Creative pause

Hoy todo mundo habla de “Engagement”. Pero este arículo habla da importancia de su contraparte: el siempre sano “Disengagement”. Chéquenlo creativos…

Interruption-free space is sacred. Yet, in the digital era we live in, we are losing hold of the few sacred spaces that remain untouched by email, the internet, people, and other forms of distraction. Our cars now have mobile phone integration and a thousand satellite radio stations. When walking from one place to another, we have our devices streaming data from dozens of sources. Even at our bedside, we now have our iPads with heaps of digital apps and the world’s information at our fingertips. There has been much discussion about the value of the “creative pause” – a state described as “the shift from being fully engaged in a creative activity to being passively engaged, or the shift to being disengaged altogether.” This phenomenon is the seed of the break-through “a-ha!” moments that people so frequently report having in the shower. In these moments, you are completely isolated, and your mind is able to wander and churn big questions without interruption.

However, despite the incredible power and potential of sacred spaces, they are quickly becoming extinct. We are depriving ourselves of every opportunity for disconnection. And our imaginations suffer the consequences…

http://bit.ly/y5lLL4

Creative pause

Freedom. Money. Time

Según este libro de Mark McGuinness, un creativo necesita 3 cosa para ser feliz: libertad, dinero y tiempo. Lo checaré, sobre todo por el amable gesto de ser regalado…

A creative person needs three things to be happy:

  1. Freedom – to do what you want, when you want and how you want it. Not just in holidays and spare time – but also doing meaningful work, in your own way.
  2. Money – to maintain your independence and fund your creative projects. Of course you want a nice place to live, but you’re not so worried about a bigger car than the guy next door. You’d rather spend money on experiences than status symbols.
  3. Time – to spend as you please, exploring the world and allowing your mind to wander in search of new ideas.

Usually, you’re lucky if you get two out of the three. But if one of them is missing, it compromises the other two.

Without money, you don’t have much freedom, because you have to spend your time chasing cash.

Without time off, money doesn’t buy you a lot of freedom.

And if you’re doing something you hate for a living, it doesn’t matter how big your salary is, or how much holiday you get. You still feel trapped.

Surely there has to be a more creative solution?

http://lateralaction.com/behance/

Freedom. Money. Time

Connect the dots

Será muy util que guarden este infográfico, publicado por Mashable.com – cómo establecer un proceso creativo totalmente metódico y sistematizado, en 9 sencillos pasos…

What constitutes creative thinking? For one, learning to think expansively and visually — to see patterns and “connect dots.” You also need to let your subconscious mind do a bulk of the work by temporarily disengaging your logical mind — in other words, Einstein’s process of mental incubation. And, once you have an idea, it’s important to be able to communicate it clearly and accurately to others.

In business, the process of generating and commercializing a good idea has been honed by creative industries for more than a hundred years. This infographic presents nine major steps toward creative problem solving for new product development…

http://on.mash.to/naArbP

Connect the dots

Creative Web Layouts

En publicidad es común hablar de creatividad en varios niveles: conceptos, insights, logos, keyvisuals, displays y otras cuestiones visuales, formas de elegir y aplicar una tecnología, slogans, selling lines y demás aspectos comunicativos… todo esto se espera siempre que sea innovador y creativo en algún sentido.

Incluso en cosas que parecen ya mas ajenas a las areas de arte y/o creativas de una agencia: la elaboración de una estrategia de marketing, la búsqueda de nuevos canales y plataformas de comunicación para el plan de medios de una campaña… en todo esto se puede ser creativo’, correcto?

Dentro del diseño web hay una forma de creatividad muy específica de esta disciplina (y que curiosamente, no a tantos diseñadores les gusta explorar), relacionada con la experiencia del usuario al navegar un sitio (UX). Creo que la mejor manera de referirise -en español- a esta forma de innovar es “creatividad en la forma de resolver una interface”.

Aquí hay una pequeña colección de Speckyboy.com con ejemplos de layouts bastante originales en ese sentido…

Web design does not have to be limited to a typical grid structured layout. It sometimes feels like we are locked in an endless cycle of header, content, sidebar and footer. That is it. It would be great if we could to tear away from convention sometimes and also force ourselves to break some usability rules. Just imagine what we could create.

In today’s post we have for you a selection of sites that do exactly as described above: They break convention and the result is that they have built some amazingly creative layouts which, in most cases anyway, are a little unusual as well…

http://bit.ly/rsc29Q

Creative Web Layouts

Billboard ads

How many billboards did you take a look during your walk or driving in your life? I’m sorry that I can’t remember many of them, but I sincerely believe that it’s not my problem, as the billboard itself should be great enough to attract me…

Australian Childhood Foundation: Invisible. A totally out of the box billboard poster created to dramatize the issue of neglect. You can even see the message ‘Thanks for seeing me’ on the wall, just in case that someone pulled out the plastic model. (Image Source: Ads Of The World)

http://bit.ly/qgk9qB