2: An abstract or generic idea generalized from particular instances

Synonym: see IDEA

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

The art of creation lies in the gift of perceiving the particular and generalizing it, thus creating the particular again. It is therefore a powerful transforming force and a generator of creative solutions in relation to a given problem. It is the currency of human exchanges, which enables the sharing of states of the soul and conscience, and the discovery of new fields of experience.

-- Yehudi Menuhin, violinist

The metaphor is perhaps one of man's most fruitful potentialities. Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which God forgot inside one of His creatures when He made him.

-- Jose Ortega y Gasset, Spanish writer

The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat.

-- Albert Einstein

What's the big idea? A favorite instrument of Dr. Chuck Byrne, this question is meant to dislodge the design student from an unhealthy obsession with details and decorations. Not that those details aren't important - but if you focus on The Concept, The Main Point, The Big Idea first, usually those details aren't so ornery later... More