Tag: creativity

In the final post in this popular series, Nigel Malone shares his thoughts on creatives in a business context. “Many a client has told me the creative process is foreign to them, and they don’t really understand how ‘creative people’ do what they do. By the same token, many creatives, to their detriment, fail to understand the consumer and prefer to operate in an artistic vacuum. And if some clients pitched their wares directly to the consumer, well they’d lose interest pretty quickly.”

"Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten."

Seventeen-year-old art student Jamie Bell created this stop-motion clip using biros, about 50 jotter books and 2100 pages. It took him three weeks, but it was worth it – he received full marks from his teacher. (And us.)

To promote awareness of Sprize, Gap's new loyalty program carrying the tag line "shopping turned on its head", the company turned its entire store on Robinson Street, Vancouver upsidedown. It took 12 hours to flip the instore decor -- including four display tables and 32 mannequins -- as well as a hot dog stand and three cars outside.

To promote awareness of Sprize, Gap's new loyalty program carrying the tag line "shopping turned on its head", the company turned its entire store on Robinson Street, Vancouver upsidedown. It took 12 hours to flip the instore decor -- including four display tables and 32 mannequins -- as well as a hot dog stand and three cars outside.

Major inventions and technical breakthroughs often happen by accident. Here legendary Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak explains how, while working with Steve Jobs to meet a deadline for Atari, he went four days without sleep, leading to one of his greatest technological breakthroughs.

In this Fora.tv video, George Kembel, Stanford University's design guru, delivers his creative take on the concept of creativity and the way more people should be approaching it. Interesting stuff.

The world is currently eyeball-deep in a period of technological disruption that is unparalleled in human history. This is creating a smorgasbord of opportunities for those entrepreneurs who have the balls to innovate, writes Steve Anderson.

People have their best ideas in the oddest places, but one of the most common places is the shower (perhaps all that singing gets the creative juices going). This proved sufficient inspiration for Aquanotes, a waterproof notepad, pencil and suction cups to ensure that you never, as the website says, "let another great idea go down the drain!"

To succeed, innovation needs to be more than a nebulous desire to foster creativity in an organisation. It needs to be a concrete business process driven from the top. Roger La Salle explains.

What do tech-head muso students do in their spare time? Well the ones at Stanford University in California started an orchestra in which every member has the same instrument with the capacity to produce a near limitless variety of sound. As you can see in this excellent New York Times video profile (read the accompanying article here), the end result is avant-guarde to say the least (think Yo Yo Ma on LSD).

What do tech-head muso students do in their spare time? Well the ones at Stanford University in California started an orchestra in which every member has the same instrument with the capacity to produce a near limitless variety of sound. As you can see in this excellent New York Times video profile (read the accompanying article here), the end result is avant-guarde to say the least (think Yo Yo Ma on LSD).

Did you feel like your creativity was really nurtured at school? Chances are, it wasn't. In this great talk from the 2006 TED conference, British creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson argues that current education systems are geared to producing obedient worker drones rather than creative innovators. In contrast, he believes that educators should consider creativity as important as literacy when preparing young minds for a rapidly evolving future.

Designer reality TV shows might be a hit in 2009, but sartorially creative visionaries had their own views on the kind of threads we'd be wearing in the year 2000. Still waiting on those glass wedding gowns, people...

Quotes, factoids and other curious teasers to get your creative juices flowing.

Here's a new "projection" technology that is sure to turn heads. These hypnotic 3D video mapping projections are the work of Dutch creative agency NuFormer Digital Media, which employs a battery of powerful projectors to render the effect on buildings of any size. Awesome.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Here at Anthill, we've taken a particular interest in the evolving concept of crowdsourcing, and specifically the growing practice of companies sourcing creative ideas and designs from the crowd online. Crowdsourcing is a bone of contention in the Anthill community. For yet another view, here we publish the thoughts of Paul Cornwell, Partner at creative agency BCM Partnership, on Unilever's recent use of crowdsourcing website Idea Bounty to source creative ideas for its Peperami brand.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Here at Anthill, we've taken a particular interest in the evolving concept of crowdsourcing, and specifically the growing practice of companies sourcing creative ideas and designs from the crowd online. Crowdsourcing is a bone of contention in the Anthill community. For yet another view, here we publish the thoughts of Paul Cornwell, Partner at creative agency BCM Partnership, on Unilever's recent use of crowdsourcing website Idea Bounty to source creative ideas for its Peperami brand.

Stefan Sagmeister is New York-based designer with a fresh take on work and inspiration. Every seven years he closes his Manhattan studio for 12 months so he and his team can recharge their creative batteries.

In this video from the wonderful Academic Earth, Robert Sutton, author of "Weird Ideas that Work", argues that authority has its place, but most businesses succeed when creativity is allowed to flourish.