exercise, developed by IDEO, the Alternate Uses Exercise, and the Make Your Sandwich Exercise, all designed to push the boundaries of ideation and self-expression.

What is the Thirty Circles Exercise?

The Thirty Circles Exercise is a fantastic warm-up for brainstorming sessions, workshops, or personal creative practice. The challenge is simple: fill up a sheet containing 30 empty circles with as many recognizable objects as possible in just three minutes.

Tools:

• A Thirty Circles sheet (or a blank sheet where you can draw 30 circles)
• Pens or markers

Participants:

• Solo or group activity

Time:

• 3 minutes + discussion

How to Do the Thirty Circles Exercise

1. Take a Thirty Circles sheet and a pen.
2. Set a timer for three minutes.
3. Draw recognizable objects inside the circles as quickly as possible. These could be everyday items like a pizza, clock, apple, smiley face, or basketball.
4. Once time is up, review and discuss your outcomes (if working in a group).

What is the Alternate Uses Exercise?

The Alternate Uses Exercise encourages divergent thinking—the ability to generate ideas or solutions from a single object or piece of information. This skill is a key component of creativity and innovation.

Tools:

• A notebook or a sheet of paper for each participant
• Pens

Participants:

• Solo or groups of any size

Time:

• 3 minutes + discussion

How to Do the Alternate Uses Exercise

1. Grab a notebook or a sheet of paper and a pen.
2. In three minutes, write down as many alternative uses for a given everyday object as possible. For example, if the object is a brick, potential uses could include using it as a grill, for self-defense, or even coloring it like a companion (à la Wilson in Cast Away).
3. After time is up, review the ideas. If in a group, have participants share their most creative or surprising uses.

What is the Make Your Sandwich Exercise?

The Make Your Sandwich Exercise is a unique and fun way to express your personality through visualization. Created by Jon Steinback, this activity allows participants to craft a sandwich that represents their characteristics, likes, and dislikes.

Tools:

• Paper and pens

Participants:

• Solo or groups of any size

Time:

• 5 minutes + extra time for presenting

How to Do the Make Your Sandwich Exercise

1. Take a pen and a piece of paper.
2. Spend five minutes designing your personal sandwich. It can contain anything—real food items, abstract objects, or symbolic ingredients that represent aspects of your personality.
3. Draw your sandwich visually, but feel free to add notes or descriptions.
4. Give your sandwich a name.
5. If working in a group, present your sandwich to a partner or the group, explaining your choices.

Discussion Points

After completing any of these exercises, take a moment to reflect:

• How many ideas did you generate?
• Did you notice any patterns or themes?
• Did anyone “break the rules” by combining elements in unexpected ways?
• Was the task easier or harder than expected?
• What did your sandwich say about you?

Key Takeaways

These exercises help develop two key aspects of creativity:

• Fluency – How many ideas can you generate in a short time?
• Flexibility – How different or divergent are your ideas?

While some participants may focus on variations of a theme, others will generate entirely unique concepts. These exercises encourage breaking out of conventional thinking and push creative boundaries.

Tips to Enhance the Challenge

• Switch Shapes: Try using squares instead of circles in the Thirty Circles Exercise.
• Add a Theme: Stick to a category, such as “only animals” or “only food.”
• Use Unusual Objects: Instead of common objects, choose something unexpected for the Alternate Uses Exercise, like a rubber duck or a shoelace.
• Get Wild with Your Sandwich: There are no wrong answers! Let your sandwich be as weird and creative as possible.
• Increase Time Pressure: Reduce the time limit to force quicker thinking and prevent overanalyzing.

Final Thoughts

The Thirty Circles, Alternate Uses, and Make Your Sandwich Exercises are excellent ways to warm up before a brainstorming session or to kickstart your creative mindset. Whether used in a classroom, workplace, or personal practice, these simple yet effective challenges reveal a lot about how we approach problem-solving, self-expression, and innovation.