form, content, meaning

It's very difficult to get students (even smart ones) to understand how to develop ideas or concepts. The conventional wisdom is that you always get the idea first, then figure out how to turn it into a visual product. What I've come to realize in my own work is that sometimes it happens in reverse: you use images, then at a later time it becomes more clear to you why you're drawn to those kinds of images. And maybe sometimes you don't completely figure it out, but that's okay too. However, I hesitate to tell this kind of thing to an undergraduate student; they have to be really ready to hear and understand it, or it can be counterproductive.