A Question of Creativity

Most people are familiar with the popular phrase “thinking out of the box”. This generally means that the conventional view will get you a conventional outcome whereas taking a look at something from an entirely new perspective will lead to a new direction, so we should cultivate our capacity or view to be alternative. Also another popular belief is that creativity is only accessible to a gifted few who by nature are able to access a part of their being that is out of reach to most of us. Maybe by broadening creativity into a view that includes problem solving can we get a better perspective on what we do when faced with specific issues or better yet what we come up with to solve or get around these issues.

I’ve been thinking about creativity for a long time in terms of what I could write or show people that would help them access a more creative view and capability to use in their lives and work. All I can write about is what I do myself so here are a few thoughts and actions that I’ve done over the years that have helped me.

I’m pretty much a visual sponge. I have a hard time remembering numbers, but with images my mind seems to have an endless capacity for retention. I think visually. When I’m working on a layout for an ad or say a PowerPoint presentation I can compose and arrange visuals in my head and then build the ad or slide from there. I can sit on a plane with my eyes closed and recall specific photographs, drawings, paintings or sketches that I’ve made and run through them as if I were viewing a presentation. I just like images.

For the past 20 plus years I’ve carried what I call visual journals with me wherever I’ve traveled and wherever I’ve lived and worked. If I have prints of my own photographs or I’ve spotted an image that fascinated me in a magazine I have I’d put it into my journal repeating the process until I had built a collage of the day, thought or event. Sometimes a single image would dominate the page. Sometimes I would write notes but in many instances it’s just the image. Usually I don’t have a specific reason for keeping the image, I just liked it and it triggered some interest to me that motivated me to save it for future reference. If I’m interested in a specific topic say bicycles then my eye zeroes in on anything connected with bikes and bike culture and I scan visuals until I pick up on some that trigger what I call my save response. You can build up a great library of ideas, places and thoughts this way. The internet is also an awesome place to be a visual scavenger. I’ve got tons of picture files on all kinds of topics that I constantly reference when I’m trying to come up with ideas or that I just thought looked cool and wanted to keep and look at over and over.

An idea for a marketing campaign may start from a single image of say an old deuce coupe rat rod on the Bonneville Salt Flats. This will cause my mind to go into creative zone where I become a magnet for all images connected with Bonneville.  Pictures of early speed freaks and their vehicles along with images of the new vehicles that run there today. My mind will wander around the idea like a film crew shooting scenes from every possible angle. I take a look at pictures of gear and clothing. I’ll look at images of speed shops and gear heads working on cars. I’ll remember scenes from movies like “The World’s Fastest Indian” or from documentaries like “Brittown” or “Choppertown—The Sinners”. I’ll read books like “Shop Class as Soul Craft” and listen to Reverend Horton Heat. All these images, sounds and words get stored, mixed together and gradually, subconsciously an idea begins to form that will eventually lead to a solution, theme, or product for my marketing campaign. The look and feel of the collateral and presentation material will all reflect these ideas. Clothing will go along with the theme like using the classic American garage shirt with cool embroidery font like magneto as part of the overall look.

This process is where all the fun is. No holds barred and no reason at first to justify where the whole thing is going. It’s just a creative flow. The details can be worked out later.