Tag Archives: how to design

Learn What You Don’t Need To Get a New Feed

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Origami Crane from a newspaper

I learned to make an Origami Crane using a newspaper.

I am a big fan of learning. In fact, somewhere during high school, I figured out how to learn new things quickly. I’m not sure how it happened exactly but it may have had to do with the workload I had and trying to balance that with sports, working on my car, playing music, and a bunch of other fun stuff. In fact, I attribute most of my career’s success to the my ability to learn and learn quickly. I am constantly learning. I read, listen to podcasts, listen to people, ask questions, and try stuff on my own with reckless abandon. At times, I’m a bit scattered. There never seems to be enough time to try all the things I want to try. For example, I never really had much interest in origami, but one Saturday morning while sitting with my family after breakfast, I tore off a piece of newspaper, Googled “easy origami” and instructions on how to fold a crane came up. I loaded a good image of the instructions onto my iPad and started folding. I have no idea why I chose to do this. It just seemed like a quick thing to learn and do while enjoying my coffee. Well, after finishing the crane, one of my sons became interested and wanted to keep the crane, leaving my other son wanting a crane for himself. So, I folded a second one, gave it to him, and off the cranes went into the imaginations of two active kids. And that was that. I haven’t looked at origami since and really don’t have an interest in doing so, at least not at the moment.

So, why tell the tale of a newspaper turned crane? Well, I have found great success in just simply learning things. It doesn’t matter what it is. Just keeping learning anything. As I have expressed before, my theory on creativity is that new thoughts and ideas come from stitching other, past thoughts and ideas together. So, when you learn something new, anything new, you are adding to your library of ideas and thoughts. When will the paper crane come in handy? I have no idea, maybe never, but I can’t tell you how often I’ve pulled ideas from one discipline and married it to another discipline to get a completely unique idea. I once got an idea on how to design a unique software algorithm from combining a pulley system with a Plinko machine! Two independent mechanical concepts producing the key to a software program is just one example. I once designed a dolly that was to carry a Sidewinder missile housing from a workshop area to an aircraft using an idea I had learned about from bridge design and combined it with a concept I learned from looking at a monster truck.

The bigger your library of ideas and the broader the subjects carried in that library, the better chances you have of matching and connecting two or more ideas that would not naturally go together to form a new idea. In the simplest form, it is like the old commercial for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. “You got your chocolate in my peanut butter.” “You got your peanut butter in my chocolate.” Voila! Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are born. Here is one of those ancient commercials. Ok, well, you can’t really un-see that. Sorry. That is an overly simplified concept of what I’m talking about but it gets the point across. Mix and match to create something new.

Now to apply it. One of the best things I ever started doing was to listen to podcasts on my commute to work. I listen to all kinds of crazy stuff. The only requirement is that I must learn from it. I listen to podcasts on business, entrepreneurship, animals, history, technology, science, woodworking, biographies, beer making, and psychology to name a few. Not only does it make my commute far more interesting, but it is filling my library with all kinds of interesting material to pull from at a later time. It’s not like I remember everything either, but some sense of those things I’ve learned are in there and can prove to be quite useful. So, listen to some podcasts. Read some books on a topic you would never read about. I have one of the most eclectic libraries of anyone I know. Most view it as scatterbrained. I view it as filling my idea library. Here is another idea. Go to a very specific and focused museum and dive deep into it. Pick a modern art museum or a firefighter museum or other obscure topic and learn about it beyond just skimming the placards. However you do it, fill the library with information from all disciplines in art, science, language, history, math, engineering, music, documentaries, anything! Keep learning what you do not need to get a new feed of creativity!

Now go. Create. ~ The Mission Creative

Free Writing and Free Sketching to Music

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Original Drawings by Keith Chapman

Original Drawings by Keith Chapman

 

One of the most surprising and most productive creativity exercises I’ve ever tried (and continue to use frequently) is free sketching or free writing to music. It’s a simple exercise that surprises me with great results every time. Here’s how it works. Go to your favorite music service like a Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, or whatever you prefer and find an album or collection of songs that you are unfamiliar with. They can be in a genre you like but really try to find something you haven’t listened to before if at all possible. Then start drawing to it or writing to it. That’s it. There is no plan, no plot, no structure.

For free sketching, consider this a superdoodle or a thematic sketch driven by what the music makes you draw. So, if you are listening to heavy metal you should likely get an aggressive drawing of something. If you listen to classical music, you might get something traditional or sophisticated. Who knows. That’s the beauty of this exercise. You have no agenda. The music leads you to draw whatever you are feeling. It might turn out super abstract or really precise and it is different every time. You might end up with a nice rough draft of something you want to develop into an actual art piece. You might end up with a doodle that any high schooler would have created during class. Just keep the pen moving and enjoy the process.

For free writing, I recommend choosing instrumental music so you don’t get looped in to the lyrics. It is completely possible to write to music with lyrics but for the first couple of times you do this exercise, it is easier to do it to instrumental music. One really interesting approach is to listen to a soundtrack to a movie that you have not seen and write to it. Keep in mind there is no plot or outline or plan. This is sloppy free writing. Characters won’t be well developed, the story will have big gaping holes in it, and scenes may be overly descriptive. That’s ok. It is still incredibly fulfilling to so this type of writing. Let the music set your mood, then whatever pops into your head first is what you write about. You can evolve it with the music. Try to get a story arc in there but don’t be too concerned about it. The resulting story is usually a bruised and battered shell of an idea duct taped together and held in place by the thematic music but what you end up with is an incredibly creative narrative that can be reshaped into a story that you may want to invest in. You might just have a first draft of a story. You might just have complete rubble. The process is exhilarating though and you’re exercising your creative muscles. That is the point.

I often design products to music as well. This is especially relevant to my line of work since I design musical instruments. The inspiration of the music helps incredibly though. If I am designing for a specific genre or artist, I specifically listen to that style of music. It drives a theme through the design and provides inspiration that I otherwise may not be able to conjure up. The key to designing product or brainstorming about product designs to music is to choose your music wisely. If you are designing medical equipment, you should have very calming music to work to, something that naturally heals when you listen to it. If you are designing demolition equipment, find your way to the death metal section. It really can influence your creativity and has been a key element to my success as a designer and author.

Whatever your discipline of creative work, try it to the appropriate genre of music and see if it enhances the process. I am convinced that you will at least get a new influence or new movement in your creative pursuits. And after a few sessions of free writing or free sketching, try it to music you know really, really well and see what happens. Your life influences and memories start merging with the creative influences of the music. You end up with really personally influenced art and that’s where your passion for the art form starts to emerge. So, if you find yourself drained, burned out, or out of touch with your creative side, try this quick exercise to one song or to one album or to a stream of music and get back to your own creative self with added influences and inspirations.

Now go. Create. ~ The Mission Creative

Independent Thinking

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Rebecca Bloom Photography

Image by Rebecca Bloom Photography http://www.bloomphoto.com

Happy fourth of July to my fellow Americans out there from The Mission Creative! Today Americans celebrate the independence of our country, the culmination of ideas opposing the previously accepted norm in the colonies at the time. Taking a note from the colonial playbook, we can apply this to our creative work as well to promote new ideas. When we work at a project for a long time or with projects that have the same parameters often, it sometime becomes very difficult to get out of the ruts we grind into the naturally creative paths we usually take. I have experienced this several times myself in product design where the category of the device you are designing rarely changes but the features and improvements of a particular product need to be innovative and refreshing. After designing the same type of product for years and years, it becomes second nature to iterate off of the designs in your past. Over time, that freshness customers expect in a product starts to erode and you end up with a very safe, not-so-innovative design on a product that probably needs it most. One way to combat this is to create an opposing view point in design as a guiding principle. Realize that the same old, same old may not be working this time.

Revolt! Revolutionize your ideas by taking an opposing viewpoint. Question why something exists the way it does as if you have never seen it before. Pretend you have no idea what the product does and question why each feature is there. In fact, get downright mean about it, adamant that there must be a better way and buck the norm. This independent and counter-intuitive thinking releases all of the design criteria you think you must have and allows you to start over with a fresh view. Your guidelines are the revolution of the norm so if you find yourself wandering back to a familiar path, revolt and head the other way. Go orthogonal to your usual way of thinking. In so doing you will find at least one item that you would not normally have crossed paths with that seems to actually be relatively great for the project. This is what you are looking for in revolting on your own design principles – that one opposing idea that actually makes things better, more creative, or at least more interesting. This can be applied to any creative process that you are intimate with to open new creative paths. It likely won’t create an entire new piece of work but it very likely will bring new input because you imposed new rules and guidelines for your own design thinking that oppose your norm. Become a contrarian to your own design thinking and open up a new creative path. Start your own design revolution.

Now go. Create. ~ The Mission Creative

Change Your Scene

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Image by Keith Chapman

Image by Keith Chapman

One incredibly easy and simple way to spark creativity is to change your scene. Change your surroundings. Where do you do your creative work? In an office? In a room? At a coffee shop? Take a look at where you are most productive and take a look at what is around you. If you are blocked, go elsewhere even just for one small creative session. When I was writing my first novel, I hit a major lull. Until that time, I went to write at a bar and grill type restaurant over lunches that granted me free wi-fi access. Then I hit a wall. I was lost in the book. I didn’t remember how I got into the weeds but in the weeds I sat staring at a blinking cursor.
Finally, I closed the laptop, gobbled down my food, and left. I went to a local coffee shop, ordered an afternoon coffee and sat down for just another 15 minutes and opened the laptop on a whim. Nope. Blinking cursor sucking my creative synapses right out from under me. Then, totally out of the blue, two well-dressed business ladies sitting near me had a conversation that I could not prevent from overhearing. One lady was complaining how their meetings were so unproductive because people felt the need to talk to fill the air. She went on to say if a meeting is scheduled for 30 minutes and it only needs to take 10 minutes, then be a doll and give the time back to your people. Oddly, this resonated in more ways than one. It well stood true in my own experiences with corporate life but deeper than that was the nudge I needed on my book. I was hung up on  making the dialog of my parody go through this entirely boring scene line by line. I ditched the whole section and summed up the many, many paragraphs by replacing it all with a simple, snide commentary. It shortened the chapter significantly, became more direct, and most importantly removed the logjam. This would not have happened as easily as it had if I had not relocated. Changing it up gives you a chance for newness. This means the muse in each of us gets new input which in turn can result in different outputs. If nothing else, it keeps you moving.

Constraints Unlock Creativity

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Image by Keith Chapman.

Image by Keith Chapman.

Contrary to basic intuition, complete freedom of design can greatly hinder creative design. Think of it this way. In your personal life, outside of your business or job, you can pretty much design or write whatever you want, at any time (non-competes withstanding). Total freedom of design. No constraints. Every possible idea is out there. Sit down with your sketchbook, your blinking cursor, or your canvas with nothing in mind. Now draw, write, or paint a masterpiece immediately. It’s difficult. You may end up with a doodle, an averagely boring sentence, or a blob of paint at best. Well, if this happens, then I guess you have indeed started something – a scribble, a theme, or a background but not very inspiring. Worst case, you remain staring at a blank page, screen, or canvas.

However, if you apply constraints within a scope of even a loosely defined project, you get a start, an inkling, or a basic concept no matter how primitive. The nice thing is that almost every project you get assigned or assign yourself will have built in constraints by the very definition of the project having some scope.

Now here is the catch. I strongly believe that the stronger the constraints, the more creative the result. Hear me out. This is counter-intuitive. A very loosely defined project scope leaves a large world of flexibility and ideas out there as candidates for the one result needed. Sifting through those ideas, heck, even generating those ideas is a daunting task and chances of you stumbling on a flash of brilliance is slim at best. Tighten the parameters on a design or scope and you limit the ideas and develop guardrails for your thoughts. This means focus. This means directed thoughts, condensed energy brought to a smaller concept which in turns mean that creative energy is no longer dispersed across a vast landscape of infinite possibility but driven towards a defined purpose.

Ideas are like a gas and the concept or project scope is the vessel containing that gas. Put those ideas into a very large vessel and you get very little pressure on the concept, little interaction, nothing noticeable. Make that concept a very small vessel and you get high energy interactions creating a very noticeable pressure. Perhaps you can make the vessel too small and leave no room for the gas at all… a vacuum… no room for ideas but that more or less defeats the purpose. That means the concept or project is complete and requires no creativity at all in the first place.

Here, try it for yourself. Whatever your art is… draw an equivalent. Draw, write, sculpt, design the following and see how your creativity increases with constraints. I’ll choose drawing for this example.

1. Draw a dog in a scene.

2. Draw a Dalmatian at a fire house.

3. Draw an older, aging Dalmatian named Buster at a frantic brick fire house in Queens, NY as the alarm bells are ringing loudly at 2AM.

I hope you find the level of detail in your drawings goes up as you consider each of the above project scopes or better the style of your drawings changed dramatically. This is usually where the nay-sayers come in and say “you’ve removed all creativity by defining so much”. Possibly, from one perspective in the sense of raw art, maybe. Maybe. But consider this. I did not specify what style, colors, materials to draw on or with, or many other important artistic parameters. You can certainly create a wonderfully creative work in the first and second project scopes but magic happens at the third and it is often quicker to arrive. Greatness is attracted to a well defined project. Also, consider that in most areas of creativity, we are trying to bring in some commercial value one way or another so arriving at the “one” early in the process has huge benefits.

So, do yourself a favor and next time you are assigned a project or you assign yourself a creative project, demand that as much detail as possible be defined before you start to create. Give yourself some sacred cows and golden handcuffs. Limit your parameters deeply and see what emerges quickly.

And one final tip. In my personal career, I have found great innovation, ideas and design emerge freely when I fictitiously add constraints to my project when I don’t get enough definition. You will know you do not have enough definition when you find yourself staring into space or that blank page for too long. Add your own constraints. For example, if you are designing a washing machine. Set a design goal whereby you cannot use any screws in the design. Now start the design. That constraint is unrealistic (most likely) but keeping your energy within that guardrail will prove to demonstrate amazing results. You rethink the norm. You force your energy into new areas and something you could never have thought of any other way surfaces immediately. Hold true to your constraints until that idea emerges. If it doesn’t add more constraints. The washing machine cannot use any metal material. No screws. No metal. Yikes… but these constraints free previously held energy. Now an idea emerges that has no screws and no metal. You redesigned something and it could actually be revolutionary. Now that you have that, release the constraints and get to the commercial, manufacturable and marketable design but with that one nugget of an idea to make the entire product revolutionary. It works. Try it and provide some feedback! I would love to hear if this helps you in your mission.

Now go. Create. ~ The Mission Creative