Welcome to our site: Some thoughts on creativity

"Some thoughts on creativity" by Brent

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 14:32:32 -0500

Mike, I certainly appreciate your comments. And hanging out with toy inventors – what a cool idea. I’m begging you to write about that whole experience on your blog.

V, thanks for the suggestion. I needs me some new fiction, and Pi looks really interesting (admittedly I was skeptical at first, I thought it was a math book until I checked Amazon).

"Some thoughts on creativity" by VSelfridge

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 13:49:40 -0500

Brent – I just finished “Life of Pi” and rather liked it!

"Some thoughts on creativity" by Mike Wagner

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 08:23:55 -0500

Brent, wise and timely post for a lot of us. Thanks for linking to the “Draw A Picture” posting I did for David Armano.

This has become such an issue in my practice that I took three days of training from two toy inventors so that I could facilitate ideation sessions with clients needing to revive their creative vision for their business.

Thanks for enlarging a conversation that is close to my heart!

Keep creating, Mike

"Some thoughts on creativity" by Brent

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 00:17:31 -0500

Rob -
I think your term “unplugged brainstorming” is really important. Ink and paper, or conversation, always make for a better stream of consciousness than a computer.

V -
Wise words from the segacious and murderous Jack Torrence. Do you have any good book recommendations?

Roger -
I totally agree. Innovation is definitely a subset of creativity. It’s what happens when creativity and productivity decide to hang out.

"Some thoughts on creativity" by Roger Conant

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 09:45:30 -0500

Great thoughts, Brent. I believe the same techniques can be applied to innovation, also. That’s the mandate for our company this year. For me, it can be as simple as taking time for a sunrise or sunset. Thanks

"Some thoughts on creativity" by VSelfridge

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 15:46:58 -0500

A great reminder… I’ve been trying to read more fiction myself – since as you know “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

"Some thoughts on creativity" by Rob Rutkowski

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 13:10:11 -0500

Amen brother. I had forgotten what music sounded like and I had no songs on my iPod, just podcasts. I’ve fixed that. And being on a plane recently let me do some unplugged brainstorming. It was luxurious. Now I have to learn how to say the word “no.”

Some thoughts on creativity

brent@trabian.com (Brent Dixon) — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 16:18:00 -0500

Let me be perfectly honest – over the past couple of months, until very recently, creativity has personally been more like birthing a child than igniting a flame. The process had become weighty, and a lot more deliberate.

Well I can’t have any of that nonsense, creativity is too important to my work and personal life. So I laid out a few thoughts and changes I need to make in my own daily regimen for a creatively-opulent existence. Granted, I wrote the following ideas out as a specific wake-up call to myself, but I think the concepts are broad enough to be applied on a wider scale.

Edit last, not first

Once I heard someone quote someone else as saying something to the effect of (clearly, I have no passion for details): “Those who are waiting to accomplish something great will end up accomplishing nothing at all.”

The bane of creative thought is the little voice that says, “this sucks…kill it” before the ideation process can even begin. It’s very rare that an idea is going to come out fully formed and brilliant – that’s why brainstorming was invented. Honestly, duds are crucial stepping stones to a successful (a very subjective word) creation. Consider each bad idea a significant ingredient in the mix. Bad ideas aren’t recommended, they’re necessary.

Instead of killing ideas before they start, get them all out there in the flesh…even if its just a piddly sketch on a scrap of paper. Don’t use less paper, use more trash can.

Creativity begets creativity

Like the pet cat your friend trusted you to take care of while they went on vacation, if you don’t feed your creativity it will die.

The best way to make creativity happen is to always be creating. If your passion is visual art, then sketch, paint, cut out people in magazines and glue them onto paper doing stupid and obscene things. When asked how to be a writer, author Madeleine L’Engle gave this advice: “Write. Just write a little bit every day. Even if it��s for only half an hour �� write, write, write.”

It’s also important to take creativity out of the artsy-fartsy box it has been confined to. Creativity can manifest itself in a business plan, a math problem (if Stephen Hawking isn’t creative, I don’t know who is), gardening, singing in the shower, and conversations, among other things. Mike Wagner wrote a great article for Logic+Emotion discussing this, entitled “Draw a picture.”

Be intentional about seeking out creativity in the day-to-day.

Dial down the media consumption

I probably subscribe to 200 RSS feeds and 25 podcasts. That is just way too much. We live in the Age of Distraction (a term I thought I had coined, until I did a Google search on it), in which we can be consuming some form of media every waking hour if we choose to.

I finally realized that listening to my iPod on the way to the office, arriving and checking my feeds, plugging in my headphones while I work, and then listening to my iPod on the way home was turning my mind into pure noise.

Unplug, spend some time not distracting yourself. Your clarity of mind will thank you for it.

A few more for the road:

Have more conversations, and ask more questions in those conversations.
Learn to love the creative process just as much as the creation.
Read more fiction.
Listen to more music and less talk.
Designers – don’t read so many design books. And put the annuals down.
Every once in a while, take some serious stock in where you are and what’s going on right here right now.