New bookmarked and subscribed to blog: welovecreativity.com! Gems like this everyday.
2 months ago
3 Paths Toward A More Creative Life
Whether or not you are in a creative profession, or whether you fancy yourself creative - the truth is that YOU ARE CREATIVE. Which means you need to read this article.
The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.
Art suffers the moment other people start paying for it. The more you need the money, the more people will tell you what to do. The less control you will have. The more bullshit you will have to swallow. The less joy it will bring. Know this and plan accordingly.
Hugh Macleod, from his book, Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity
This is a Vancouver based designer, Wendy Tsao, and her lovely business! She makes one-off plush toys based on a child’s drawing. I love this, and you should take a look at what she has actually created based on even the most abstract scribbles. I will forevermore scoff at any designer who tells me they can’t do a 3D sculpt or turnaround …
(via Child’s Own Studio | custom making soft toys with children)
MBAs vs. MFAs : Get it Right By Getting Together
This is a fun and thought provoking article. I like the concept of pitting MBAs vs. MFAs to raise awareness of the NECESSITY for a mutual collaboration and appreciation of each discipline. We cannot separate design from business, especially not in today’s tech and UX/UI driven world. I hope to see more business students apply creative/artistic thinking to their practices and to see design and art students learn to design with a profit model in mind. “Starving artist” should become an oxymoron. And business grads should get creative. We all stand to benefit from opening our minds and horizons!
What It Takes To Innovate: Wrong-Thinking, Tinkering & Intuiting
“When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come close to the conclusion that the gift of imagination has meant more to me than any talent for absorbing absolute knowledge.” Albert Einstein.
Some Core Traits of serial inventors - and lots of meaningful, inspiring quotes - fill another home run article from The 99%. Read on for details about these 7 traits:
1. Produce and test more ideas
2. Employ Wrong Thinking
3. Embrace Failure
4. Sketch out ideas (literally - on paper!)
5. Trust their Intuition
6. Love Tinkering
7. Possess Boundless Curiosity
To all those who were the outsiders in school because they weren’t smart enough or couldn’t learn like the teachers and parents said you should; to those “artistic” types who were classified that way just because you liked to doodle or draw; to those who were bored at school and got in trouble for not being interested; to those who have always felt the educational system was warped; and,
To those who WERE good in school, who followed teachers and got good grades and learned easily; to parents; to artists, entrepreneurs … to everyone - please watch this video!
It is a visual and auditory journey into an explanation about the problems that have been plaguing the educational system and which caused a lot of people to suffer. I thought most especially about artists and “nerds”; you were so often made to feel inferior, right? Well, this will make you feel better.
Being one of the “good” students with a highly artistic sister, I remember these polarizing scenarios so well; I was guilty of believing that I was a liner-thinking smartie pants and she was just not smart and a daydreaming doodler. Well look where we are now! I define my thinking style as weaving a web or creating constellations; and Camilla is quite simply one of the most brilliant people I know - and not a bad artist either ;)
Originally posted as part of an article about soft skills vs. hard skills, this video says everything that many of us have believed for a while, and with terms and ideas that make those intuitions make a lot of sense such as the need to overhaul education, the ridiculous amount of drugs being given to children for “ADD”, and the use of polarizing terms that do us no good because they are simply wrong!
I loved the way he described arts as being an aesthetic experience; an experience that enthralls and captures us completely. We are fully engaged and immersed and more likely to participate. We are talking about the human capacity to learn and the need to redefine - or to “undefine” - the stagnant ideas and methods that are still being used despite the massive changes our society and culture continually undergo.
Thinking isn’t linear; it’s lateral. Creativity is the creation of something new and unique. Divergent thinking - this was my favorite tidbit from the video - is the ability to think of many different ideas, interpretations and answers; to use the massive capacity in our minds to seek solutions that are way beyond what the linear processes could ever imagine. I’m grateful for this video and the work these people are doing. I hope that this video can also help some of you, who I know struggle with feeling different or inferior for reasons that only others have been too quick to say, understand that we all have the capacity to bring out the genius buried within each of us.
I agree completely with the professor in the video, that our world is too caught up in conformity and standardization. When I discovered (consciously discovered) my love of the arts, it changed my life in more ways than I thought possible. And I’m a better person for it. I appreciate the arts, creativity, non-conformity, innovative and disruptive thinking, and “weird” people!! I’m one of them. And I’m proud to say it.
How Mistakes Take Us to New Places
“A mistake is a collision between your perception and reality. As such, it’s a terribly valuable asset.”
Another great 99% article, Tripping into Terra Incognita: How Mistakes Take Us To New Places :: Tips :: The 99 Percent, which reminds us that mistakes are not a bad thing!
Remember that the negative connotation surrounding the WORD mistakes is only a matter of perception and how our culture and society view this word. Change your perception of the word, and your entire mind set about taking risks, creativity and trying new solutions will come about. You can’t lose, you can’t fail. Mistake is a word. Give it new meaning!
