Connect. The Network Media Partners blog.

Today is brought to you by the word ‘creativity’

February 10, 2010

It takes hard work to have a good idea

There’s a lot of talk about creativity this week. This week’s IEI Forum focused intently on Creativity Inc., sparking blogs around the world to post on creativity in the workplace (hello). And this is indeed the time to spark a little creativity, to innovate, to continue to push and try new things…invent new things!  Here’s a few quick tips to keep you on your creative toes every day:

1. Experience everything. To formulate new ideas, you need to rely on your memory bank of knowledge. The vaster the better. Literature. Arts and pop culture. Comic book heroes and villains. History. Current and past politico-socio-economic climates. Bird watching. Religion. Lady Gaga.  The wider your range, the more prepared you’ll be to solve a problem. (That’s what being creative does, by the way. Creativity is solving a problem in the simplest–and most brilliant–way possible.)

2. Look at the world with “new eyes.” This is an oldie but a goodie, and it takes some practice. You need to view the world as if you’re seeing it for the first time. Writers: Read your words as if you were a first-time reader. Designers: Have a problem with your grid? Back out of it and look at your page a different way. Publishers: The tried and true ways of reaching readers aren’t working…start thinking like a new user.

3. Practice your creativity everywhere. Had a particularly unproductive day? Go home and make an exquisite dinner (don’t follow a recipe or the back of the box). Invest time in a hobby like sewing or scrapbooking, a book club, wood working. Find creativity in everything you do, and soon you’ll find you can’t do a thing without an eye toward being inventive.

4. Take comfort in the idea that all new things have been invented. That seems disheartening but it’s not. The best ideas are the ones that seemingly come out of nowhere but are actually deeply rooted in an idea or a thing that already exists. This is what we call using a schema (a schema is a “mental structure that represents some aspect of the world.”) In other words, your idea is only going to be great if people can put it in context with something else, something they already know about and are familiar with.

5. Don’t throw an idea away. It may not be the right solution for right now, but don’t banish it. Store it away, come back to it later (probably in the shower or while driving) and nurture it. Someday, when that idea grows up to be big and strong, you’ll find the right place for it.

–Jen Smith, Creative Director, Network Media Partners

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