Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas

We have just had our first formal creative session on selecting which products we would like to design for our first production cycle.

As a person who does not have any artistic or creative degree, I really should keep my own views with regards to what should be designed to myself.  But I did have a stroke of inspiration. First, I visited the British Library and really loved the chair I was sitting on.  Then I walked into a book shop and saw a cover of the book where Benedict Cumberbatch enjoys a book in the library of the Garrick Club.  Would not it be a nice idea to design a lovely reading chair and place Benedict on that chair in the library?  Ah, the quintessence of Englishness...

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Image source: http://www.standard.co.uk

My creative team has largely ignored my proposal.  From what I hear, they like contemporary modern style and combination of various materials, for example, combining wood with plastic.  My immediate reaction is that would be more expensive than using just one material as you might need different suppliers, but for now I probably should not interrupt the creative process.

We have agreed to focus is on three projects for now:
1) sustainability / use of recycled materials
2) the set of coordinated furniture for a living room - disregarding which materials are used
3) explore the area of decorative ceramics

We are aiming to get some sketches ready for January, so that we could do more work on prototyping and  product costing.

According to Donatella Versace, creativity comes from a conflict of ideas.  Perhaps I should not give up on the library chair idea and keep looking for introductions to Benedict :-)