Think Creative

Is a resident of the cave (a prisoner, as it were) likely to want to make the ascent to the outer world? Why or why not? What does the sun symbolize in the allegory? And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened:--Behold! human beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets. I see. And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood a...

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 ...

This is the first of hopefully many debates inside the Creative Thinking arena. You can participate or view the outcomes as they unfold. Please contribute, as most people have an opinion and it would be good to hear it. I have moved the discussion here as it has the opportunity to create a wall of discussion. When leaving comments please add your name. You don't need to have an account, simply choose "Name/URL" and supply your FaceBook ID as the name. Couldn't be easier! First subject in this two weeks will be 'censorship'. For many years as a youthful creative I was always an advocate of non-censorship. Remembering the hidden religious control of the British Board of Censors as they deemed things inappropriate due to their middle class, church going attitudes. I thought that there was nothing wrong with showing things that were viewable in real life, in the confines of adverts, films and television shows. However, as I have grown older and a little wiser I ...

Second subject to discuss. The human form is something that is the most natural part of our life. We are in fact born naked and then for some reason of climatic need, or social obligation required to don clothing. This was the point of one of Toscani's first and most shocking photos for Benetton. To highlight the public repulsion to our own naked form. Many things have happened over the centuries that have driven or modeled the way we see ourselves as a form, but it was only in the beginnings of the advertising era that the human form took on a new angle. A device for selling. One of the things that has become apparent over the last few decades of advertising this form, is that our liberation toward it has in some aspects become reflective to the forms shown in the utopian view on billboards, etc. However, there is a great deal of distaste seen in the way the human form is used ( even if to good affect ) in some advertising and graphic forms. It is questionable whether advertisin...

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...

Continuing the theme of blocks and how they affect the working and creative attitude of many people, today this blog covers that issue of 'environmental blocks'. This is something that is external out there, but affects our mental state of mind. It can range from a number of sources and be caused by a number of things, but ultimately it has control over the way our mind works. One aspect that we never really consider in the development of work is where and how we sit. Or more precisely the environment in which we sit. Firstly, our seated position is of utmost importance to our health and our state of mind. Sitting incorrectly for long periods of time without any degree of support or relaxation is not very productive. Making our back ache is resulting in doing harm to our main nervous channel. All the stems of our bodies extremities come from the many spinal cord. Hence, any aching and numbness caused by sitting incorrectly is a direct result to the prolonged angle at which yo...

The last part of the debate was giving discussion into possible causes to why censorship occurs. How it started, and who possibly even started it. What this second part of the discussion will talk about, is the idea that preemptive censorship can control design even as much as the censoring bodies cause to released matter. The idea that in some respects censorship can aid in delivering the market force required to selling a product more that the actual clever, or not so clever advert itself. In my youth I remember the release of a song by a group called 'Frankie Goes to Hollywood', the songs title was "Relax". The censoring bodies ( as we know from the previous post were dominated by religious activists ) deemed the lyrics of the song too suggestive and sexually derived, and therefore banned the song to be aired on radio or television. This did a remarkable thing. It made the curiosity of the record buying audience curious. Therefore, the record shot to number one a...