I always start with a brain dump. Get all the ideas swarming in my head initially out on the paper. This helps set the tone and simultaneously get rid of ideas that are too obvious.

Then I can take a moment to do some research, find what it is I’m really looking for, (along with some inspiration of course).

Then, another brain dump! This time with more words! I use these to come up with ideas, and thumbnails. Lots of thumbnails. I double check to make sure I’m heading in the direction that needs to happen based on my previous findings. If it’s not perfect, I go back and refine more. I think you get the point: basically trusting my process is to ideate several times before I create.