The Velveeta Paradox
If you owned a grocery store, where would you stock the Velveeta cheese? This question seems simple enough, but let me walk you through the moral implications embedded in this seemingly simple question…

Answer 1: The Dairy Aisle
It seems logical to stock Velveeta with the other cheeses. This is the first place a customer will typically look when searching for Velveeta. In case you didn’t know, Velveeta isn’t truly a cheese and doesn’t need to be refrigerated. This raises some problems. First, since dairy products need to be refrigerated it costs more for you to keep the product here. How do you pay for this extra cost? Do you markup the product and charge the customer for the luxury of finding the product where they expect it? Is it deceptive to sell imitation cheese as if it were actually cheese?

Answer 2: Near the Dairy Aisle
If you choose a location close to the dairy aisle you face a different moral conundrum. The nature of the refrigerated section of the grocery store is that there rarely will be a good spot near the cheese. If there is a shelf in eye sight of the cheese, chances are the items found here will not be a context where you would look to find cheese. Stacking bricks of Velveeta between loaves of bread or between coffee grounds puts the macaroni lubricant severely out of context. If you truly value your customers you won’t want them to miss the location and walk aimlessly around the store for hours. Or perhaps you are the kind of person who would hide the cheese intentionally so that customers will load their cart up with other non-essentials as they search for the holy grail of cheese products.

Answer 3: The End Cap
To compensate for the lack of visibility caused by taking Velveeta out of the context of the cheese section you may decide that an end cap is the best place to stock your loafs of lard. End caps, however, are the prime real estate in the store. Can you afford to give up this space (and possible revenue) just to make the orange jelly easier to find?

Answer 4: The Chip Aisle
Since imitation cheese is a common ingredient in dips, it might make sense to stock it in the chip aisle with the junk food. You are now presented with a different type of question. Velveeta has very few redeeming health merits. If you are concerned about the health of your customers, should you really be promoting I-can’t-believe-its-not-cheese in the first place? How do you avoid feeling guilty about providing a substance that kills people?

Answer 5: The Cigarette Counter
If your conscience gets the best of you, guilt might cause you to pull the toxic cubes off the shelves all together. Perhaps the cigarette counter is a more appropriate spot. You can add warning labels, age restrictions, and generally make people feel guilty about buying the irresistible yellow sludge. This would of course have the negative side effect of offending the responsible Velveeta user who uses it in moderation in the privacy of their own home.

Answer 6: Anywhere Else
There aren’t any other places left in the store that make sense to put the artery arsenic. Again, if you value your customer’s time it has to be in a place where they know to look. Additionally, as a store owner you will lose sales on Velveeta if people can’t find it. Can you afford to put it somewhere where it won’t be found?

I hope you found this analogy entertaining. As funny as it sounds, these are the kind of moral decisions that we all have to make on a daily basis. Although advertisers are often lumped into the same category as politicians and lawyers when it comes to measuring the “most loathed human beings,” almost all the marketers I have ever known have been good honest people. For the most part, the average human has nothing but good intentions when it comes to their careers. We want to help people. We want to produce quality products that people will find useful. We want to invest our lives in things that we consider good. Inevitable this will eventually put you in a catch-22 situation. Sometimes there just isn’t a safe answer to questions like these. If you are sincerely trying to be a good person you will regularly be confronted with situations that compromise your integrity. What do you do when you are between a rock and a hard place?

By the way, I am giving out high-fives to anyone who leaves a comment with a good slang phrase for Velveeta. I think my favorite so far is “the holy grail of cheese products.”

Oh, and if you were wondering where Velveeta actually gets stocked, you will usually find it in the refrigerated dairy section next to the other cheeses. You can be sure that the store passes the unnecessary refrigeration cost on to you…

The assignment was to make something that represented our families. Sounds simple right? The catch was that this wasn’t a drawing. It wasn’t a photo. As we tried to pin down Mr. Schatz about what exactly we were supposed to create, he was elusive. The more we pressed him the more confusing the assignment became.

We knew what a drawing was. We know what pottery was. We knew what photos were. We knew what songs were. We knew what a poem was. These things defined “art” as we knew it. But this assignment was something confusing, something foreign to us. Finally, Mr. Schatz gave us some vague direction. He said something like,

“Think about what your family means to you. You know these people better than anyone else in the world. You can’t sum up the most important people in your life with a drawing. You can’t represent your love for your mom with a poem. When you think about your brothers and sisters you feel something inside you. Focus on that – and then make something that feels the same way.”

Needless to say, we left class that day bewildered. We struggled with it. The word that comes to mind to describe what I felt was “terrified.” I was supposedly one of the talented artists in the class and I had no idea what to make.

As I struggled with the assignment, things gradually became clear. Creating something was secondary to the process. It didn’t matter so much what we made, what mattered was learning to think creatively, passionately, and personally. Shapes, color, paint, tools – all the familiar skills we were learning – were all finally given a purpose beyond “making pretty things.” For the first time in our lives, this thing called “art” was connected to something inside of us. It was terrifying, yes, but it was also empowering. It was a pivotal moment in my creative development.

This was in a public school in the midwest, Wentzville High to be exact, but I still wonder what impact traditional education has on creative development. So much of what we learn in school is how to memorize and recite answers. We learn what hoops to jump through and in what order. Do a, b, and c and you earn a diploma. Where does creativity come into play? Creativity isn’t something that you can create a formula for.

As a graphic designer I get paid to work for so-called “non-creatives.” It is a challenge that I gladly welcome, but I can’t help but wonder if these people are merely missing a creative component that should have been taught in school. These brilliant people are enormously intelligent with successful careers and more wealth than I will ever see. And yet when it comes to a visual vocabulary they are infants. When conversations stray beyond the physical/quantifiable/literal I see the same thing that I saw back in high school: terrified bewilderment. And just like in school some people embrace the new world, others run for cover and the comfort of more easily measured occupations.

Not to long ago I wrote a disappointed review of an article in Scientific American about new research being done on the subject of creativity. There is a similar article published in the new issue of Wired (November 2009) called “Flights of Fancy: Why an idling mind is the mother of invention” written by Clive Thompson. He talks about daydreaming and studies that are being done on the brain when it is idling. The conclusions seem to be that rather being time we are wasting it is actually a critical and complex brain function. It is similar to storage backup on a computer because the part of your brain that is active when your mind wanders is responsible for processing long term memories.

The article goes on to talk about the implications that this could have on business situations that focus on efficiency and productivity. Since daydreaming can’t be considered “billable time” it is safe to say that most businesses don’t encourage it. In reality, this could be some of the most valuable we spend at work. I am sure you can remember plenty of times when you had an insight to a problem come into your brain seemingly out of nowhere. That seems to be how our brains work, often hidden and unknown. You can’t force yourself to be creative.

The part of the article that I disagree with, however, is the recommendation that “unblocking” the social internet sites would somehow increase our daydreaming time. Letting your mind wander is not the same as updating your Facebook status or watching Flight of the Concords on YouTube. Surfing the web is an activity that requires thinking, no matter how mindless it is. Killing time and procrastinating isn’t going to lead to a breakthrough in creativity.

I would go a step further and say that surfing the web might actually stifle the creative power of daydreaming. Surfing the web, although lots of fun, keeps our brains constantly “on.” The brain is a muscle that needs to relax, too. It is the resting that is critical so that our brain can do it’s magic. Like I said when I wrote about the link between dreaming and creativity, sleep allows our minds to do things that we can’t do when we are awake. The same is true of daydreaming – if we give our minds the chance. We can’t use daydreaming as an excuse to be unproductive, but next time you come back to consciousness at your desk after a good daydream maybe you can feel a little less guilty.

Many designers are happy with this arrangement. Endless client revisions translates to more hours, which translates into more cash. It is easier to accept the destruction of your work if you can cash bigger checks as a result. Some designers can’t handle the hypocrisy and either drop out or become the stereotypical designer making fun of the clients behind their backs.

Luckily there is an alternative besides occupational hypocrisy and pessimistic burnout. The answer is to entrench yourself in the psychology and research behind what powers your intuition. Trusting your gut is important, but it isn’t enough. Your intuition works for a reason, and you can learn to explain why. If this type of thinking appeals to you, I urge you to read a few of the books I have been enjoying recently. They are:

“Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” is a great look at why people are fooled by marketing. I think that too many people assume that the public is dumb, when in fact people are amazingly consistent and intelligent creatures. This book comes to conclusions that you couldn’t arrive at if you simply trust your intuition.

“Predictably Irrational” is a book I am just starting but I am already hooked. The problem with trusting your gut is that it makes mistakes because so much in the world is counter-intuitive and irrational. Learning how to predict the irrational is a great skill to have.

Here is some practical advice if you are trying to supplement your intuition. Study your reactions to marketing, art, and design. Sensitize yourself so that you can take mental inventory of things that you see that “work” and what doesn’t. Question everything you see. Never take anyone’s word for anything. Filter everything and never accept surface level answers to questions that seem straight forward. As you carefully study your own responses to your surrounding as well as the reactions of others you can start to apply the things you learn to your work.

First of all, thanks to everyone for the comments in response to my post about skipping church. I appreciate everyone’s concern and it is interesting to see how wide of a range my friends have regarding the importance of regular church attendance. If you were wondering, yes, I did attend church today and last Sunday. Whoopidy doo.

In other news, I have put my dreams of owning a Corvette on hold for a while. What? I didn’t tell you about that? Well, I have been saving for a new car for a while and it turns out that Craigslist is a great place to fantasize about owning your childhood dream car. Finally reality set in, however, and I decided to put the money I have in savings towards paying off credit card debt. Whoopidy doo.

I have been taking some photos recently. I will save the technical details for a future post on Found Photography, but the shots are panoramic and/or HDR. The panoramas take multiple photos and stitch them together into one continuous shot. The HDR shots take multiple exposures and blend them together to create images with high dynamic range. I am enjoying the processes enough that I finally purchased a high quality tripod. It should arrive tomorrow. Whoopidy doo.

Thinking back to confirmation class in seventh grade I remember the pastor asking us if we knew whether or not we were going to heaven. The result of this discussion left us with this bit of unsettling advice. “If you believe Jesus died for your sins then you will have eternal life.” I say unsettling because it had the unintended consequence of causing me to fear my thoughts that question my belief in God. If heaven hinges on belief, then you have to stifle thoughts of doubt and pretend that you are a perfect unquestioning Christian soldier. And while I have never been shy about questioning Christianity and expressing my doubt, recently the Christian act has bothered me more than usual. I have stopped going through the motions of attending Church on Sundays. I don’t want to pretend to be a Christian, I want to actually be a Christian. Actually, I am not so sure I want to be a Christian, I just want to be honest. I don’t want to pretend to support a church that leaves me feeling spiritually empty. I don’t want to endorse a doctrine that produces empty and corrupt leaders. I don’t want to be ashamed when I question my faith.

So this morning I am skipping church again. I have been reading a magazine that I picked up earlier this weekend called Relevant. It is a Christian publication that I have been aware of but never spent much time with. I purchased the issue because there was an article on the iPhone and some bands that I like. I wondered what “relevant” Christians thought about the music I enjoy and their thoughts on technology. Honestly, I was skeptical because I was afraid the publication was going to be a watered down Christian philosophy that loosened the definition of “Christian” to accept the products of pop culture. I was relieved that this was not the case.

One article in particular really spoke to what I have been struggling with recently. The article is called “Insert Soul Here: How Honesty About Your Doubt Can Save Your Life.” I encourage you to read it if you get the chance. David Dark says,

“If we think we have faith because we faithfully protect ourselves from anything that might call it into question – as if God is counting on us to keep ourselves stupid, closed off to the complexity of the world we’re in – I’d like to argue that we don’t have faith in God at all. We have faith in our own faith rather than the God who transcends it, faith in a faith that somehow saves us. Not faith in God, but faith in a false god of our own conceptions, a god too afraid to entertain a question or doubt.”

I can’t tell you how comforting it is to accept my Christian struggle not as a weakness, but as an integral part of actually being a Christian. And now I don’t feel bad about skipping church today. The question is how do I explain this to a six year old?

The article points out that one factor contributing to creativity is “psychological distance” which they define as ” anything that we do not experience as occurring now or here. In other words, if you can take yourself out of your current mindset you will be more likely to think creatively. That isn’t groundbreaking research, but it is interesting nevertheless.

Unfortunately, the article ends with some terrible advice when it comes to the practical application of the scientific studies. The article says,

“…there are several simple steps we can all take to increase creativity, such as traveling to faraway places (or even just thinking about such places), thinking about the distant future, communicating with people who are dissimilar to us, and considering unlikely alternatives to reality.”

I think that is a pretty bad summary of some relatively intriguing research. Let me take it one point at a time.

1. Travel to faraway places.
This suggestion completely misses the point of the scientific research. Traveling to a faraway place is not the same as “psychological distance.” The point is to get your mind thinking differently, not to actually travel. Granted, a trip to a foreign country might inspire you, but traveling alone isn’t going to make you more creative.

2. Think about the distant future.
In the study, people are asked to think about themselves a year from now. Then they are asked to think of themselves solving an insight problem. This is a much more subtle way to think about a question than just saying, “Imagine how you would solve this problem in the distant future.” I guarantee if the question was phrased like that the answers wouldn’t be creative they would just involve people in silver suits and flying cars. That isn’t creativity, sorry.

3. Communicate with people who are dissimilar to you.
First of all, I can’t see where this suggestion is getting pulled from anywhere in the article. Maybe this one is just phrased badly. If it said “collaborate with people outside your normal circles,” it wouldn’t sound so bad. It feels condescending to me for some reason to assume that I would be surrounded by clones of myself.

4. Consider unlikely alternatives to reality.
Creativity requires that you do more than consider alternatives. You need to throw reality out the window and live there for a while. If the answer was reality then you wouldn’t need to be creative in the first place. I think it is funny that they added the word “unlikely” to that sentence to make it a little more redundant. I feel like this is saying “consider the unlikely, then get back to reality where you are more comfortable anyway.” Good luck with that.

The next sentence in the article says,

“Perhaps the modern environment, with its increased access to people, sights, music, and food from faraway places, helps us become more creative not only by exposing us to a variety of styles and ideas, but also by allowing us to think more abstractly.”

The result of our modern times is that creative thinking is increasingly rare. The research cited shows that by default most people find it hard to think about problems from anything but a very literal point of view. They have to be “tricked” into being creative with scenarios that inject psychological distance into the question. More music, food, people, and vacationing isn’t going to make you more creative.

There is another cage with a mouse in it. One side of the cage has no bars, just a ledge. The mouse can’t see how far below the ground is and is afraid to jump. After year’s of living in fear of making the leap of faith the mouse dies in its cage.

This story came to me in a dream a couple nights ago. I find this story to be one of the most interesting that I have documented at Dream Feedr. I feel sorry for both the bird and the mouse and can relate both situations.

It isn’t that much of a stretch to see our lives as a constant struggle to escape our cages. Sometimes our cages are comfortable, like the mouse’s, and we would rather endure the discomfort than take the risk of jumping into the unknown. Other times we strain our necks and toil for years for something better only to find that things outside our cage are the same or worse than life in the cage.

Do you see yourself as the mouse or the bird in this parable?

I invented a boardgame.
One of the things taking a big chunk of my time has been a board game I designed that is tentatively called Blockade. I will talk about it more in future posts, but it is basically a two player strategy game where you roll a cube on a 4×4 board trying to pin your opponent. Stay tuned for more information in future posts.

Font Burner Plugin Updates
I released a major upgrade to my Font Burner Wordpress plugin. Feedback has been great and downloads passed the 3000 mark recently.

Fever
I recently purchased Fever, a $30 personal rss feed aggregator. I don’t recommend it for anyone who isn’t savvy enough to install apps on your website, but for me it is really great. Once I loaded it up with the hundreds of feeds I try to follow (keyword: try) it filters through the “hot” feeds kind of like a personalized Digg.

I am quoted in Web Designer Magazine
A Twitter connection gave me the opportunity to be quoted in the upcoming issue of Web Designer magazine, a publication out of the UK. Now all I have to do is track down where I can buy a copy of the issue which I think will come out next month.

Music
My favorite album right now is an album called Fantasies
by Metric. The new Eels album
is great, too.

Movies
Netflix has been hit and miss lately. I enjoyed the Wrestler more than I was expecting. Finally saw The Village and Unbreakable and I thought they were great. I enjoyed The Omega Man as much as the remake, Legend.

Red Rocket
Life at work has been busy but good. I have a couple of posts up on the Red Rocket blog. One is about how good design adds credibility to a website and the other is about this YouTube video: