Ah. There are lots of creative processes, but to use design again two things are very typical. Iteration, and what I like to think of as respiration. By respiration, I mean a long process of iteration where it is an additive phase, and then a subtractive phase. Many times over and over as you refine to get to the cleanest and strongest versions that communicate your original idea. We usually begin with a long process of discovery (distillation) to find that singular idea(s), that then use that as a North star in the whole process.
It really helps to have many minds on the same problem, as each will bring new things to the table which will often trigger new ideas and help to eliminate lesser ideas. Most anything you see, packaging, billboards, tv commercials, everything has probably been through this process or very similar. It's usually the bad ones that you can tell hasn't been.