Creativity | Jonathan Moore

Mar

15

“In 2112, creativity will be the most valued form of work because creativity is about going against what everyone (including yourself) believes in. By 2112, our minds will be directly connected to computers. […] The ways of thinking and working that artists and designers embody so naturally will be in higher demand. These skills will be universally recognized as how we advance society’s future, rather than a nice “add-on” as they are perceived of today. Creativity will be the new currency of work, the world over.”

John Maeda, on the future and creativity

Dec

13

“Melancholy shouldn’t be confused with depression. Melancholy is an active state. When we’re melancholic, we feel uneasy with the way things are, the status quo, the conventions of our society. We yearn for a deeper, richer relationship with the world. And in that yearning, we’re forced to explore the potential within ourselves – a potential we might not have explored if we were simply content. We come up with new ways of seeing the world and new ways of being in the world. Melancholy and creativity go together.”

Alexander Stutterheim, post on Melancholy & Creativity

Oct

14

Hidden habits of ineffective people

All five of these habits are easy to pick up but will squeeze out every bit of your effectiveness. The first negative habit really stands out, and I have to constantly remind myself to create more than I consume.

Consuming more than you create
Effective people tend to create a lot of content. Content can mean a lot of things - but the rule is always the same, create more than you consume. Ineffective people, on the other hand, spend the majority of their time consuming the fruits of others’ labor. They are consumate lurkers.

Read the rest on Chris Wake’s Quora post

Sep

20

“When you have the good fortune to have success in your life that is precisely the time you should reinvent yourself. You should go right back to zero as though nothing had happened and start over. Because you can get real stale. You can fall in love with yourself or get to that danger point when you could ride on that success or try to repeat it.”
— Robert Redford

Wise words. I quickly threw together a desktop image with this quote as a reminder to create, reinvent, repeat. Feel free to download the desktop image at 2560x1440px.

Via Surfstation

Aug

23

“In sports, one never imagines that you can get by on talent alone. Take Roger Federer or Michael Jordan, for instance. Although each man’s one-of-a-kind natural talent is undeniable, we are also keenly aware of the grueling hours of practice that were necessary to mold that talent into true greatness. So why should it be any different with creativity?”

Jocelyn K. Glei, The 99 Percent - Haruki Murakami: Talent Is Nothing Without Focus and Endurance

Aug

17

“No one cares about your ideas. They only care about what you make.”

Blain Hogan, from his book Untitled: Thoughts on the Creative Process

Follow Blain on Tumblr

Aug

11

Empathy is the Root of Creativity

“The greatest thing we can do and offer is to be great listeners and have to have empathy for your culture to understand what is the truth.”
— John Jay, global executive creative director at W+K

One of the most important skills of a designer or creator is empathy. Without it you’ll fail to connect with users and clients in a meaningful way.

Aug

03

How to get out of a creative rut

Fantastic article by Nextness on how to power through “those stretches of days and even weeks when your insights dry up, your voice fails you, you lose your artistic eye, your drive to work disappears”. I couldn’t agree more with their seventh way to dig yourself out of a rut.

7. Start a Tumblr.

Tumblelogs represent the early stirrings of late adolescent creativity, the melodrama formalized, put to music, friends found, band started, bingo. Thus there is always the sense of the achievable…the ever seductive notion that with enough hard work anything contained within it is attainable.

- Dossier Journal. This is why you should be on Tumblr; create one now. (Here’s ours.)

Jul

20

“We’re not meant to operate like computers. Human beings are designed to pulse between spending/renewing energy.”

Tony Schwartz

After a great vacation I’m fully refreshed and now ready to charge at full speed. Don’t neglect the renewing energy phase. As difficult as it is, the best thing you can do for your productivity, drive and creativity it to completely unplug.

The quote from Tony Schwartz was from a previous year’s 99% Conference. Don’t miss out on the 2012 99% Conference since it will sell out fast! I bought my tickets yesterday.

Jun

22

“I invented nothing new. I simply assembled the discoveries of other men behind whom were centuries of work. Had I worked fifty or ten or even five years before, I would have failed. So it is with every new thing. Progress happens when all the factors that make for it are ready and then it is inevitable. To teach that a comparatively few men are responsible for the greatest forward steps of mankind is the worst sort of nonsense.”

Henry Ford

Jun

14

Aelita Andre - Prodigy of Color

At a very early age Aelita Andre’s parents watched their daughter paint expressively and with passion. To help encourage her artistic abilities they setup a studio that where she can brush, splash, paint and create her expressive and colorful art. In this 13 minute short film you can see the four year old abstract painter at work in her studio.

Although I’m unsure if she truly is an art prodigy or that her parents are simply skilled marketers (an entirely different debate), it is amazing to see a young and uninhibited creative mind in action. Right now her art is on exhibition in New York City’s Agora Gallery in Chelsea through June 25th. If you want to pick up one of her pieces it’ll only set you back $25,000.

Jun

12

“Taking a shower after 8pm is like pouring high octane creative fuel on ideas.”

There is something about taking a shower in the evening that has the ability to transform a small, on the back-burner notion into a magnified, ‘I have to act on this now’ idea.

Is it bad form to quote yourself on Tumblr?

Jun

09

“…a practice of some kind … It quite frequently happens that you’re just treading water for quite a long time. Nothing really dramatic seems to be happening. … And then suddenly everything seems to lock together in a different way. It’s like a crystallization point where you can’t detect any single element having changed. There’s a proverb that says that the fruit takes a long time to ripen, but it falls suddenly … And that seems to be the process.”

Brian Eno (U2, Talking Heads, Roxy Music) describing his “creative process.”

Via The 99 Percent

Feb

16

Hoxton Street Monster Supplies

Hoxton Street Monster Supplies is the fantastical shopfront for the Ministry of Stories, a pioneering children’s writing workshop. We helped to set up the project, designed the identity for the shop, as well as the products sold there, and also worked on much of the copywriting.

Inspired by the 868 National stores (Greenwood Space Travel Supply Company, The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. and others) We Made This Ltd. worked with the Ministry of Stories to come up with an inspiring environment where children can get 1-on-1 tutoring from professional writers and volunteers. All of the proceeds from the neck-bolt tighteners, thickest human snot, and tinned fear help fund the center.

Found on The Dieline

Nov

18

The 1-Step Plan for Super-Productivity

Wake Up Early

Excellent article from 99 Percent on how rising early to start your day will lead to better productivity and a greater sense of control over your day.

When I interview creatives, I often ask them what advice they would give to the next generation, the up-and-comers. Curiously, there’s one incredibly important habit that nearly all of them possess that is almost never mentioned. So what is the secret ingredient in their productivity regime? It’s simple: They get up early.

Over the next two weeks I’m going conduct an experiment and try several techniques to shift my schedule to early mornings verses late into the night, define a consistent work schedule, boost my focus on one thing at a time, and get better at keeping a todo list. During this process I plan on writing about my personal reasons for the experiment, some of the techniques I’m trying and of course the results. Wish me luck!