Creative Something

What do you get with HP, stop motion, and upbeat music? Inspired.

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:52:00 -0700

This is a few years old now, but I’m bringing it back to inspire your creativity a little today.

HP put on a contest that presented students with the challenge of creating “an idea which promotes HP Workstations ability to bring to life anything the creative mind can conceive.”

The video (if you can’t see it above, visit the page here) is a remarkably creative response to the challenge. Great execution on a smart idea, all with a fun and inspirational result that should make your day a bit brighter (of course, I like to believe all of the paper used in the video was eventually recycled).

Turn your speakers or headphones up and enjoy.

How most problems are not like math problems.

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:46:36 -0700

When it comes to math equations, there are defined solutions to a problem which are always right.

If you add two and two together you will, most certainly, get the solution four. You don’t have to worry too much about attempting to find any different solution, because the existing one has been determined for you by mathematical experts. In math, there are simple, straight‒forward solutions that don’t require much creative thinking to discover.

On the other hand: organizing your closet, driving to school or work, and negotiating, all have a nearly infinite number of solutions.

You can find dozens, if not thousands, of ways to organize your closet, to drive to wherever it is you need to go, and to negotiate. There isn’t always a best way to find the solution to these situations. You can try one method of approach to most of these situations and, even if you find a solution that works, you can still try a different way repeatedly.

There are quite a few things in life that can be creatively pursued like this, with a seemingly infinite number of possible solutions.

Yet, thanks to a psychological issue known as fixation, we tend to approach most of our daily activities like a math problem: thinking there’s just one right solution that should work.

What happens is that we find ourselves often doing the same things – staring at an unfinished assignment, or repeating ourselves in an argument, or pressing the same buttons on a difficult video game – and we get stuck, the solution never comes, even though we feel as though it should.

The solution to fixating like this is to realize that the solution we think should work isn’t as defined as that of a math equation. In reality, there are many possible solutions for what we’re trying to do. We simply need to be open to discovering what those solutions are. That’s what creativity is for.

So, today, try something new with the situations you find yourself in.

Not only will doing so help you understand that there are a lot of potential solutions to the problems you face, you may actually discover that what you’ve been doing all along isn’t the easiest or most convenient or most fulfilling way to do it anyway.

Math dances illustration by Dylan Ng.

Thinkerbot, a quick way to get inspired.

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 07:00:06 -0700

What can you do when you’re stuck for ideas and lost for a place to seek out inspiration? It turns out that a great, tried‒and‒true way to discover new, creative ideas is to free associate.

Basically viewing a random image, watching a video, reading a phrase, or doing something otherwise unrelated to your problem or situation and then dedicating yourself to finding some way to connect the two.

Over the past few years I’ve seen a lot of free associate tools popup, but the most recent one a friend recommended caught my eye.

It’s called The Thinkerbot, a “non‒linear inspiration generator” which functions simply by displaying random images, texts, videos, and soundbites on a timer. That’s it.

But that’s surprising about the simple tool is that it works wonders for jump‒starting your brain. Try it out right now. No matter what you’re working on, head on over to The Thinkerbot homepage and press “start.”

The rest of the process is up to your brain.

What brainstorming is, and isn't.

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 07:37:30 -0700

Brainstorming can be a powerful toolset for anyone.

Dedicating a small amount of time from your day or production cycle to simply sit and contemplate possible solutions or outcomes can be tremendously rewarding. Though that’s not always the case.

How often do you view brainstorming as a set maze, especially when you create your own constraints? How many times do you sit down to brainstorm and expect to begin in a certain place and end with a specific result?

Like a maze: viewing any time dedicated to creative thinking as a set route, as a set process, results in headaches and likely misguided efforts.

Brainstorming is not a maze, it’s a toolset.

You’re given constraints, rules, and topics, and your goal isn’t to find the end of the maze, but rather: your goal in brainstorming is to see all of the many solutions you can make in a certain amount of time.

Brainstorming isn’t a maze at all, it’s a collection of time and rough ideas for you to play with. Use it accordingly.

Do you fully understand the question?

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 07:00:06 -0700

When we feel creatively stuck – as though we can’t come up with a solution or spark a new idea – more often than not it’s our own doing.

That is to say: many times we are the reason we’re creatively stuck. We give ourselves false constraints or limit ourselves only to what we know and, as it turns out, what we know isn’t fully defined.

One of the best ways to break with feeling creatively stuck is to evaluate whether or not you really understand what it is that you’re trying to do.

You can’t set out to solve a problem if you don’t really understand the problem that you are attempting to solve, for example. To reiterate: if you’re feeling creatively stuck, it could be because you simply aren’t grasping the detail of what it is you’re trying to do.

Of course this is good news for anyone who is creatively stuck, because the solution is a very simple one: take the time to understand what it is you’re trying to do. Do you completely understand the problem to be solved? If you had to describe the new project you’re working on to a stranger, could you do it in five words? What questions do you have about the question you’re trying to answer?

Once you really understand the details of what it is you’re trying to do, you’re more likely to find a capable solution in a more timely manner. Understanding the question is the first place to look for an answer.

So, take the time to fully understand the problem you’re attempting to solve with a new idea and you’ll suddenly find yourself halfway to a solution. As the brilliant Greek philosopher Socrates once insightfully shared: ‎“understanding a question is half an answer.”

Photo by Andrew.

To be creative is to be curious.

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:19:38 -0700

When you were a child you were curious about the world.

You experimented with things, you questioned nearly everything around you, you made an effort to see how and why things worked they way they did.

It’s in our very nature, as human beings, to have this innate sense of curiosity about the world around us. This tendency to be in a nearly constant state of wonder allows us to grow and merge with a society and world that was created well before we were born.

For some of us, unfortunately, that sense of wonder, of experimentation, of curiosity, fades away as we get older. We fit into a mold, follow a routine, and curiosity about the world around us becomes less important than paying bills and following the status quo.

To be creative you have to embrace your inner curiosity. There is so much in the world around you that you likely do not understand, there are millions of reasons to be curious every day.

“ I have no special talent.“ Albert Einstein once stated. “I am only passionately curious.”

It is this sense of overwhelming curiosity that defines the greatest creative thinkers of our time. To be creative, you have to question why things are the way they are; you have to embrace the notion that maybe things could be better if they were different.

If you want to be creative: be passionately curious. That’s all there is to it.

What ever happened to imagination?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 07:28:48 -0700

When did creativity become such serious business?

It seems like just yesterday we were drawing outside of the lines of our favorite coloring books, or smashing the square peg into the triangle hole, or using our imaginations to be warriors or princesses.

Then we grow up and our imaginations are put away. Our entire mentality around creativity goes from “having fun” to “do the work” almost overnight. And we can’t really be that upset about it, I suppose, because the serious work is what makes money and pays the bills. The straight‒faced report filing and keyboard clickity‒clacking is what justifies our jobs to our bosses.

But there’s a problem with this serious approach to living, particularly for those of us who are more artistically or creatively inclined.

The problem is that creativity requires some level of fun to be fruitful. When was the last time you had an insightful, creative idea for how to be innovative with your work while you were forced to wear a tie and simply nod your head?

Being able to have fun with your work makes it easier to take criticism and feedback (which is essentially for gaining insightful perspectives that you otherwise wouldn’t see). Having fun lessens the pressure to “get things perfect” and increases the odds of you actually creating something. Having fun fuels innovation in nearly everything you do.

So what happened to having fun with our work? When did we stop deciding to use our imaginations for fueling innovation in the work we do – and to inspire others, and to discover new possibilities, and to make us feel successful – and instead started using our imaginations for clever ways to fall in line?

If we’re not proposing game ideas in the office, or filing reports with pictures of ourselves as knights or princesses, or if we forget to make a fun activity out of an otherwise boring meeting… what are we doing with our imaginations anymore?

Today, let’s find fun in what we do again. Let’s use the same creativity we did when we were young. Let’s make the office or school or cafe into a castle or forest and see what we can find.

Photo by Hiperterminal.

How to cook up creativity.

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:00:05 -0700

What does it take to be creative? Here’s a quick and easy recipe you can use and share, no matter what level of skill you have in the kitchen of creative thinking.

The fallacy of creative success.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:17:40 -0700

What does success look like for a creative individual?

For many of us, we believe that creative success is the act of creating something and seeing it do well. From spreading content online, to publishing a book, selling a painting, getting that big raise after solving the company’s problem, all of these can be measures of success for someone who is creative.

But that’s not entirely true.

Creative people need to create, it’s regularly what makes us feel purpose in life. So even if we do sell that big painting, or if we create something that millions of people around the world use, the measure of success isn’t there.

Sure, if you do any of these things you’re going to feel great, but after some time the feeling will fade and you’ll realize that you have to keep creating in order to pursue that feeling of “success”.

The real measure of creative success, I think, is the ability to create without restrictions. To spend your days doing the work that makes you happy, even when it fails.

That’s real creative success: the ability to create unrestricted. Something to keep in mind.

Photo by Futurilla.

What you imagine, you can make.

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:00:05 -0700

Consider the fact that this statement is truer today than any other time in history before. If you’re reading this, you have access to an infinity of options for making anything you imagine a reality.

No matter what step of the creative process you’re in – believing you’re not creative, not knowing how to start, unable to get unstuck, not having the abilities to do the work yourself – all you have to do is type in a few words on a search engine and the next step for turning your idea into something real will be presented to you. No special tricks or secrets or talents required.

Pursuing creativity and innovation has never been easier in all of the history of humankind. So what are you waiting for?

Why be creative? A free ebook from several brilliant creatives.

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:08:56 -0700

Why should you be creative? Why should anyone, for that matter, concern themselves with creative thinking?

In the free ebook, Why Creativity?, several of today’s brilliant creatives provide insights into these questions. World renown illustrator and writer Frank Chimero offers a brief explanation, while the remarkable author Julien Smith describes the answer vividly and in a way that is sure to motivate you to create today.

The book also offers ideas from authors Matthew E May, David Meerman Scott, and Gregg Fraley, as well as answers from creative geniuses Mike Brown and Patrick Algrim.

Of course, because the ebook is free, you have nothing to lose by downloading it today, but so many ideas to gain.

So, if you haven’t downloaded “Why Creativity?” yet, be sure to grab it here.

To make creativity sustainable, don't wait.

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:55:05 -0700

Mere ideas aren’t worth anything.

When professional creatives are paid it’s because they either have worthwhile knowledge and experience that they can actively educate others about, or because they create work that sells.

In both cases, the only way to make creativity sustainable is to do something with your ideas. Creation is the key to creativity, after all. Consider this: everyone has ideas, floating around in their minds. On the other hand: not everyone knows what to do with those ideas or executes them.

If you feel like your purpose in life is to be a creative, you have to create work that other people can see, use, and feel inspired by. Without a large portfolio of work you won’t have the valuable experiences to share or anything to sell.

You won’t sell everything you create, but the experience and being able to add the work to your growing portfolio is valuable in and of itself. Create for the sake of creating, but if you want to do it for a living you’ll have to find a way to sell the work, or sell what you learned by creating it.

So get out there and create something today. It’s your only chance.

Photo by Lorraine Santana.

Creativity is a gamble. But what's not?

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:08:46 -0700

“Look high, look low, and we see that gamblers actually form the majority of the world’s inhabitants.” – James Runciman.

One way to get better at gambling is to start with low bets, experiment with different games, and practice repeatedly.

You and I are gambling every day, which is why it’s important to have some idea of how to get better at it.

Whenever we start a project or pursue an idea, we’re risking our time, energy, and potentially money, on something that we can’t see the outcome of. It’s a gamble to try something new, to be creative. Only fools believing they can accurately predict the outcome of any endeavor, which makes the gamble that much more worthwhile.

Sometimes you win big, you get lucky. Other times you simply lose and have to get over the loss of your time or money or emotional bet.

If you want to get better at being creative, you need to get used to gambling more with your ideas. Take risks and try something new. Bluff, if you have to, but be content with the possibility of losing. Because you will lose, more often than you’ll win.

Fortunately, ideas and energy automatically replenish themselves over time – unlike money – so you’re not really gambling anything that would make it impossible to gamble again in the future.

So, take a gamble on being wrong. If you lose, you don’t lose much, but the potential to win big is always there. It’s worth the risk to try something new.

Photo by Conor Ogle.

What to do after you start.

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:57:48 -0700

Getting started is easy if you are motivated enough.

You take the first few steps, you put the pencil to the paper and move it around a bit, or you open the text editor on your computer and make the clackity noise, or whatever else it takes to simply do something.

But what then?

If you’re like everyone else then you start to encounter strange feelings, of fear and doubt and uncertainty. It’s in this place, just after you start something, that creativity really shines.

You’ll begin to question yourself and your abilities. You’ll find yourself asking “Is this the right way?” repeatedly. Undoubtedly, shortly after you start something, you will feel discouraged. At least, if you’re really doing something worthwhile, you’ll have these feelings. That’s where you find the value of your own abilities, of course.

Like walking around a strange city without a map, the only way to know what’s out there is to explore.

Without exploration we – all of us – wouldn’t be where we are today. So embrace the fear and uncertainty and doubt you feel after starting something, it’s a sign you’re on the right track.

Photo by Grand Canyon NPS.

How to maintain a creative, healthy perspective.

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 07:00:06 -0700

“What we see depends mainly on what we look for.” – John Lubbock

Often creative ideas stem from seeing something that you couldn’t see before.

The missing piece you were overlooking, or the element you hadn’t considered adding, or the solution you didn’t know existed until it hit you randomly. Regularly, new experiences can fuel these types of creative insights.

At the heart of it, a change of perspective is what invokes new ideas.

Think about this for a minute. Your perspective is unique because it’s only yours. Nobody has seen the things you’ve seen, from the exact place you’ve seen them, while thinking the things you’ve been thinking. Nobody. That’s your perspective. But the solutions to your problems, new ideas for your projects, and creative insights all regularly lie outside of your perspective (if they didn’t, you wouldn’t be stuck searching for ideas). Outside of what you’ve already seen.

So what do you do?

Like your body, you need to maintain a healthy perspective on the world around you. You need to exercise it, feed it, make time to simply listen to it. How do you do those things?

Regularly questioning your beliefs, asking yourself “Why do I believe this particular thing to be true? What if it wasn’t?” Asking others for their opinions, and really listening to what they have to say, helps too. Look for reasons why your perspective on something might be restricted somehow, and seek out ways to expand what you believe/see/think/feel.

Most importantly: try new things, often.

Like trying to watch a movie from the direct side of the screen, you don’t know what you’re missing until you actively change where you’re sitting.

Photo by Helga Birna Jonasdottir.

The future belongs to the curious.

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:31:22 -0700

This video beautifully explains why curiosity matters, for all of us. Watch it.

Creating the life you want for yourself.

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 07:00:06 -0700

You can’t always do the work that makes you happy.

Ar least, for most of us, life doesn’t work like that. You have obligations to keep, bills to pay, relationships to maintain, and expectations to fulfill.

Someone who wants to live soley as an artist, for example, but who also has a family to look after, might not be able to be just an artist.

But that’s an excuse.

Life isn’t fair, of course, but if you work hard consistently you will undoubtedly encounter success. In-fact, Steve Jobs once spoke of success as being the ability to endure.

Running a side-business when it keeps you up at night is an aspect of enduring towards success. The artist who works a full-time job, takes care of her family, and still dedicates an hour of every single day to her craft is bound to encounter an opportunity to change all of that, to become the full-time, world renown artist she dreams of being.

It’s not magic. It’s certainly not a trick or a “secret.”

Creativity works this way especially. Dedicate yourself to your passion and within time (usually shorter than you expect, but often longer than you would like) you will succeed at achieving your dream. The creative who dedicates him or herself to a lifetime of ideas will undoubtedly come up with something that changes the world. It’s a guarantee.

Success in creativity (as in any other aspect of life) simply takes dedication, passion, and persistence. When others give-up or say “I can’t,” you simply have to be there to press on.

If I can do it, and if historically great artists and writers and designers and photographers around the world can all do it, why can’t you?

Photo by Greg Westfall.

Here's what creativity looks like.

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:14:33 -0700

I had this realization when I first woke up this morning. The image here is what creativity looks like. (If you can’t see the image click here.)

In the center is a problem, or issue, or topic, whatever you want to imagine there. It can be something you need to do at work, or your relationship with a best friend, or a goal you want to reach this year.

The outer points are the possible solutions, or answers, or outcomes.

For every problem or topic we have, there are a seemingly infinite number of solutions and answers. Creativity is connecting the problem to the solutions, and the outcome of any creative endeavour always includes more than one connection.

Your goal is to seek out those connections. They exist, they are out there, you simply have to look for them. That’s what creatives, artists, entrepreneurs, teachers, managers, and brilliant thinkers do: find the connections. It’s easy on the cover.

Of course, the same tool we use to find those solutions is the same tool that tends to get in our way, to convince us that we can’t do it or that an answer is too crazy or too boring to work. Even when they’re not.

The trick, I think, is to embrace the boring and crazy and unknown, and focus on finding as many connections as you can until you find one that you just can’t say no to. That’s where you’ll find success.

No excuses.

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:36:47 -0700

What is standing in your way from creating something right now?

That’s not a trick question, take a minute to consider it if you have to. Try to nail down one or two things that are preventing you from creating something, digitally, physical, or otherwise. If you can’t move forward what can you do?

The typical thing to do when there’s something in your way, is to give up or put off doing the work.

Even the most veteran creatives will attest to putting off something that they should be doing. Daniel Pink, Seth Godin, Steven Johnson, Scott Belsky, they all encounter situations where something stands in their way from creating. So they stop, or they wait, or they come up with excuses.

It’s natural to find excuses.

But that’s what sets those who are successful apart from everybody else. Realizing that excuses are just that: excuses.

It can be hard to try and find your way around excuses, the obstacles we see before us, or beat them down, or get help when you really do need it. But that’s what makes the work all the more worthwhile. More often than not – especially with access to an unfathomable resource of information and help and tools on the internet – all you need to do is go around what’s standing in your way.

The artist without arms simply uses her mouth to hold the brush. The writer with no ideas simply writes about not having ideas. The designer without the right software on his computer uses the free tools available online.

You have no good excuses, you can’t tell me that you do. If you feel like there’s something in your way, just walk around it. Find a way (there really is always a way). No excuses.

Why the best ideas have something missing. (You could win this!)

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 09:47:00 -0700

“Thirty spokes share the wheel’s hub, It is the centre hole that makes it useful. Shape clay into a vessel, It is the space within that makes it useful. Cut doors and windows for a room, It is the holes which make it useful. Therefore profit comes from what is there, Usefulness from what is not there.”

Ideas which are almost seductive, that are symmetrical, ideas that have the right pieces missing, and which are sustainable, are ideas that win.

If you look back at any of the most successful ideas over the past hundred thousand years, you’ll notice that they each have these attributes in common.

It is elegance that sums up these commonalities. Elegance is what can make or break your ideas in the real world, and the book “In Pursuit of Elegance” by Matthew May is chock-full of anecdotes on how to create elegant ideas.

I just finished reading the book and it instantly became a classic in my personal library. In‒fact: I think this book is so worthwhile that I want to give you a signed copy. Read on.

Want to win a signed copy of the book?

Simply subscribe to get Creative Something articles by email using the form on the left side of the website and that’s it. If you’re already subscribed, you’re already eligible to win!

On Friday, January 6th, 2012, I’ll randomly select winners to receive a signed copy of Matthew’s remarkable book.

Be sure to share this with your friends so they have a chance to win a copy of their own too.

UPDATE: Winners have been selected and contacted by email. Thanks to everyone who subscribed!

Disclaimer: I have not been paid for this post. I merely read the book and enjoyed it to the point where I just had to give it away. After contacting the author, Matthew May, he offered to mail signed books for me to give away!