Creativity

The most valuable of all that we can ever own costs us nothing. When it is passed from one person to another, it does not diminish in quality or quantity. In fact, what happens to this possession is quite the opposite – it grows. It develops and becomes strong, frightening the closed minded and exciting the willing. Let's have a look at few video presentations on this special little something at the Technology, Education & Design conference – TED.

Natural talent works well as a scapegoat and defense for one to protect themselves from the real world. To say someone is naturally talented is to say that no matter what efforts you exert, they will forever prove themselves better. Which is to say that they didn't earn what they have. What utter idiocy. It's a matter of being curious, answering questions which invoke inspiration and joyous hard work. That is where true natural talent lies.

It's not uncommon for anyone even remotely interested in art to have an interest in the life and work of Leonardo Da Vinci. Nor is it uncommon for creatives to have a thing for peering into the sketch books of others to satisfy a creative curiosity as to how someone thinks and develops their ideas. I know I fall hard into both camps, so I thought I might bring the two together. Let's have a look at the brilliant sketchbooks of the old master.

One of the most memorable lessons learned while studying design had nothing to do with layout, typography, color or any other facet of the syllabus. It had absolutely nothing to do with design, but effected how to go about doing it. It was how to work furiously and complete a conceivably impossible task.

Oh overnight success, why do we long for thee with such desperation? Why does ignorance plague us as we cry a thousand tears in search of receiving something for nothing? To us fools, the kings of the wise bestow upon us an illuminating guide of words to save us from ourselves -- 'Snap out of it. It isn't going to happen'

In part one we looked at how intuition isn't something that we are born with, but it is something that we develop. We plant the seeds to our creativity almost constantly—tending to the shoots that grow if we are drawn to what is planted and defining what it is that makes up the weeds of our garden. It is how we determine what is good and what is bad, sometimes without being able to verbally express it, just feeling it. However, a problem may arise in that we sometimes have trouble finding our ways back to the right plants when we need to. We need a map of our gardens. Let's call it inspiration.

In the garden of the mind, creativity is something that needs to be tended to with constant love and care. The ability to come up with an idea out of thin air is a myth – it just never happens. The ideas come from somewhere in our minds as a mix of past experiences, opinions and all that which is creative that has been planted in the soil of our memories, dance and play and mix together. In the first part of this two part piece, we'll explore intuition and where it stems from.

Why is one movie better than another? Why do we prefer the writings of this author over that one? Why do some pieces of art make our hearts sing while others make us flatline? Quality is personal taste not owned by anyone else, not always describable but, without a doubt, felt. So why don't we put more thought into how we define quality?

As we grow and develop as creatives, certain traits in our work become our trademarks. Our personal tastes become badges and identifiers. These visual footprints can develop in two different ways—one is organic and the other is almost artificial. One is voice, the other style.