How do you grow as a designer? How to you get better at coming up with ideas? How do you become a stronger illustrator? How do you develop your own unique style?

There is a misnomer that creative solutions come out of the blue; that they are born through a flash of inspiration.

Working illustrators know that style isn’t contrived. It emerges from years of studying how other illustrators have solved problems and then putting in the time to develop a unique voice.

Working designers know that if you put in the time and do the work, a solid solution will usually emerge out of it. Your first idea might be the best, but it is only after coming up with many more solutions that you will know your final solution is solid. For this reason, many studios have the 100 guide: If you come up with 100 ideas, 90 will be ok, 9 will be good and 1 might just be great, so don’t stop working until you’ve explored 100 solutions.

There are no shortcuts, there is no quick and easy path to good work.

The last assignment of IDEA School of Design’s 1st-year DSGN 122 Creative Thinking for Designers pushes students to explore this concept. They are challenged with exploring 100 iterations of a theme; ideally something they’d like to get better at.

For illustrators, this might involve exploring how 100 other illustrators have broken down and stylized form. For designers, it might be exploring 100 abstract word associations or 100 ways to represent a single concept. Each student is tasked with challenging themselves to get better at something; either conceptually or through execution.

Shown above: A sample from “100 Typographical Foods” by Celina Zhong.

Here are some of this year’s projects.

See also: 100 chances to challenge herself: Cynthia Tran Vo's “mildly traumatizing” 100 Project