Perceptions
Rants and ramblings from minds clouded by years of Super-77 and fingers sliced by X-Acto blades. Apple may have saved our lives!
What's a Percept anyway?
A percept is the object of perception. Not much of an answer, I know, kind of like saying, "A spelunker is one who spelunks." If you don't know what spelunking is, the definition is not much help. So, let's first start with perception and work backwards.
According to Dictionary.com, one definition of perception is "the act or faculty of apprehending by means of the senses or the mind; cognition; understanding." Another is "immediate or intuitive recognition or appreciation, as of moral, psychological, or aesthetic qualities; insight; intuition."
When we perceive, we recognize something without conscience effort. The act of perception is zen-like: it simply happens and defining the process in words is virtually impossible. Once perception occurs, we are left with the percept — the idea or concept that remains in our mind.
The percept, however, is a bit like undeveloped film from a camera. When it is initially formed, it is latent, existing but not fully developed so that it is visible or understood yet.
Development of the percept comes after reviewing information gained from client meetings or personal research on a topic, then distilling those ideas into presentable concepts. It is this process of development that makes the percept invaluable and sometimes magical in the creative process. As with perception itself, the process occurs on a subconscious level.
The idea of the percept is a very interesting one for me. As with many creative people, ideas tend to come to me some period of time after my initial work on a project or meeting with a client. Over the years, as I have come to understand creativity as a process, I have learned to trust the process more and more, and have become more productive as a result.
I believe in the process so much that when I am asked to "throw out some ideas" during a meeting. I usually disappoint because not only can I often not do it, I actually will not attempt to do it. I know the percept is not developed and needs time to grow and become a powerful concept for the client.