Editorial

The opening of a new volume is always an opportunity to reflect on the status of the journal and on possible actions that can further the discussion in the field of design creativity.

The year 2020 will leave an unforgettable mark in the mind of all human beings, but as discussed in the first editorial of Volume 8 Issue 3, the challenges of the pandemic can also bring about a momentum for the development of a better world where design creativity can certainly play an essential role. In this perspective, we are happy to report that our research field is flourishing, as evidenced also by the submission numbers of 2020: from January to the end of November 2020, there was an increase of 49% in the number of submissions compared with the same period of the previous year. These submissions were from 27 countries.

The 14 research articles published in the four issues of Volume 8 (2020) cover diverse perspectives on design creativity and innovation, with topics ranging from experimental studies on design creativity and related phenomena, through different paradigms of prototyping and business innovation, to studies on the relationship of mood and perception with design creativity. In fact, the top seven keywords of the volume are Inspiration, Creativity, Idea generation, Analogical reasoning, Creativity evaluation, Design methodology, and Design process. These perspectives are further extended by the guest editorials by Panos Y. Papalambros (in issue 1) and by John S. Gero (in issue 3).

2020 also brought unexpected novelties in the biannual conference on design creativity organized by the Special Interest Group of the Design Society. Following a series of successful editions, the 6^th International Conference on Design Creativity (ICDC 2020) was organized virtually on 26–28 August 2020. The last-minute transfer from on-site to virtual mode presented many challenges for authors, organizers, reviewers and committees. But at the end, the organizing committee at the University of Oulu, Finland and the international programme committee managed to organize a successful online conference.

Two keynotes completed the three-day programme of the conference. The first keynote address by Jonathan Hey shared some surprising lessons that can be learned from simply visualizing ideas. Externalizing and making thought visible creates space to build on ideas, allows lightweight, fast and free prototyping, helps design teams see their way to a solution, and helps get through to and engage people when words fail. The second keynote address by Jill Perry-Smith described how novel ideas traverse an idea journey from conception to changing the field. She described each phase of the journey as having unique needs and highlighted how creative collaboration must change accordingly from one phase to the next. Without collaboration flexibility, ideas may not move forward and loop backwards one or several times, or the idea may be stripped of its novelty.

The conference employed two digital tools, one for video streaming of prerecorded presentations, and another for live and follow-up discussions. Extended discussion opportunities sparked conversations that lasted beyond the initial session and topics, which resulted in ample feedback to the authors. While it is clear that interaction possibilities in on-site events are still much larger than in virtual ones, it is also apparent that some good practices related to the introduction of novel digital tools in the organization of conferences can be learned and kept for the future.