Showing posts tagged creativity
Put down whatever you’re doing and watch this.
The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent in an unprecedented way, with unlimited opportunities.
But does democratized culture mean better art or is true talent instead drowned out? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.
Rules of a creator’s life.
"The best advice I could possibly give you, and forgive me if this seems glib, is to work. Work. Work. Work. Every day. At the same time every day. For as long as you can take it every day, work, work, work. Understand? Talent is for shit. I’ve taught school for nearly thirty years and never met a student who did not have some talent. It is as common as house dust or kudzu vine in Alabama and is just about as valuable. Nothing is as valuable as the habit of work, and work has to become a habit."
Digging this new Mercedes Benz ad series
My concept of great branding using imagery: Creating something awesome that represents what your brand stands for - then attaching your brand name to it. Mercedes succeeded here.
So, do you think you’re more left or right brain dominant?
Advertising Agency: Shalmor Avnon Amichay/Y&R Interactive Tel Aviv, Israel
"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.
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– Steve Jobs, Wired, February, 1995
— Via Brainpickings
Pixar animator Austin Madison penned a wonderful handwritten open letter to aspiring artists and creative professionals everywhere as part of an Animators Letters Project back in May this year. Madison advises budding and experienced animators alike to work through the times when they are feeling uninspired and down in the dumps—because it happens with everyone, including the best people at Pixar—and work through them. As he so eloquently puts it, “the art will be well worth the work”.
I think anyone, though especially creatives, will be able to identify with Christoph’s humble summary of what keeps him creative and how baffling the concept of inspiration can be. As an imagemaker, I spend large amounts of time planning and executing from my desk, after the comparative glory and wonder of a photo shoot. In that sense, my workflow isn’t that much different to any designer, artist or creative and so Christoph’s exploration of how we spend our time definitely made me chuckle.
Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses — and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us “have” a genius. It’s a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.
The greatest thing we can offer is to be great listeners.
John Jay of Wieden + Kennedy was recently named one of the most creative business people in 2011 by Fast Company.
Everything Is a Remix - The Secret to Innovation.
"I’ll say this, making your photography, doing your art, is something that for a lot of people is a combination of technical skill, professional know-how, and personal dream and fantasy. Being an artist is this incredibly fantasized notion, and for a lot of people, it’s a place where they put their dreams. When you’re doing that, you tend to forget your practical business skills, or you tend not to think about bringing all the other skills you have to it. Because it’s about being “creative.” To put it in a concise term, being creative doesn’t mean not being professional.
–Ariel Shanberg
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— Via aphotoeditor.
