Finding Creativity
June, 2006
There are people that are labeled as creative, occupations in which being creative is required, and ideas that some how come about due to creative inspiration.
What makes these people, occupations and ideas different?
I have heard many people say they are not creative. Does this preclude them from participating in certain occupations, or worse, hinder them in their chosen field? Are only some people born with the creativity gene?
Creativity is most often associated with works of art, but the dictionary defines it as "the use of the imagination." I've never heard anyone admit to not having an imagination. People are more often confused about the how. How do I use my imagination in a useful way?
Ah, now that's an entirely different question, and one that can be approached without excuses. The bottom line here is that creativity, like everything else in life, takes practice. If you exercise your imagination, you will get better at using it. What makes this training a little more difficult than say, practicing your golf shot, is that the goal can be vastly different depending on who is doing the training.
There are basic approaches to the process that are the same for everyone, so let's start there. Observation of the world around you is key. How can you come up with a new idea if you are not familiar with the old ideas? This familiarity also brings about a sense of what new ideas work best, and are not such a big step that others will have trouble accepting them.
The simplest way to start finding new ideas is to ask questions. The questions themselves are very simple, the difficulty lies in allowing yourself to find and express the answers. There are two questions that will get us started.
The first question is "what if?" It is a very simple question, but the most interesting answers require you to erase the boundaries of your own beliefs. "What if my car goes faster than that car?" is not nearly as interesting as "What if cars didn't exist and we were able to transport ourselves with a thought?" This may sound like science fiction, but it illustrates the idea that in order to truly exercise your imagination, you must think without limits.
The second question that must be asked is "Why?" It is really the same question asked from the opposite perspective. The only reason for the things we see are the limits we have not yet overcome. Why must cars run on gasoline? Why not air? Could we fix global warming if cars ran on carbon dioxide?
This process of asking questions is really just a method of changing the approach to an idea or observation. The simplest way to think of creativity is to find a new way to think about a common idea. Changing your approach to that idea is the easiest way of finding a new perspective. There are some simple exercises that force you to find a new path to the same destination. One of the most basic tasks is to use a word association chain. The rules for such an exercise are that there are no rules other than there must be some loose association between adjacent words, and as little thought as possible is used to get from one word to the next.
Here's an example:
internet : computer: keyboard : finger : chicken : lunch : fruit : banana : yellow: crayon : child : play : swings : chain : link : internet
The idea here is not necessarily to bring the concept back around to itself, as happened here. This just illustrates that you can get anywhere from where you are. Did this bring me to the most innovative new idea I've had in years? Certainly not. What it did do is provide a launch pad for asking "what if? and "why?" "What if bananas weren't yellow, and had their own internet community?"
Let's try one other approach. Using simple lines and shapes, draw a picture of "lucky," or "dangerous." The result is not so important as the thought process. Expression of an idea in a medium you are not used to forces you to think differently about it.
My banana example may be ridiculous, but we said the result is not important. The process of formulating new ideas is the true topic, and it is the same for crazy as well as innovative ideas. Quite often it is the path through many crazy ideas that leads you to true innovation. The only requirements are that limitations are removed, and a willingness to express without fear. Daily practice of these principles applied to your specific discipline will bring creative ideas. It is not that people are not creative, it is that they cannot see a path to follow.
At Smudged Graphics, each and every project requires a new idea, not only from a broad perspective, but from the perspective of our client. We have found the best way to serve our clients is to look from the perspective of the target audience. That is what gets attention and produces results.
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