Cultivating Creativity

GRD 212, W-1:30

9-10-2008

Part A

Exploring, artistry, judging and being a creative warrior are accurate depictions and examples of the creative process. Without the ability to successfully accomplish each of the four the creative process doesn't move as smoothly and easily as it could. Exploring is the first step to being an efficient warrior to achieve the end result. Being a sponge to knowledge and retaining as much of it as possible can only create a better final result. The artist, the creator, and the judge, the visionary, are equally as important to the first step, the last step, and the end result. Without the meat of the creative sandwich, artistry and judging, the bread, the explorer and the warrior, would be just bread. No meat equals no substance. Without experimentation and a critical eye and assessment the warrior cannot amount to much more than an explorer and achieve his full potential. A sandwich looks pretty silly with two separate piles of bread and meat.

Part B

Design and creativity walk hand-in-hand together down the path of success. A design as a whole can be measured by the execution, creativity, dynamics, cohesion and dramatic, influential composition. A crucial factor in the success of design is knowing and understanding characteristics of creative thinking. Creativity as a concept cannot be measured, only tracked through its rigorous and unique outcomes. Designers must pull from the past and draw from history to create innovative and modern ideas. A designer can create and control the environment to condition their creativity; using up-to-date software and creative processes along with intellect and design savvy a designer is adding fertilizer to their garden of success. Creative success can really only be seen and understood by the outcome and the achievement of a designers goals, however the knowledge of the creative process is an imperative asset to possess.

Seven Characteristics of Creativity

I: Receptivity

Listen to the world. Understand the environment. Relate to others and hear what they are saying. No one with a completely self-sufficient mind set ever learned anymore than someone with the ability to interact socially to become successful. The majority of the people in the world don't talk to hear themselves speak.

II: Curiosity

There is a great big world out there, explore it. Don't waste the opportunity for success that has generously been placed in front of us. The ability and the drive to explore can only develop a more in depth greatness.

III: Wide Range of Interests

Being interested in one thing is incredibly limiting. There are too many things in life to take advantage. Why be limited to one idea for the rest of forever, when there is so much more to discover. Expand. Experiment. Evolve.

IV: Attentiveness

Engage with others, pay attention to the details of the finer things in life. Every thing we do can only change the world. We aren't the same people we were yesterday; it is an amazing concept that should be taken advantage of. Knowing that change happens so often is a good cheat sheet in the test of becoming successful.

V: Connection Seeking

We are all related. We are people, understanding small connections between us and the world, and maintaining a knowledge of the basics and defining how we are all related is an easy way to drive forward the idea of your success.

VI: Conviction

Its not the idea of the dance, or the choreography, it is the conviction behind the movement. Influential designers and artists aren't influential because their work was mediocre, they are influental because of what they did, how they did it, and how it makes you feel now after its been done. Don't ever be satisfied for th day to day and routine answers. If you can believe it you can achieve it. Start acting like it.

VII: Complexity

Simple designs come from simple minds. Complex thinkers are what make things interesting and dynamic.

Part C

1. Creative stamina can only be attained through the drive and desire for success in what is being created. The desire to succeed can fuel any designers fire and push them to the creative limits of exhaustion. Good designers can balance and juggle each and every aspect of their life in one hand, and their career and need for success in the other hand.

2. Smart designers are successful designers. They can use each side of their brain without fail. Keeping an up-beat and inspirational demeanor of innocence is essential to a productive and happy balance between creative work life and happy home life.

3. It is okay to be playful with creativity, in fact, it is a career standard to have fun doing what you are doing. There is a difference between job playfulness and life playfulness; the key is knowing the difference and loving each one separately.

4. A designer should possess an ability to ignore stereotypes. Innovative designers aren't known for walking down the same path each designer before them has. They are known for blazing a trail with machete in hand. They don't wait for success to be handed to them, they go out, they chase it. Designers that are truly successful make and maintain their own success.

5. Being social and creating ties and connections to other designers when beginning a project is imperative. Reflecting, brainstorming ideas from one visionary to another is where ideas often grow into something fantastically mind-blowing. Being able to share ideas but still develop ones own concept is another key ingredient to design success.

6. It is okay to love what you are doing, but be prepared to be told the bitter and honest truth. Emotional attachments are inevitable between any designer and their piece; the hardest part is realizing that something you have created doesn't look as good on paper as it does in your head. Move past it, that is what thick skin is for. If someone is taking the time to critique something that sucks, have the same respect to take the time and fix it.

7. Deadlines are an obvious hindrance to anyones creative juices. It often seems that the moment the pot begins to boil there is an infinite rush to finish the soup in time for dinner. Attention to the dreaded deadline is as important as the outcome itself.

8. Graciousness and generosity with compliments to those who have influenced a designer are always appreciated and acceptable. It feels good to know where a designers success has derived from, and to appreciate those who have given directions and were the map to the creative success a designer has found in life. Who wouldn't want the same as a design educator?