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Creativity Archives
May 1, 2007
Object Orange Highlights Abandoned Buildings in Detroit
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Creativity
Good magazine has a bizarre story of Detroit residents drawing attention to abandoned houses by painting them blaze orange. The city calls it trespassing but the group, Object Orange, says they're drawing attention to buildings that unless torn down will become havens for drug deals, prostitution and more.
Talk about a creative way to draw attention to a cause. But a picture (or a video) is worth so much more than words:
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March 8, 2007
Creative Gut vs. Number Crunching
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Creativity
Jon Steel wrote a great article in the January 22 issue of Adweek titled "The Unprofessionals." He makes the argument for downtime and dismisses the critics who say creativity must be powered by logic. At Personality™, we continually blur the lines between right brain and left brain thinking which causes many internal debates as it relates to which side should win. When the data to support instincts are absent, we run the risk of becoming extinct if we continually suppress our creative gut. Steel expounds in these choice nuggets:
- The quest for professionalism is making creatives "less effective, less interesting, less intelligent, less persuasive and less creative."
- Leonardo Da Vinci said, "It is by logic we prove, but by intuition we discover." In the Information Age logic is king "meanwhile our most valuable asset--intuition--being imprecise, unquantifiable and therefore unprofessional, must be hidden from view, locked away in the creative department like the retarded child of a medieval monarch."
Continue reading "Creative Gut vs. Number Crunching"
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January 30, 2007
Don't Play with Your Food
Posted by Shawn Stewart | Filed under: Creativity
Every Tuesday morning we meet for about 15-30 minutes to reflect on a word or concept to expand our thinking and keep us grounded. Last week was my turn to lead our reflection time and the topic was imagination.
So what did we do? Well we did something very scientific and highly intellectual--we played with our food. We stuck our fingers and hands (some of us more so than others) into the dark, slimy, chocolaty substance known as pudding and played with it.
Continue reading "Don't Play with Your Food"
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September 16, 2005
Napoleon Dynamite in Microsoft Spoof Video
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Creativity
Software giant Microsoft screened a video spoofing the pop culture hit Napoleon Dynamite at a developer's conference earlier this week. The video featured Microsoft CEO Bill Gates as himself and actor Jon Heder as Napoleon Dynamite. You can catch a shaky version of it at iFilm, captured with a video camera during the screeing.
Apparently the self-deprecating spoof video is a staple with Microsoft. It's moves like this that go a long way towards improving the company's image and giving them some actual personality.
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August 9, 2005
Create Your Own Shoe
Posted by Ken Erickson | Filed under: Creativity
I left the Puma store with my mind spinning in possibilities. What they had set up was a shoe station with a number of bins; and in each
bin were different fabric colors, textures, and patterns that you choose for every component of the shoe, so that you could design your own!
Vans, Converse (which has a fantastic website by the way) and Nike all have online shops that let you create your own shoe. In fact (this may be rumor), I’ve heard that you can submit your own artwork that can be printed on a shoe!
That's personality.
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July 6, 2005
C.S. Lewis on Writing
Posted by Ken Erickson | Filed under: Creativity
Whether it be through words, images, or sounds, the wise words of C.S. Lewis apply to all. When asked in a child's letter how to write, this is how Lewis responded:
"In writing, don't use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the things you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us the thing is 'terrible,' describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don't say it was 'delightful'; make us say 'delightful' when we've read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, 'Please, will you do my job for me?'"
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June 17, 2005
Steve Jobs: "Find what you love"
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Creativity
Steve Jobs, the quirky head of Apple Computers and Pixar Animation gave the commencement address at Stanford University. He tells three stories, including how he dropped out of college, how he was fired from Apple, and how he faces death.
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May 26, 2005
Messy Desks Equal Creativity?
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Creativity
The printer company Lexmark took a look at wasted office paper and found that Britain alone stacked up 12,000 tons of wasted paper. The average office worker prints out 10,000 pages per year. Advertising and marketing executives were the worst offenders, with an average of 163 pieces of paper piled on their desk. 17% of advertising and marketing executives admitted to not being able to see their desk under all the clutter.
Perhaps all that messiness is just the cost of creativity.(link via Tim Bednar)
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April 21, 2005
Bottom Line Design Awards
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Creativity
Business 2.0 gives their nod to some of the best designs, often matched with clever marketing, including the Lance Armstrong wrist bands, the new iMac, and Gmail.
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February 7, 2005
Creativity Rules
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Creativity
How Cartoon Network's Adult Swim manages to stay creative and edgy, despite stodgy corporate ownership.
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