Tag Archives: Creativity

New Yorker Cartoonist Offers Views on Creative Process

Matthew Diffee, whose cartoons you may have seen in The New Yorker and Texas Monthly, recently offered his views on idea generation and the creative process. He was in Houston presenting to the American Advertising Federation.

Matthew Diffee promo ad

Matthew, not unlike a lot of us in a creative industry, has a quirky sense of humor and sees things (or at least thinks about them) from a different perspective. This helps in generating ideas.

One of the first things he believes in is to make it easy to “do ideas.” If you’re a coffee drinker, make sure you’ve got a fresh pot to start things off.

Second, or at least this is what I jotted down as second, is a list of five verbs that he uses when he reviews his ideas: Add, Subtract, Switch, Invert, Mash up. These may lead to some sort of visual and/or a caption for the visual. The interplay between words and pictures can be fun!

An example he gave of taking a traditional question oft times used in job interviews, “Where do you see yourself in five years?,” and, instead, coming up with “Where do you see yourself in ten minutes?”. Try that in your next interview.

The best thing one can do is to maintain momentum – keep going in your process. I’ve learned from experience that stopping and starting does no good. You really have to get into some sort of flow.

Another one of his takes on a traditional phrase goes like this: “A penny saved is a penny who has accepted Jesus Christ as its Lord and Savior.” I know, I know, not everyone will find this humorous. I guess it depends on one’s sense of humor. 😉

Other elements and observations from of his creative process:

The Zone – easy to start, hard to stop. We’ve all found our “zone” before. Once you’re in it, don’t let up until you’ve got what you set out to get.

Flip Funnel – large end to finely tuned. Seeing an idea in a broad sense and developing it to a specific angle or perspective. Going from concept to a single cartoon cell in Matthew’s case.

Generating Ideas – quantity over quality. You can sort through these later. You need ideas and lots of them. Never critique when generating ideas.

Can’t make a great idea just by working harder – inspiration hits like a turd. Though somewhat crudely put, his thought is true. We can’t plan to have a great idea by a certain time. It’s not like we have an On/Off switch. We may take five minutes or two days.

Dull Bulbs – assume your work could be better. Don’t let your ego get in the way. No matter how wonderful we may think our idea is, there’s something about it that can be improved.

So whether you’re a budding cartoonist, experienced writer or designer or someone who needs to come up with a bunch of ideas for the next mode of transport to Mars and beyond, some of these techniques may help.

And when you review what’s been discarded at week’s end, don’t throw them away. Who knows what other uses may be made of them.

What has Matthew done with all his ideas which have been rejected? He’s made them into a book, an archive of sorts, entitled “The Cream of the Crap.”

 

Creativity and Fear: Seth’s Take

Last month I posted a blog on creativity and fear. Interestingly, two days following my posting Seth Godin posted this:

 “How do I get rid of the fear?”

Alas, this is the wrong question.

The only way to get rid of the fear is to stop doing things that might not work, to stop putting yourself out there, to stop doing work that matters.

No, the right question is, “How do I dance with the fear?”

Fear is not the enemy. Paralysis is the enemy.

* * * * * * * *

I’m a follower of Seth’s and subscribe to is blog (linked above). There are times, however, when I wish he’d get into more detail or provide more insight about his points. This is one of those times.

In his brief post referenced above, he’s right. Paralysis is our enemy. We can do nothing when it envelopes us. We have to meet it head on and that can be scary. How do we do that? Well . . .

My earlier posting of “13 ways to deal with fear” also touches on the paralysis factor. We need to do something to jar ourselves out of this newly immobilized state.

When Seth states that paralysis is the enemy, how would one deal with one’s enemy. You can’t ignore him (the enemy), but you could go in another direction to get around him. You’ve faced him before and you’ll face him again. How each of us reacts depends on us. There is no one solution or antidote.

What do you think? How have you dealt with paralysis?

Creativity: Not Your Typical Loaf of Bread

As Rodney Dangerfield would say, “I don’t get no respect.” Creativity is like that, as are, for the most part, the artisans and thinkers who practice it everyday.

Creativity is not a commodity, like a loaf of bread or a carton of milk. Those items are commodities.

But what if that bread was a special blend of pumpkin, barley, cranberry and wheat? It would still be a loaf of bread but the process of blending different ingredients to make the loaf atypical (and still tasty) is creative. A lot more than just adding ingredients goes into making this special bread loaf. The baker has to know what he or she is doing, what may work and what may not. It’s a process, and a creative one.

Do they teach that in culinary school?

Thanks to iStockPhoto

Thanks to iStockPhoto

The art of creativity is a disruption to the normal way of thinking. As a society, we need to be more disruptive, more open to solving problems while exploring opportunities. In being creative, one doesn’t accept the status quo; one wants to change and improve upon it.

This frightens some folks. They don’t like change, and don’t have a great deal of respect for those who do. They don’t understand the creative mind or the process. They merely view it as a commodity.

How do we change that? Maybe we don’t. We can educate and explain, and that will help, but we need to do that with the right audience – folks who are at least open to dialogue, are curious. They may even ask “Well, instead of pumpkin and cranberry, what about pineapple and mango blending with the barley and wheat?”

Hmmmm, a showing of respect for the process?

Who knows, if they’re really daring, they may consider introducing a new line of baked breads. Heaven forbid that the consumers get another choice!

This creative thinking is a disruption to the status quo. This won’t set well with those who don’t want the status quo changed.

Respect for those of us who do? Forget it!

Yet, creative ideas for the most part have flourished over the years. Along with this, various media have caused a different type of playing field to be formed with creativity serving up some new and different rules.

Creative options equal what-ifs. Commodities don’t care about what-ifs.

Creativity lends itself to storytelling. Commodities don’t (I suppose they can but it would be rather challenging). Creativity allows for storytelling to be transformed into Web, mobile, social, broadcast, print, wherever.  There’s a disruption in the creative process, and the art of storytelling is leading the way.

You can’t do that with a commodity. Long live creativity. Long live disruption.

 

 

13 Ways to Handle Fear When It Attacks Creativity

We’ve all been there. We’re never quite sure what do to but we feel like we’ve gotta do something. NOW.

But we can’t. We can’t think other than in scattered ways. Incomplete. Disjointed. Frustration sets in. We feel stymied because our creativity has stopped flowing for whatever the reason.

Uh-oh, what’s that. A strange sound. It’s him! Fear comes a’knockin.

Thanks to iStockPhoto

Thanks to iStockPhoto

Fear, as in being afraid (what if the client hates my ideas), being scared (what if I can’t come up with any ideas), feeling intimidated (there’s always someone lurking in the shadows with better ideas).

Fear is also what you get when you sense F.E.A.R. – Failure to Execute Achievable Results – with the key word here being  “achievable.” The results need to be just that and not unattainable.

 

The three “ F” words: Fear, Failure, Fun

Up to now, we’ve referenced two of the three “F” words, fear and failure. The third one we don’t experience nearly enough. That would be fun.

As long as you have fear of failure, you’ll never have any fun!

Dealing with failure is easier than dealing with fear; not that dealing with failure is ever easy. It’s not. It’s embarrassing, even humiliating at times. But failure tends to be short­ lived, relatively speaking.

Society and corporate culture-wise, we talk much more about weaving failure into our systems, our processes. Sometimes it’s all talk and not nearly enough practice. Many successful and innovative companies build and accept failure as a natural way of doing business. More companies should but probably will not. They don’t seem to understand that in order to achieve success, failure is part of the journey.

Fear, on the other hand, can torment, destroy, self-inflict. It can absolutely kill creativity.

You’re angry (about a shortened, possibly unrealistic new deadline), depressed, distraught (you do not want to fail to execute anything). You may even be mystified as to why this happened to you.

Ever receive a phone call late on a Friday from an upset client telling you that new and much better creative needs to be on his desk by first thing Monday morning . . . or else (he doesn’t have to say “or else;” the intimidation suffices)? And nothing you can say will alter how he’s feeling at that point in time.

Hell’s bells, you didn’t have plans for the weekend anyway, didja?!

How do you deal with fear when it attacks creativity, especially when on a deadline (realistic or not)?

13 ways, in no special order, to handle fear when it comes a’callin:

–Walk away – change your surroundings, get into another room or leave for a bit

–Talk it out – if possible, share what’s going on with a colleague, friend or spouse

–Write it down – capture what you now know or understand needs to be done within the new timeline

–Pray – this may be first on some lists and as you’ll see, it’s on mine more than once

–Focus – look at your project from another perspective and focus on different portions of it, thus making it more manageable and doable

–Pray some more – you can never do this one too many times (but you still have to do the work)

–Get more focused – set  realistic parameters that allow you to work on specific aspects of the project without getting overwhelmed

–Think positively – Amen! Repeat this step as often as needed

–Remember past good results – remind yourself that you’ve done this before; that’s why they hired you in the first place

–Acknowledge worry and anxiety – this one is tricky because you need to face what’s happening to you, acknowledge it, then move on

–Get to work – actually doing the work can be therapy in itself and when the thoughts start flowing, creativity will thrive

–Don’t give in to what-ifs – try to avoid thinking too much about that over which you have no control or you simply don’t yet know; this is wasted energy

–Pray for the others – I actually mean the clients (or whoever is giving you grief) who are putting you through this; remember, they may not know (or care) what they do

Fear is hardly ever dealt with, but is dished out way too easily and usually without a care. That’s unfortunate since fear is a dangerous and deadly poison to the creative mind and process.

Now, you may have your own way of dealing with fear. Whatever works! We can’t stop it from happening but we need to try our damndest from letting it totally shut us down.

I have fun when I’m head over heels in the creative process, and I try and remember that when fear comes a’knockin.

Come to think of it, I guess I could also change the locks!

 

 

 

29 Ways to Stay Creative

Being creative is fun. It’s also a challenge.

Staying creative can drive ya nuts!

Let’s face it, we’ve all seen lists of various ways to improve on our creativity. There is no all-encompassing list, and, no doubt, if we shared our lists with one another, there would be overlap.

I recently came across this video in a post by Kevin Allen on Ragan’s PR Daily and couldn’t help but smile and chuckle a few times because of their take on compiling the list, not so much the elements on the list (they’re all valid and we should take them to heart).

The video link below is from Japanese design firm To-Fu. It highlights 29 techniques designed to get the creative juices flowing. I’ve had good success with some of these techniques.

However, #4, Getting Away from the Computer,

#10 Be Open,

and #21 Break the Rules . . . we probably don’t do enough.

Enjoy! It’s a little different.

 

 

Bob de Leon: RIP

I’ll tell ya right now, this is not my typical blog post. Yet, it’s one I feel compelled to write and share. I wish, though, I didn’t have to do so.

The Houston Creative Community lost a good and talented designer and thinker last week in Bob de Leon. I lost a good friend.

Bob de LeoonHe was way too young to leave us, but, then, we didn’t have much to say about the departure date. Thank God he did not suffer or linger. As I understand it, from attending his memorial service yesterday, he was home alone, quietly sitting in a chair. Then, his time came and he was escorted up that VIP Staircase.

I’ve known Bob for bunches of years – we shared several in-depth phone conversations, chased that little white ball around the golf course a few times, and generally pushed each other to do better when it came time to deliver creative that would make a difference. He was, and probably still is, quite passionate about the world of advertising and creativity’s role in it. He also had little patience for those who didn’t share his beliefs (clients).

It was to this end that he joined with me and others in getting Only in Houston (OiH) on the right path in its formative years. Born out of the American Advertising Federation Houston, OiH’s guiding light was, and still is to a large degree, to promote the talent and creativity here in Houston, Texas, in a way so compelling that clients would not need to look (or spend) elsewhere for top notch creative for their advertising and marketing needs. Yeah, we were all pretty passionate about that.

But Bob conveyed his passion in a quiet, somewhat subdued manner. He was not the “rah-rah cheerleader” type. He didn’t need to be. Once you were in a conversation with him, his passion would sink into your inner depths, whether you believed him or not. He was a gentle persuader. And he always had the data to back it up.

His approach brings to mind the old ad slogan: “When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen”. We need more people like Bob in our profession!

Throughout his career, he maintained the respect of his clients and peers. He was thorough in his approach to solving the problem and very detailed oriented when developing the designs that would accompany his thoughts. He wasn’t just into “pretty pictures;” they had to serve a purpose. That’s a mark of a seasoned designer, a creative thinker.

Though I never flew with him, Bob was an avid flyer of sailplanes (gliders, those without engines) and loved participating in competitions across the country. He was also very dedicated (again, the passion) to his work with prison ministries and had been serving in this capacity for several years.

Quoting from a poem written by an American aviator and poet, John Gillespie Magee, Jr., that was read at the service yesterday, this sounds like something Bob would have had on display in his cockpit (I don’t know that he didn’t):

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue,

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.

Where never lark, or ever eagle flew –

And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

I think that happened last week when he was taken home. Bob, we miss you. Peaceful travels, my friend.

 

International Creativity Month: Bah Humbug!

Did you know that this month, January, is International Creativity Month? I didn’t; in fact, I’ve never heard of this before. Its notification sort of came to my attention by accident while I was glancing over other “interesting facts” about January.

As I wanted to learn more, I found out that motivational speaker Randall Munson founded International Creativity Month to “remind individuals and organizations around the globe to capitalize on the power of creativity,” according to his web site.

I can understand why he designated January – the first month of the year provides an opportunity for us to take a fresh approach to problem-solving and renew confidence in our creative capabilities.

My only problem with that is why limit reminding ourselves of the power of creativity to just one month! We should be practicing this mindset all 12 months of the year, at the beginning of each month.

Why? Consider this:

As pointed out in a recent article on this subject, businessman and author Harvey Mackay, cites a study by the research firm Strategy One. The study discovers about 52 percent of Americans consider themselves creative, but only 39 percent of Americans feel they’re living up to their creative potential. That’s one finding from a survey of 5,000 adults in the United States, the U.K., France, Germany, and Japan (1,000 participants each).

To me, the percentages above are pretty dismal, especially in light of these stats:
•    85 percent of Americans feel that creativity is the key to driving economic growth.
•    82 percent feel that the US isn’t living up to its creative potential.
•    62 percent believe that our nation’s creativity is being stifled by our education system.
•    88 percent agree that everyone has the potential to be creative.

Time and money (no surprise) are the biggest obstacles, say Americans: 54 percent say lack of money prevents them from being creative, and 52 percent cite a lack of time. The lack of time conundrum is one that particularly irritates me.

Everyone is in a rush for brilliance; yet, the work won’t be brilliant (usually) because of a lack of time to do it. Particularly troubling is that clients tend to accept it anyway or they don’t understand why you didn’t have enough time or that the time frame was unrealistic in the first place! Most just don’t “get it.”

No matter how creative or wonderful we believe our idea to be, a great way to test how good and understandable it is, is to present it to an eight year old. If she doesn’t “get it,” you’ve not made yourself clear. Children are to be envied because of their unbridled creativity and imagination.

Then, as we grow into adults, we screw it all up. Pablo Picasso, one of the most creative artists who ever lived, said, “Every child is an artist; the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.”

One of my favorite inspirations comes from another notable thinker, Dr. Seuss (aka Theodore Geisel): “Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try.”

Amen!

Nurturing one’s creativity takes a lifetime. So does feeding that child inside all of us. We need to remind ourselves of that every day and every month, not just in January.

Free Food for your Brain

Positive or negative. Informational or educational. Funny or serious. What about relevant? Yes. Yes. Yes. Hopefully!

Always striving to be pertinent and at least some of the above, this blog offers up thoughtful (most of the time) and informative material which helps provide a different perspective on the world of creativity and innovation. Sometimes it’s a Creativity Tip; other times, not. Today is one of those times.

For the solopreneur or small business/agency operator, attending conferences and seminars has become increasingly more expensive than it used to be. Granted, the ability to meet with and talk to folks face to face remains valuable. But sometimes, you just can’t justify the cost or time away from the office.

While there are a variety of online webinars, very few, it seems, are free. One in particular has gotten my attention because they not only offer a variety of valuable content, but they also go into great detail when presenting it. I refer to CreativeLive. I also refer to free.

Disclaimer here: I am not employed by them nor am I being paid for this mention and endorsement. They’re a good, viable resource.

Abstract design made of human head and symbolic elements on the subject of human mind, consciousness, imagination, science and creativity

“Diversity of the Mind”
Thanks to iStock Photo

Their approach to sharing creative knowledge is not restricted to the elements of design or writing, for example; however, that is a focus for some of their topics.

Recently, I’ve listened to experts on web design, blogging, being “creative on demand,” and selected a few

other topics during a solid “themed week” of live presentations.

Usually, the presenter gives away for download some instructional information. They also make available several other pieces which reflect, in detail, what is covered during the live show. If you miss these usually all day events, they rebroadcast it afterwards.

If you want anytime access to the broadcast and those other materials offered, you have the option of purchasing the presentation, and we’re not talking about hundreds of bucks here. My two separate purchases ran $49 and $79. Can’t beat that.

Whether it’s CreativeLive or some other venue of online presentation, consider going this route when you feel the need for continuing education at your own pace.

You’ll not only save some cash, but enjoy some delicious morsels of brain food. Bon appetite!

Creativity Tip #103: Your Creativity Sandbox

Whether or not we create anything for a living, there are times we just don’t feel very creative. Mostly, we create because we have to do so, to earn that paycheck, to satisfy the client. Granted, there’s nothing that says we can’t be happy about it or we can’t enjoy the process.

What do we do, though, when our creative juices start drying up or when we’re in between “have-to projects”?

Have you ever created something or begun a creative project simply for the helluv it, because you just wanted to do it?

little girl playing in sandbox

Thanks to iStockPhoto

There are probably various names or descriptors for this mindset like “unnecessary creative,”   “creative play time,” etc. Whatever you call it is up to you. I refer to mine as my Creativity Sandbox.

The point is to start something that will occupy your mind in a new or different creative endeavor so you can keep your creative juices flowing. Set aside some time (and maybe a special place) and just start.

I started this blog because I wanted an outlet for writing and expressing myself in ways other than what I mainly do for clients. I’m exploring different software packages (Adobe Muse for Web design, and Adobe’s Creative Cloud), listening to online webinars (CreativeLive), reading anything I can get my hands on relative to innovation and creativity as well as totally unrelated topics that simply interest me.

Anything to keep the brain alive and curious. It takes time and diligence, and some weeks I have neither. But I don’t want the juices to stop flowing. And neither should you.

Spend some time in your Creativity Sandbox as often as you can.