Creative Something

Readers ask, how to get creatively motivated?

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:20:00 -0600

Creative Something reader Ash recently wrote in to ask: “When I was younger I was very motivated (creatively). But ever since entering college I feel like my creativity has dwindled down. What can I do to get motivated again?”

Losing creative motivation is a tough situation to be in, because it means that you are not only being uncreative, you are most likely being unproductive as well.

Unfortunately, whether you want to or not, you will lose your creative motivation at some point or another in your life. Losing your motivation to be creative is a natural process that actually helps our creativity by refueling it. However, being unmotivated can really hurt your relationships, your job, and even your education.

Getting your creative cogs to start turning again in your head isn’t as hard as you would think. Here are a few things you can do to get creatively motivated once again, and back on the road to productivity.

Create rewards for yourself. One of the best motivators is a reward. The next time you feel creatively un-motivated, write down a few things you want on a piece of paper, then pick one randomly. If you finish a project you’ve been needing to do, or come up with a great idea, give yourself the reward. There is nothing wrong with rewarding yourself a little here and there. Just make sure you can really afford to do so before you dive in.

Visualize where you want to be. Seeing a final product can make the process of getting to the finished product seem a lot easier. Mock up some samples of what you want the finished product of your project to look like and hang them on your wall or tape them onto your computer screen. Not only will throwing together mockups motivate you, it will also get you that much closer to finishing whatever it is you are working on.

Compete. Setup a contest with a friend or co-worker to come up with the next best idea, or complete a specific project faster. Have a small reward setup for the winner as well. Competing (in a friendly manner) will motivate you instantly and effortlessly.

Convince yourself you are motivated. Self affirmations about being motivated are bound to work, right? Simply tell yourself every day “I am motivated.” Write it down and hang it up on a wall somewhere you will always see it. Say it over and over again. Have your friends and family remind you of it every day as well.

Start small. You may want to be creative to finish a big project at work or school, or you may want just a little creative motivation to get started on a new idea, either way: it can be daunting to get started. So, force yourself to start on a small aspect. If you have a lot of homework to do, just answer two problems then take a five minute break. If you have to come up with a new idea, write down a few aspects you would like to be included in that idea then take a break. Get started, you may find out that you were already motivated, it just took a little push.

Do what other people do. A few weeks ago I posted a question to the readers: what gets you motivated? And there were a few great replies. So, don’t stress about finding motivation, it’s right here.

Being unmotivated can be difficult to get over, but try out these few techniques and you may find yourself extremely motivated. And if you know of any other, great motivational practices, post them in the comments.

If you have a question about anything related to creativity, contact me and it may be featured in a future post.

Original photo by Cat.

Motivation Monday: New Harley-Davidson Museum

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:19:00 -0600

Searching for creative motivation or inspiration? Each Monday you can find all of the creative insight you need right here at Creative Something, with “Motivation Monday”.

Thousands of motorcycles roared into Milwaukee, Wisconsin this past weekend for the grand opening of the new, $75 million, 130,000-square-foot Harley-Davidson Museum designed by world-famous agency Pentagram.

Even if you’re not a Harley-Davidson fan, or if you’re not a fan of museums, this factory-inspired, beautiful architectural work of art is just as fascinating and inspiring as what’s on display inside of it.

“The museum houses the permanent exhibition, designed by Pentagram partner Abbott Miller, and developed in close coordination with the building. Over the past hundred years, Harley-Davidson has grown far beyond its humble beginnings into an international success story. Inside the museum, the exhibition traces the company’s history through a chronological and thematic narrative that draws from Harley-Davidson’s extensive archive of historical documentation as well as their collection of motorcycles that begins with Harley’s first, the Serial Number One built in 1903.”

Working to gather as much research as possible about the history of Harley-Davidson, Pentagram was able to create a museum that not only looks like a true Harley-Davidson factory, they were also able to give the feeling of a true factory.

“On the one side are all the Harley-Davidson folks who, though they had never before produced a building purely for the public, helped us refine the design to reflect the company they love. We worked with Museum leadership and the Museum Advisory Board throughout the design and construction process. We also met regularly with Willie G. Davidson who, as a designer and icon in Harley-Davidson culture, helped keep us true to the best ways to make the buildings a part of the Motor Company family.”

Read more about the hard work that went into creating such a inspiration museum over at Pentagram’s website.

What do you think of the museum? Is it worth a visit to Milwaukee?

Think your creativity can grow, and it will.

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:27:00 -0600

Can your attitude really impact your creative growth? According to new research: attitude is everything.

As The New York Times Online recently published, your attitude and mindset can affect your creative potential dramatically. In-fact: only people who feel like they can grow (creatively) ever do.

As the NYT article begins: “Why do some people reach their creative potential in business while other equally talented peers don’t? After three decades of painstaking research, the [sic] Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck believes that the answer to the puzzle lies in how people think about intelligence and talent.”

Your attitude towards your own talents and abilities impacts your growth. If you believe that you can grow creatively, you will. However, feeling like you can’t grow in a certain way means you won’t.

The article continues to go in-depth with Scott Forstall, the senior vice president of Apple that was in charge of hiring people to develop the iPhone software. In the article Forstall states that “he wanted people who valued stretching themselves over being king of their particular hill.” Judging by the success and positive response of Apple’s iPhone, Forstall made the right move by only hiring people who were open to personal growth.

Take a minute to look at your own attitude right now. Are you open to growth or do you feel like you have reached a level that you will never be able to surpass? Do you think that it’s easy to change that attitude? Or if you feel that you don’t have potential to grow, is it worth changing that feeling?

In one opinion, if you want to be truly successful – if you want your creativity to really grow – you need to be open to the idea that you can grow in the first place.

You can continue reading the article about how being open to growth means you will grow at The New York Times right here.

Original photo by nonanet.

Say hello to the new Creative Something!

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 08:29:00 -0600

There are a few big changes going on here at Creative Something.

From a (slightly) new design, to a new creativity consulting offer, over the next few weeks Creative Something is going to take on a few new features in order to help you, the reader, even more.

While the changes to the site are fairly minor, the new design is easier to navigate and incorporates new features that you will find useful.

What are these new features?

The first feature that has been added is live search. Multiple readers have requested that search be implemented into the blog, so I have decided to add a live search feature that you can use in the right hand column on every page. Special thanks to Jacob Dehart for producing such a great search script for the Tumblr platform.

Another great feature is actually a new service: creativity consulting. That’s right. We are now offering professional creativity consulting for businesses and individuals at affordable prices.

There is also a new, wide banner atop the website which displays important site announcements and headlines.

A few more changes and tweaks will be made over the next few days, so stay tuned for more great creative insight posts, as well as more great features for you to use.

It is because of readers like you that this blog continues to inspire hundreds of people everyday. Thank you for being a reader of Creative Something.

Original photo by Amparo Torres.

Motivation Monday: Drawing a concept shoe in just 4 minutes.

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 08:59:08 -0600

Searching for creative motivation or inspiration? Each Monday you can find all of the creative insight you need right here at Creative Something, with “Motivation Monday”.

If you were to name three shoe companies off the top of your head, Converse will - most likely - be one of them.

Since 1908 Converse has been designing and producing shoes that have revolutionized the shoe-making industry.

From the infamous Chuck Taylor All Star shoe, to the modern The Weapon, Converse is a shoe that everybody recognizes. And a lot of that exposure is thanks to Michael DiTullo, design director over at Converse.

Michael recently did a sketch demonstration video for the fantastic people over at Core77, in which he sketches a new shoe concept in only 4 minutes using a piece of paper and 2 blue markers.

You can watch the full video here.

Core77 has some great notes on the techniques that Michael uses while sketching, but even if you aren’t much of an artist (or if you’re like me and can’t draw at all), the video is still extremely inspiring to watch.

If you are looking for some inspirational creativity for this week, then you can’t miss this video.

Turn your speakers up or plug some headphones into your computer, sit back, and watch as a new concept sneaker is made from thin air by an extremely talented - and creative - art director.

Motivation Monday: What gets YOU motivated?

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:59:23 -0600

Searching for creative motivation or inspiration? Each Monday you can find all of the creative insight you need right here at Creative Something, with “Motivation Monday”.

Mondays are always hard for me.

The weekend is worry-free and full of lazy days and entertainment-filled nights. Then Monday abruptly stops all of my weekend fun.

A little creative motivation on a Monday afternoon, however, really helps me get back into the swing of working through the week, and it can help you too.

For this week’s Motivation Monday, I want to hear what gets YOU motivated every week.

Is there a routine you do every week that powers your creativity? Maybe you visit a certain website or read a creativity book to motivate yourself. Or maybe you have a moment of creative meditation or zen in the morning.

Whatever gets you creatively motivated every week, post it here in the comments and help other Creative Something readers get motivated for their week.

So, what gets you motivated to be creative every week?

Original photo by Jurek Durczak.

Creativity quote: Failure is often the best option.

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:07:00 -0600

Without him, your car wouldn’t start electronically, solar technology would be very different from what it is today, and diesel engines might not exist. Who am I referring to? World-famous inventor, Charles Kettering.

Kettering was not only an inventor of many things that impacted the world we live in today, he was also one of the most creative geniuses of the early 1900s.

When asked about what makes a creative inventor, Kettering stated:

“An inventor is simply a person who doesn’t take his education too seriously. You see, from the time a person is six years old until he graduates from college he has to take three or four examinations a year. If he flunks once, he is out. But an inventor is almost always failing. He tries and fails maybe a thousand times. It he succeeds once then he’s in. These two things are diametrically opposite. We often say that the biggest job we have is to teach a newly hired employee how to fail intelligently. We have to train him to experiment over and over and to keep on trying and failing until he learns what will work.”

While in school, we are often educated into believing that we must succeed, we are taught that mistakes should be avoided. Kettering, on the other hand, understood that - in order to be truly successful and creative, we need to accept failure and not fear it.

Looking back through history, Kettering had 300 patents to his name, most of which never impacted anyone. Thomas Edison had attempted to create a sustainable and affordable lightbulb thousands of times before he finally had a breakthrough. Albert Einstein wrote thousands of research papers that were considered average - and sometimes even awful - before he was recognized as a genius.

There has never been an inventor in the history of mankind who has solved a problem, changed the world, or been recognized as a genius, before failing several times.

Without failure, success is impossible.

So you think you aren't creative...

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:58:00 -0600

If you don’t sit in a café all day sipping at frappuccinos, does that mean you’re not a creative person?

Or every time you look at a blank computer screen, sheet of paper, or painting canvas, and don’t come up with a brilliant work of art, does that mean you’re not the creative type?

And what about when you have a project that you need to work on and you can’t come up with any original idea for it, does that mean you’re not creative?

You bet it does.

But - just because you can’t think up creative ideas all of the time - that doesn’t mean you don’t have the potential to be creative. In-fact, you have the potential to become a creative genius. You just need to understand how to use your creative potential (because, despite what you may believe, you have a lot of capacity for creativity).

Everyone has creative potential. From scientists discovering a cure for some lethal disease, school teachers thinking up a lesson for their next class, or you trying to find a way to fill up that empty sheet of paper or computer screen, we all use our creativity to solve problems. Everyday of our life.

When you get up in the morning and decide what clothes to wear, you are using your creativity to choose an outfit for that day. When you drive, ride your bike, or walk to work or school you use your creativity for choosing a route to take. When you decide on what to eat for lunch, when you organize your closet, when you avoid that annoying co-worker, and even when you decide what to say to your friends and family, you are using your creativity.

In order to really harness your creative capabilities (and not limit your creativity to solving mild, everyday problems) you need to first accept the fact that you have the potential to be more creative, you need to let go of limitations, open your mind to ideas you never would have accepted before, and stop worrying about making mistakes.

When you are feeling uncreative, remember what American author Mary Lou Cook once said: “Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.”

You have a lot of creative potential. The only thing stopping you from being truly creative now, is yourself.

Original photo by the brilliant photographer Sherman Tan.

Motivation Monday: Different takes on public art.

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:55:00 -0600

Searching for creative motivation or inspiration? Each Monday you can find all of the creative insight you need right here at Creative Something, with “Motivation Monday”.

One of the best company blogs in the world (Signal vs. Noise by 37signals) recently posted about Two very different takes on public sculpture and art.

The article explains the differences between public art and sculptures in Chicago and Seattle.

When reflecting on the public art in Seattle: “Nice landscaping, nice setting, nice sculpture, but the lasting impression wasn’t made by the art, it was made by a sign (actually, about 10 signs).”

The article continues: “Contrast this with Chicago’s Millennium Park. Public art and architecture that is entirely interactive.”

These two different takes on art in public is interesting, and is great creative motivation for this week.

In one city you have art that is only for viewing, in the other city you have art that is interactive. Which city do you think gets more tourism for their public art and sculptures alone?

When someone is allowed to interact physically with a work of art, does that impact their perception of that artwork?

Take a look into a real creative farm.

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:12:00 -0600

You have never seen anything like this before.

It’s a video tour of a creative farm in England that grows, juices, and distributes creativity.

From the YouTube page: “Behind the scenes tour of of an award-winning creative farm, juicing process and distribution in South West England. The South West produces some of the UK’s finest creative work (animation, web design, design, fashion, architecture….) Now you know why….nice conditions, space to breathe and opportunities with some of the best firms around. “

Obviously this video is a joke, but the creativity behind the video is brilliant. There aren’t many videos that take one idea (creativity) and creatively blend it with a completely seperate idea (farming).

Click here to see the video on YouTube.

Finding inspiration in your environment.

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:03:00 -0600

Can the world around you inspire your creativity?

For husband and wife Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz, the environments they have surrounded themselves with over the past few years have not only impacted their creative imagination, their surroundings have helped inspire their own creative niche.

You may have seen the work of Martin & Muñoz without even knowing it. You may have read one of their incredible interviews in The New York Times, or The Pen Leaf, or ARTnews and been inspired immediately.

What exactly do Martin & Muñoz produce? They sculpt and arrange miniature scenes in snow globes.

In their interview with The New York Times, Ms Muñoz talked about house hunting and how the area around their home inspired them, she stated: “…we walked in and saw the snow and the stream running through it, the trees all covered in ice and dripping with icicles, and we fell in love.”

The article continues, “From that visceral encounter and associations deep-frozen in memory emerged the artists’ work: chilly scenes of an existential winter complemented by large–scale photomontages. A kitschy souvenir is reborn as both a sphere of ideas and responses to the global present.”

Finding creative inspiration may be as easy as looking out your window. For Martin & Muñoz looking out their front window into the landscape of Spain or walking through the snow covered streets of Pennsylvania has not only inspired them, it has allowed them to be featured in hundreds of newspapers, magazines, online websites, and art galleries across the globe.

There is no greater inspiration to creativity than the world around us. Nobody can create color schemes as beautifully as nature herself. Nothing can shape lines and curves like the Earth can.

The next time you need some creative inspiration, take a minute to look at the environment that surrounds you. Everything you need for a great idea is right there.

Monday Motivation: Workplaces and creativity.

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:10:00 -0600

Searching for creative motivation or inspiration? Each Monday you can find all of the creative insight you need right here at Creative Something, with “Motivation Monday”.

If you were employed in 1838, you would most likely be sitting behind a tiny desk in a room with 210 other people aligned in front and to the sides of you, 10 of which were there only to make sure you did your job and, if you didn’t, escort you to the nearest exit immediately.

It was during the Industrial Revolution that offices where rows and columns of people would dot factory floors, managers marching up and down each aisle like military generals, and the decor consisted of metal desks, metal typewriters, steel chairs, and little more.

The lack of color, the lack of anything personal, and the lack of socialization in the workplace, was simply to fuel production.

And it worked.

Things got done. Products were made and sold. Companies thrived.

But true innovation was reserved for those outside of the corporate setting. Why? Because creativity was sedated by such a controlled, dull work environment.

Not surprisingly, companies today are still struggling with how to create workplaces that power both productivity and creativity; though we have made great strides over the past few years in this area.

So, what type of workplace fuels both creativity and productivity? One where socialization and creativity aren’t restricted.

To increase your creativity, make sure that your work area allows you to have face to face conversations with coworkers, has space for personal relaxation, and is surrounded with items that inspire you personally.

Offices may have been around since the Industrial Revolution, but that doesn’t mean yours has to feel or look like it’s still in the revolution.

Original photo by Johannes Henseler.

Creativity quote: How the web amplifies innovation.

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:11:00 -0600

If there was anyone who ever really understood innovation, it would be this man, Charles Leadbeater.

Leadbeater is a popular British author (he wrote “We Think”) and former advisor to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair. Through his life, Leadbeater has monitored the way interaction fuels human beings, and from that he has found what really fuels innovation.

As a guest writer for Social Innovation Camp, Leadbeater discussed how the internet works as a platform for amplifying creative innovation. Here’s a tidbit from Leadbeater’s article:

Ideas grow by being articulated, tested, refined, borrowed, amended, adapted and extended, activities that can rarely take place entirely in the head of an individual; but which invariably they involve many people sharing different insights and criticisms. The web allows shared creativity of this kind to involve more people, discussing more questions from more angles with more ideas in play, at least it does as long as people organize themselves in the right way. We have only just started to explore how we could apply this collaborative, participative culture to social challenges.

The internet is perfect for innovation because it allows anyone to collaborate on ideas with a massive audience or large user base.

All of the best creative ideas are formed because there was a need for such ideas; with the web it’s easy to find what is needed, to discover what people want, and create it.

Not only does the internet make it easy to find innovative ideas, it also makes it easy to perfect ideas by testing, adapting, and getting feedback on, them.

Want to keep creativity flowing at your office?

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:23:00 -0600

The father of modern management, Peter Drucker, once said something about how “Business has only two basic functions – marketing and innovation.”

And Drucker was right, the two functions that continually power corporations is marketing and innovation.

What powers the marketing and innovation behind companies? Creativity, of course.

But how can a company that is dependent on marketing that works, and dependent on techniques that are proven to pay, stay creative? How can the employees of corporations remain creative while still getting things done?

Keeping creativity flowing in a corporate setting isn’t actually as hard as you would imagine. Here are a few things you or your company can do to keep production high and creativity even higher.

1. Switch job tasks for 20 minutes. Have employees do something they don’t typically do. One day a month have employees switch job tasks for just 20 minutes. Let designers think up marketing campaigns, let copywriters mock up websites, let programmers answer emails, anything but what your typically job has you do.

Doing something that is new at work (and being responsible for it) is a great way to keep creativity flowing, while still producing money–making results. And even if the results of switching job tasks aren’t spectacular, the creative juices will definitely be flowing.

2. Change direction. Instead of focusing on making money, aim to lose money, discover ways to expand the physically company, or focus on making your customers happy. Anything but what your company is focusing on now.

Finding ways for the company to earn money can get boring. Boredom can lead to a lack of creativity. A lack of creativity means the company can’t produce innovative products, services, or advertisements and therefore loses money. So why not change direction, even if only for a little while? A short change of corporate direction – especially when it’s changed to something abnormal, like trying to lose money – will help employees generate a lot of creative ideas.

3. Accept more ideas. Most companies are willing to listen to an idea, but when it comes to trying an idea out, most companies don’t do a thing. To really keep creativity flowing in a corporate setting, try accepting more ideas… and from anyone too.

The potential of any idea can’t be determined until it is acted upon, and the only way to make any idea into a brilliant one is to act on it. It doesn’t matter who came up with the idea, or what the initial costs appear to be, get started on the idea and see where it takes the company. If anything, you’ll be doing what all of your competitors aren’t: accepting more ideas.

While keeping creativity flowing in a corporate setting can be difficult at times, it’s not impossible.

Try out these techniques, ask your manager to consider them, and don’t be afraid to do things that aren’t typically of a business. There isn’t a single, major company in the world who got where they are today doing what was expected of them.

Original photo by Joe Loong

Monday Motivation: Animals on the underground.

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 08:56:00 -0600

Searching for creative motivation or inspiration? Each Monday you can find all of the creative insight you need right here at Creative Something, with “Motivation Monday”.

When you see something like a map of the underground trail tunnels of London, you see just that: a map of the underground trail tunnels of London.

And, while there is nothing wrong with seeing what is right in front of you, you might not see much else.

Unless you use a little creativity, much like Paul Middlewick did in 1988, when he stared at a map of the underground tunnels of London and saw more than just train stations and pathways.

When Paul Middlewick looked at a map of London’s underground, he saw animals.

What Paul saw 80 years ago, everyone is trying to see today. I’m talking about Animals on the underground. A new perspective of the same old, boring map lines.

A small twist in perspective, a change in thinking, can mean a huge change in ideas. What was once a simple map of the London underground is now a farm of different, cartoon–style animals.

Find something you have been looking at for days, weeks, or even years, and try to view it differently. Try to see something that you didn’t see before. And don’t forget to find some creative inspiration this week with Animals on the underground.

Some of the absolute best blogs for creative inspiration.

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:51:00 -0600

So, you’re looking for remarkable blogs about creativity.

Blogs are, without a doubt, one of the best resources you can use when it comes to searching for creative inspiration.

Over the past few years I have stumbled upon, read through, bookmarked, subscribed to, unsubscribed from, and found some incredible blogs focused on creative inspiration; yet, most of the creative blogs I discovered weren’t up to par with what I expected from a creativity blog.

There are, however, a few blogs that I use daily for creative inspiration, and the creative value they provide to people like you and me is unsurpassed.

Here is my list of some of the absolute best blogs for creative inspiration. Visit them all at least once, consider subscribing to them, think about bookmarking them, and definitely read through (at least) their first page of posts.

Accidental Creative - Creativity consulting, podcasts, and resources for creative pros. I originally wasn’t going to include Accidental Creative in the list, but it’s hard not to feel inspired by every post on the blog!

Ideas on Ideas - Eric Karjaluoto discusses design, brands and experience. Ideas on Ideas has been one of my favorite creative blogs for over a year, definitely one you can’t afford to not read.

Behance Magazine - Insights & tips from creatives on making ideas happen. Behance is a network for designers and creative professionals, and - according to anyone who reads it - it’s one of the best creative blogs of all time.

Perpenduum - Awesome. Concise, interesting, and inspiring posts. Nothing more needs to be said.

Coroflot - Coroflot’s creative seeds blog. If you are looking for design related inspiration, Coroflot’s blog is perfeect for you.

Trend Insights - Interesting design, interior design, architecture and more. Wow. Inspiring and beautiful design, products, and other creative work.

Veer: The Skinny - Good stuff. Anything branded “Veer” is creativity at it’s best, trust me.

Creative Generalist - “An outpost for curious divergent thinkers who appreciate new ideas from a wide mix of sources.” Brilliant insights from creative generalist, Steve Hardy.

gapingvoid - Cartoons drawn on the back of business cards. From the man who wrote How to be Creative, creative (and often humorous) cartoons and blog posts.

How to Save the World - The inspirational blog of Guy Kawasaki. A creative genius and extremely great man, Guy posts his inspiration almost daily.

Coudal - Partners. One of the world’s most famous design firms blogs daily about interesting, cool, and truly inspiring stuff.

Creative Something - Creative inspiration, just the way you like it. It wouldn’t be a list of “absolute best blogs for creative inspiration” if I didn’t include my own blog, right?

Original photo by Wee Keat Chin

The creative power of drawing ideas.

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:21:00 -0600

What do the words “creative idea” mean to you?

No matter how you put it, a creative idea is nothing more than an idea, a thought in your head.

Taking your ideas and making them into something more than just thoughts can be a daunting task for some people, but - in actuality - making your ideas a reality is as easy as drawing them out.

Drawing your ideas out isn’t just the first step to making your ideas real, there are a lot of things it can do for you…

Drawing will help you visualize your thoughts. Visual thinking genius (and author) Dan Roam once said: “By drawing… we will see otherwise invisible aspects and potential solutions [to problems will] emerge.” As human beings, we’re visual creatures, and until you can visually see your ideas in front of you, you won’t be able to accurately see potential problems (and solutions).

Drawing will inspire you. When you start to sketch out your ideas, the lines and shapes that start to form on the paper will help your mind visually see connections that can form new ideas. If you want to be inspired by drawings before you sit down and draw yourself, take a look at these sketches by Cultured Code for their new iPhone application.

Drawing will get you organized. Ideas often seem simple and easy when they’re in your head, but when you start getting those ideas onto paper they can seem overwhelming. Drawing your ideas - and all of the aspects of those ideas - on paper makes it easier for you to organize your ideas and all of the parts of each idea. Even if your sketches are all over the place and not drawn in a Picasso fashion, just having something you can physically touch and see will get you organized.

Drawing your ideas out means you can visualize them, rather than just imagine them. You can also organize your ideas and be inspired by drawing.

Of course, there are more benefits to drawing your ideas, but it’s up to you to determine what those other benefits are.

Original photo by Cultured Code

Motivation Monday: The Career guide for creative people.

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:00:00 -0600

Searching for creative motivation or inspiration? Each Monday you can find all of the creative insight you need right here at Creative Something, with “Motivation Monday”.

It is definitely not easy finding a career that satisfies both your creative and financial needs.

For creative people like you and me, finding that perfect job seems like an impossible task.

If you are one of the very few who have found a job that lets you fully indulge your creative side, while still paying the bills, then congratulations! But, if you are like most creative people, that dream job seems to be nothing more than a dream.

Or is it? There may be a great resource for creative people to help them find their perfect job, I’m talking about today’s subject of motivation: the Career Guide for Creative and Unconventional People.

This four–and–a–half star, best-selling career book is perfect for any creative person who is looking for that perfect job and not finding it.

An excerpt about the book on Amazon.com states: “You don’t have to stifle your creative impulses to pay the bills. For anyone who’s ever been told, ‘Don’t quit your day job,’ career counselor Carol Eikleberry is here to say, ‘Pursue your dreams!’ Now in its third edition, her inspiring guide provides knowledgeable career guidance, real–life success stories, and eye–opening self–evaluation tools to help artistic individuals figure out how to remain different, unconventional, and hard–to–categorize while finding work they love.”

With a cheap, $5–$10 price tag, and 18 positive reader reviews, The Career Guide for Creative and Unconventional People looks like a great, inspirational read for anyone considering a creative, out of the ordinary, job.

You can get the book right here.

Original sketch by Aaron Michels

Why Ze Frank thinks creativity is a blank word.

Fri, 30 May 2008 08:00:00 -0600

This is one part of a series of quotes on creativity from the creative geniuses of our time.

He has been featured in Time Magazine, presented not only once - but twice - at TED conference, and is often referred to as a “genius in creating online experiences”… he goes by the name Ze Frank.

If you have seen any of Ze Frank’s work, or if you have ever seen him speak, you know that his creative insight is some of the best you will ever hear.

In an interview with the website Cecil Vortex, Ze had this to say about living a creative life:

…For me, this notion of “creativity” is sort of a blank word. It doesn’t really mean much. And the more you look into it and look at how different people explore it, you realize that it’s a word that has many, many different definitions.

The thing that I focus in on is being interested and realizing that anything that you approach has almost a fractal pattern. Anything. If it’s yarn for knitting, you realize that if you have any interest, there’s more information there than would last you a year, to get into and understand and play around with, not to mention all the tactile qualities of yarn and what it feels like when you stretch it across something or ball it up. So that’s how I look at this — having the energy to stay interested and the energy to spark interest in things.

With The Show project, I’ve also been thinking a lot about this culture of authorship that we’re entering into. You’ve got so many people that are making things now, whether it’s emails or instant messages or uploading images to Flickr, making movies, creating audio on cheap prosumer technology.

What’s really interesting to me is that, as anyone knows who’s gone into a creative discipline, the second that you start doing those things, the world around you changes. If you draw, you start seeing the edges of things, and you start seeing the deformities of their shape when you move around them. When you start playing guitar, you start noticing notes in all the music you play, and in fact, the music that you listen to never sounds the same from that point on. I think that a lot of people are focusing on the content that’s being produced right now. And I think it’s the wrong thing to look at. It’s actually the pursuit and the perception change that I think a lot of people are experiencing about the world — that’s the thing to focus on.

The word “creativity” is a blank word until you find the motivation and interest into making it mean something. As Ze said: one of the best ways to live a creative lifestyle is to focus on the change in perception that creativity creates.

Seth Godin explains real creativity.

Thu, 29 May 2008 08:00:00 -0600

This is one part of a series of quotes on creativity from the creative geniuses of our time.

When it comes to creative marketing, there is one man who stands out from the rest; he has written countless bestselling books, talked in front of the world’s fastest growing business (Google), and has even presented at one of the world’s greatest thinking conferences (TED). Of course I’m talking about Seth Godin.

On his world-famous, top-ranking blog, Seth Godin talks about business marketing, insider tips, and other creative insights into the world of advertising, but Seth also once posted about “real creativity”, what it is, and where it comes from. Here’s what Seth had to say about real creativity:

…Real business creativity comes from boundaries.

Inventing something cool that can’t be implemented isn’t creative. It’s mostly a waste. I think that inventing the unimplementable [sic] is a fine hobby, but it’s also a bit of a crutch. Yes, of course we need big visions and big ideas, but not at the expense of the stuff you can actually pull off. …If you’ve decided you want to create a breakthrough in your area of expertise (say …coding), then either be prepared to launch and run it when you’re done, or have a clear licensing strategy in mind, one where you’re not the first person in history to pull it off.

If you’ve decided to invent a great idea for a book, better be ready to write it too, and either find a publisher or publish it yourself. There’s no market for book ideas.

If you want to do creative ads, it helps to have clients willing to run them.

These constraints are the best part of being creative, as far as I’m concerned. I couldn’t imagine writing Superman comics. The rules are too vague. There are too many choices. In non-profits and organizations and even in politics, the rules are pretty obvious (sometimes they’re too obvious). So the real creativity comes in navigating those rules in a way that creates a breakthrough. …See the rules. Keep most of them. Break one or two. But break them, don’t bend them.

Seth’s advice is, personally, my favorite of all creative geniuses.

Real creativity comes into play when you accept that there are boundaries, you move around them (or completely break a few of them), and you find ways to implement your ideas. Any idea that sits in your thoughts or on a piece of paper is not as valuable as an idea that is implemented.