Creativity, Design and the Good Life

Brainstorming sessions can be a lot of fun. However, the difference between a merely playful meeting and a productive session can have a lot to do with the facilitator’s preparation. Questions she/he asks throughout the session will make a big impact on the flow of inspiration and thoughtful progress that your team makes. Below are 5 important guidelines you can use to make the most or your brainstorming session:

1. When preparing, work hard to understand the subject of your meeting. Study the problems you want to solve in depth and from many angles so that you will be prepared to handle new questions and sudden changes in direction.
2. It’s a good idea to start the session with a creative icebreaker to help establish the mood.
3. During the meeting, promote a playful atmosphere and protect your attendees from critical and judgmental responses that others may have.
4. Keep the meeting moving forward with short, timed bursts of creative ideation rather than dragging sessions out. True original thinking takes a lot of energy and attendees can tire quickly. If you want to have their participation in future meetings respect their time. A facilitator who is well prepared can draw a lot out of the group and gather much insight in a short period of time.
5. Make sure that the way you record ideas is very efficient since the summary report you create afterwards will be the tangible fruit that people will analyze and use to make decisions and changes in your organization’s direction. Software like Mindjet’s MindManager can help make quick mind maps of the ideas people generated in the meeting.

Apple’s new iPad creates a whole new playing field for designers. It’s size, processing power and immediate popularity open opportunities for both the everyday user and for tech designers to strut their stuff. Here are 4 reasons why the iPad will burst the design world wide open:

1- It’s not just a big iPhone. The iPad’s screen size is 1024 x 768 pixels (compared to the iPhone’s 480 x 320 pixels) giving it more real estate and a sharper, brilliant image. The more pixels you have, the more room designers have and the greater the need is for designers to work their magic.

2- The iPad opens the doors for the users to interact with the device using both hands which multiplies the speed, efficiency and possibilities of human-computer interaction. A whole wave of interactive designers will be needed to make app interfaces into an efficient user experience. As it is, most laptops and desktop computers don’t have a touch screen display. Users interact with computers via mouse, keyboard or drawing tablet. While many iPhone owners are now used to interacting via multi-touch screen technology, the iPhone’s size limits application design and therefore limits user options. Now the iPad opens new dimensions of interactivity making it more versatile- and fun.

3- Additionally, more designers will be needed to create content. Now that the iPad may make ebooks and electronic newspapers more appealing to the average consumer, the field of digital publication design will be blown wide open. Much of the money previously spent on paper, printing and distribution can be freed up and used to create better content- and you know… where there’s content there’s a need for design.

4- A whole new range of apps will emerge for making digital art. Imagine sitting out in the park and “painting” or “sketching” the scene on your iPad. It might take a while but eventually this device will be considered a new tool for creative expression.

Have you been thinking about the exciting new opportunities arriving with the iPad’s invention? What other creative opportunities do you think will open as a result of this device? Let me know what you think.

If you want to learn more about iPad application developer’s opportunities check out Matt Gemmell’s article on iPad application design.

The ancient philosopher Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun” - yet creatives are endlessly in pursuit of completely new ideas, images, sounds, etc. How are we to make sense of this paradox?

It might help relieve some pressure from the beginning if we admit to ourselves that we’re not divine. The kind of superhuman pressure to make something completely original could drive a creative to the edges to sanity. What a relief it is to learn that while we may resemble the Creator, the world is not on our shoulders. We can leave the job of creating new matter and energy up to the transcendent One and focus our task instead on arranging what is actually in front of us.

The design of this world gives us so much inspiration for creativity that some people hardly know where to start. Endless combinations of structure, environment and creatures of this world can be used to solve just about any creative problem. The need to create something “unlike anything we’ve seen before” might actually hamper creativity since audiences wouldn’t know how to relate to “something we’ve never seen before.”

The good news is that the world we have in front of us has great metaphors for design and creativity. Although parts might not seem completely new the combinations can be - what a weight off our shoulders and a world full of opportunity!

Creative people, like anyone else, benefit by thinking in a level-headed way. We are often more connected with the emotional side of life than, say, someone in a more scientific field. However, overly emotional thinking can actually hijack a person’s creativity. In the next few posts, we’ll explore ideas that will benefit a creative person in understanding their role within the big picture as well as make for a much more productive life in the long term. These truths will also help a creative person play well with others - and, when we play well with others… everyone wins. Many seasoned creative professionals may have learned to improve their thinking from years of mistakes and butting heads with co-workers but younger generation creatives have a hard time learning these helpful things in or just out of school. The sooner we are able correct our thinking the sooner we reap the benefits.

Creatives are normal people… with a little extra something to give.

Sometimes designers and artists are presented as being “special,” “eccentric” or in their “own world.” While it’s true that we creative types often have an individualized way of looking at life, it’s important to remember that at a basic level, we’re still human. This helps us to keep in mind the fact that we share the same struggles and desires as anyone walking down the street. On that level, we can all understand each other and others should be able to understand us. There is a temptation for creatives that says we have to be strange or fit certain stereotypes to be a good artist. Frankly, these ideas distract us from being honest with ourselves. This leads to wasting a fair amount of energy. As ironic as it is, creatives often spend much effort attempting to be different and we actually end up not being that different from other creatives at all. It’s important for us to see the big picture in order to have right thinking. The truth is, we are all human beings and so we are much more alike than we are different.

However, creatives do have something extra to give and that is experience, sometimes a lot of experience, making new things. The ability to make new things out of two or more old ideas is exciting and powerful. Traveling with these ideas in mind will help us on the road to greater creativity.

All great things have a beginning. So, for this first blog post as a designer I start by remembering the beginning- the most creative moment in history as the foundation for the philosophy of design. Scientists tell us that the event they call the Big Bang started with nothing and then within an instant all that was to become our universe, including the beautiful laws of physics, came into being. As scientists learns more and more about the universe, it becomes apparent that the Big Bang was not a random event.

Design doesn’t happen by accident. Most designers would agree that it takes vision, talent and hard work. As hard as it is to believe, could it be that this universe took vision, skill and hard work to get to the point where it is now? The influential film maker David Lynch had a Twitter post a couple of months ago in which he stated “Art has its source in the transcendent.” While I don’t understand exactly what he means by “transcendent” I completely agree that there is more to making art than a material process.

According to the Latin word inspirate, inspiration comes from outside us. It literally means “breathed upon.” This Latin word spirate also is the source of the English word spirit. Inspiration cannot just be gained by chance otherwise it would be undependable. On the other hand, it cannot originate with me because I’m a simple person. Just as a person cannot take credit for making herself, so a designer cannot take full credit for their ability to think and make great things.

Ideas, can be good or bad but they are not neutral. And so, one of the many tasks of a designer is to weed out the good ideas from the bad. What sets apart a good designer from a bad one is their ability to quickly and efficiently generate good visual (and conceptual) ideas while discarding the bad ones. While the designer’s role is to serve the client, it goes against the grain of a good designer to promote bad ideas.