Think Creative

Teaching Visual Communication yesterday and was embroiled in a discussion about culture. Basically what defines culture. Some days back I was also watching an interesting TED talk by Larry Lessig. You can see it  here ! So, both of these ingredients combined by the fact I was trying to teach the students a theory of " the medium is the message " from McLuhan's book "Understanding Media" made everything come together. What I believe the students were finding difficult to understand or conceive is the fact that in some arguments there has to be some evaluation to a metaphysical state rather than a rational real world state. By this, and as trying to be taught yesterday, was the notion of containers. These were described by McLuhan as objects that hold values in the form of a message. This message is released or broadcast and creates an effect. McLuhan nicely uses the lightbulb as a good example. Stating that the mere presence of a lightbulb creates the messag...

It has been a long time since I wrote something for the Creative Thinking blog, and I was talking to one of my readers yesterday, and it inspired me to blog something. Some time back I wrote a post about "association blocks". As part of my teaching I actually list some seven different variations in mental blocks that can stop the free thinking process. I call it the 'free thinking' process as  ultimately the point is, is to have an open mind to allow better thinking. One of the primary blocks that we encounter in the practice of thinking is what is referred to as 'perpetual blocks'. These are all self driven block. Things about ourselves that can hinder the thinking process. Now, some of these are genetic inflictions, some are socially induced afflictions and some are just ways we convince ourselves that we are entitled to be lazy in our thinking. What I will do here is go through the possible reasonings of the blocks and try to get a point of understanding ...

I am a great believer in the simplicity of line, of idea of look. Now, many of the failings of art and design is the notion that the more you put into an image, an icon, a design the better it is going to be. This obviously isn't correct, and there are testaments to this all around. The Nike logo, above, for instance. What does it mean? There are many simple elements to the design that have sustained its purity and simplicity. Nike is a Greek word for 'Victory'. There is a belief that the icon is simply a 'tick'. This is to represent the positive. It is true. The symbol is a representation of the tick, however, there is also a combined aspect that reverts back to the origin of the word. There is a connection that the symbol also is to represent the winged heels of Hermes. The messenger god. So, in one simply image, but through a complex thought process a very clever idea has come about. There are hundreds of these examples around in the design industry. One of the...

I was in a discussion the other morning about the development of education and a theme came apparent about two distinct styles of teaching and their values in an educational scenario. These two types of teaching are those of instructional and deductive. To explain them a little more, the approach to instructional is that of having a teaching guiding you through a process. Much as with most modern education and that of the form of vertical thinking. Deductive thinking can be a result to instructive or a stand alone approach to education, but is based on the approach of learning from experience rather than secondary information retrieval. Teaching is an important and powerful way to get ideas, information and process across to large groups of people. The issue with this method is that it has, especially in recent years, become what can only be called "parrot' fashioned. By this it is meant that a teacher educates and the students repeat. This is done, like a parrot, until the ...

Advertising and graphics have a power above all else. The expression "a picture speaks a thousand words" is testament to the fact that the visual form is a strong method to get a message across. In fact since we climbed from the trees and tried very desperately to communicate, one of the first things we did was to make marks on walls and in sand. These pictograms eventually turned to the multitude of alphabets we now use around the world, with some confusion between races. However, the visual form is in-all-tense-and-purpose a universal tool. Something that can be recognised from one mind to another, the world over. This in one sense makes it a very powerful tool, but at the same time makes it a very powerful weapon. What ad men have been argued at is not having is morality. Whether that is true or not is another debate, what they do have is the obligation to sell the product that is placed in front of them. To this end they could be faced with dealing with some very hard a...

Being an academic and a creative I tend to read and put into practice a lot that I look at. Recently I have been doing a good deal of research into 'inspiration'. Inspired as you could say, to motivate the students into getting their act together. It is a complex subject. Never is it easy as to say 'switch on' and get productive. So many variables fit into the complex motions of getting the brain to turn those gears. However, one of the great aids is the ability to see possible hurdles that could combat or challenge your creativity. There are too many to name here as possible blocks and remedies, but I will attempt to tell you some and hopefully this will aid in the process of getting your act together. The first and most easy to achieve is attitude. Again, that is easy to say, but having a late night, not getting your coffee in the morning, missing the bus, etc., can all contribute to making the daily attitude seep a little. However, one thing that you should and nee...

The last theme in this two week stretch. Thanks for all who have viewed, if not commented. Thanks to Panagiotis for his contribution. Strange thing is I see him in class, and therefore could have had this debate off the computer, but never mind. For the final subject I wanted to start the notion of 'to what levels would a piece of graphics go' to sell its message. I am a great admirer of the author Marshall McLuhan and his book 'Understanding Media'. If you are interested in Creative and Lateral Thinking with relationship to the medias then this is a book you should read. Several of the chapters he talks in have many aspects to the values of the visual medias and in particular he talks on the 'medium is the message'. This whole philosophy is a little deep and hard to add to a short blog post, but basically it is the notion that our society has devised ( consciously or subconsciously ) the methods by which a combination of words and structures have moved from t...

Another in the series of developing an understanding to the many types of blocks there are. Just as a quick reminder, we have already covered: Environmental Blocks, Cultural Blocks, Perpetual and Associative Blocks. This post will look at another aspect of the mental block structure; that of 'Intellectual Blocks'. What does this actual base its notions around? Well, there are many aspects to this form of mental blocking. Intelligence as described in the Oxford dictionary reads as such: intelligence |ɪnˈtɛlɪdʒ(ə)ns| noun 1 the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills Based on this, the measure of an intelligence is the amount of this such knowledge and to what amount it can be utilized in order to make head way in a given situation. Another way to look at the definition of intelligence is that of this basic concept. Intelligence is the ability to solve problems. The more intelligent, or more knowledgeable one is, then the more likely you are of completely the task ...

One of the things I see when I am teaching is the great deal of nervousness that occurs when the students are about to do that simplest of actions, of putting a pencil on a piece of paper. After twenty odd years of doing all this drawing and sketching and the like, I find it odd to observe, or at least funny that someone has that nervousness. There can be many reasons for this to occur. I have thought about it whilst sitting and trying to encourage the students to leap right on in there. One possible reason could be that there is a daunting task of seeing how to fill a large expanse of white space with something. Another, and especially in the classroom environment, is the fear of embarrassment in making a mistake in front of people. This is odd, as I have always stated and affirmed, people can only make progress by making these mistakes. However, the one problematic area that can easily explain all these in one form or another, is the way in which we use our brain. I mentioned befor...

So once we have our list of terms and derivations, the next stage is to convert them into visual ideas. Mainly, as this is a creative project then all the elements need to be presented in a graphic form. What I tend to do is to develop via sketching. Saying this though, there is a disparity in what can look good in a sketch and what can look good in a final design. This understanding can come with a great deal of experience in how things look in rough and complete form. I tend to so all my logo designs via illustrator, and so when sketching I tend to keep simple lines and blocking that I note will be colour or shape. Anyway, what happens depending on the list of words, is I try putting down any idea that pops into my head based on the initial visual I see. This can usually populate an entire A3 sheet of small thumbnails. Like the one I added above. Another thing that is hard to describe, as a necessary part of the process, is the need to have gestation time. For example, I have tree ...