Three Creative Apps that Require Only a Pencil
Last year, I listened to John Maeda talk about pencils and paper.
Maeda is a world-renowned artist, graphic designer, computer scientist and the President of the Rhode Island School of Design. (RSDI). His early work redefined the use of electronic media as a tool for expression by combining skilled computer programming with sensitivity to traditional artistic concerns.
As computer savvy as he is, he increasing wants students to put down the computer or iPad and use their opposable thumbs and the classic #2 pencil. Ultimately, it’s about using the best operating system ever developed. The brain.
As a creative director, I often see through the smoke and mirrors of a gorgeous InDesign layout to see an idea that is all style and no substance. Some of the best creatives I know still scribble. The scribble makes it difficult to hide a bad idea in colors, illustrations, photography and fonts.
Here are three techniques that require only a reasonably-functioning cerebral cortex.
1. Reversing Assumptions, 180° Thinking, Polar Opposites or The Antonym Lens.
Virtually every book on creative problem solving will have a name for what is essentially the same process. Basically, it’s seeing the reverse of what appears to be true.
One classic example is creating a new kind of restaurant. You begin by thinking of what a typical restaurant isn’t. What if it didn’t serve food? What if it didn’t have patrons? What if it didn’t have wait staff? What if it didn’t have a location? What if it didn’t use advertising? What if it didn’t have a professional chef?
Typically, the more left-leaning brains begin to roll their eyes at this exercise. It doesn’t resonate because these brains are already evaluating and projecting viability of ideas.
The purpose of this opposite thinking is to create a new framework for thinking. For example, what if the restaurant didn’t have a wait staff? The Mini Bar in Amsterdam doesn’t have a wait staff, it simply gives keys to patrons and they pick what they want from a series of mini-bars. (A modern take on the old auto-mat or vending machine idea).
What if it didn’t have a professional chef? Maybe you can gather mothers and grandmothers who have mastered the art of cooking for families and use them on a rotating basis for a place that really offers “home” cooking.
The point isn’t embracing the opposite. It’s using the opposite as a catalyst or idea starter for new thinking. (Or unexpected thinking).
2. The Rolling Wall
Ernie Schenck describes this technique in a book I highly recommend, The Houdini Solution (Putting Creativity and Innovation to Work by Thinking Inside the Box).
The rolling wall is about looking at both the flexibility or rigidness of a creative challenge. First, you state your single-minded problem. From Ernie: “Let’s say your problem is to design an inexpensive portable wind turbine. Separate the statement into its component parts. In this case, these would be design, inexpensive, portable, wind and turbine.
Next, spend some time with each word and bombard it with questions. For wind you might ask if has to be solely wind powered. Borrowing from automotive hybrid engine technology could a small, gasoline-powered engine be added as a backup?”
You do this with every word -- inspecting it for opportunities and variations. Sometimes you do hit a wall and sometimes you expand it to new and exciting proportions.
The rule of thumb here is not to fully accept the problem as given until you’ve examined, explored and refined the problem to yield the best solutions. Think of it as a great cross-examination with the problem as a key witness.
3. The 15-Minute Brain Squeeze
Twenty years ago, this would simply be called “Stream of Consciousness” -- but by putting a time limit on the exercise, most people breathe a little easier and actually generate more ideas.
One rule of the Brain Squeeze is not to go beyond 15 minutes -- especially if you want to. This is a mental contract with your brain and if you break it (even with the best intentions) you will undermine future contracts.
Take a legal pad or large piece of paper and write down as many ideas related to the problem as possible within 15 minutes. If you get stuck write how you’re feeling about the problem (It’s too complex, I hate it, etc). Then move in any direction that fires up your synapses.
Then walk away from the problem for a least an hour. Then come back and separate the wheat from the chaff.
This is an exercise I often recommend to CEOs and leaders in companies. Often, they don’t want to appear undecided or convoluted so they can’t get what’s in their head out.
Three ideas. One pencil. Imagine the possibilities.
Creativity Central
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