Excuse the rambling nature of this post but I’ve had a few thoughts about creativity recently and I want to get it off my head (in the spirit of my last post). You see, creativity seems to be associated with hippy-like ideas about thinking big and opening your mind to new ideas and different experiences. Don’t focus on small things, think about the big picture! But I’m not so sure…
Think small
Creativity is about originality and appropriateness. Sure, you might be able to come up with wacky, crazy, out-there ideas but how many of them are genuinely useful or practical? It’s difficult to turn big, abstract concepts into something you can make sense of. We’d all like to come up with a super-cool car design with cutting edge features but what does that actually mean? Pass that concept to design engineers and they’d laugh in your face no matter how creative or open-minded they themselves are.
Creativity is, contrary to stereotype, about the small details. We could all come up with the concept of a scary monster for a sci-fi film in our heads but how many of us would be able to describe what it looked like? What would the fine details be? That would require you focusing on individual features. What would the nose look like? Big or small? Would the eyes be on stalks?
Though it may be taboo to any manager trying to get his staff to brainstorm during a team meeting, or to a webdesigner trying to develop a fashionable site for his client, when it comes to being creative think small. Focus your mind onto small things and individual features. Focus on innovative ideas for a new braking system or steering wheel, not on that fuzzy New Car™ idea.
Think big
Stop, wait! There is still room for big thinking in creativity though, but that’s in regard to your environment and surroundings. Creativity needs room and space to breath. Your brain needs to be stimulated by open areas and fresh air, not dulled by box rooms and beige walls.
I never just type something up, whether it be a blog post or a chapter in my book. I prefer the freedom of writing and brainstorming on paper and that’s always where I start. But it’s not so much about ease of use and portability – sitting on a computer in the corner of a room, while staring at a small 17″ monitor makes for a very constricted environment for creative thinking.
Years ago at school, when I was doing my A level in Art (yes I did art at school, don’t laugh) the teacher would always encourage us to use big sheets of paper and large canvasses, and he was right. We shouldn’t restrict or box ourselves in. In that regard I think the ideal environment for creative thinking is a massive field, from which you can see the mountains and the hills for miles around, and a great big blank canvas to brainstorm what style of feet my sci-fi alien should have.
September 22, 2009 at 08:10AM
Kind of like using mind mapping – that is how I see creativity in both the big and small thinking areas. It is all relative don’t you think?