Category:Creativity Techniques This A to Z of Creativity and Innovation Techniques, provides an introduction to a range of tools and techniques for both idea generation (Creativity) and converting those ideas into reality (Innovation). Like most tools these techniques all have their good and bad points. I like to think of these creativity and innovation techniques as tools in a toolbox in much the same way as my toolbox at home for DIY. It has a saw, spanner, hammer, knife and all sorts of other things in it, they are all very useful, but you have to pick the right tool (creativity / Innovation technique) for each job. This site will try and provide a little guidance along with each tool to let you know whether it's best used for cutting paper or putting in nails. For the future, the aim is to also have sub-categories which will identify Techniques for; Problem Definition - including problem analysis, redifinition, and all aspects associated with defining the problem clearly. Subcategories
Envelopes Making envelopes from magazines was one of my favorite crafts as a kid… right up there with friendship bracelets and bedazling (don’t judge). So today when I came across a stack of magazines I knew exactly what I needed to do with them. I feel like I just rediscovered an old favorite song (the one that you used to play over and over and over again and then promptly forgot about for about 6 years. Cue the nostalgia!) Heads up on the addicting nature of this one. What you need: - Envelope (Pick any size you like–just make sure it fits within a single page of your selected magazine. 1. If you’re looking for more magazine craftiness, head over to How About Orange and learn how to make origami bows! Like this: Like Loading...
6 Powerful Tools for Generating Ideas Have you ever experienced having no idea come to your mind when you need them? Such moments can be frustrating, especially if you have spent quite a lot of time to think and still get nothing. In such situations, getting external inputs to stimulate your mind is a good solution. They can break down your idea brick walls and make your creative juice flow again. Of course, not all kinds of external inputs are useful. There are tools that can help you get these diverse inputs and I will describe six such tools. Create connection between an input you get and the problem at hand. Without further ado, here are six tools you can use to break down your idea brick walls and generate ideas: 1. This is the only offline tool in this list. 2. StumbleUpon allows you to get random pages whenever you press the Stumble button in the toolbar. 3. TDBSpecialProjects Idea Generator is a three wheel tool that gives you random three-word phrases. 4. Another good inputs to feed your mind with are quotes. 5. 6.
Flowers Welcome to flower week – five days of simple and delightful flower projects. I could probably do three weeks of flowers because there are so many different ways to create them, but I’ve limited it to five of my current favorites. Before we get started, let me make a few disclaimers: 1. 2. 3. Okay, so let’s begin. Here’s what you’ll need: :: paper {either cover or text weight} :: florist wire :: scissors, pencil, glue gun STEP ONE: cut irregular circle This circle is approximately 8 inches, but you can do any size you wish. STEP TWO: cut spiral Start at the outside edge and cut in a spiral fashion to the center. I like a sort of bumpy shape so that the petals end up a bit irregular If you aren’t so sure about your cutting skills, feel free to draw your spiral before cutting. To add a little interest to my bouquet, I used a variety of yellow scrapbook papers {my favorite is that yellow dot} STEP THREE: roll your blossom start at the outside edge and coil tightly STEP FOUR: release coil
Steal Like an Artist: Austin Kleon on Combinatorial Creativity by Maria Popova The genealogy of ideas, why everything is a remix, or what T.S. Eliot can teach us about creativity. UPDATE: Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist synthesizes his ideas on creativity and is absolutely fantastic. Austin Kleon is positively one of the most interesting people on the Internet. In this excellent talk from The Economist‘s Human Potential Summit, titled Steal Like an Artist, Kleon makes an articulate and compelling case for combinatorial creativity and the role of remix in the idea economy. Kleon, who has clearly seen Kirby Ferguson’s excellent Everything is a Remix, echoes the central premise of my own recent talk on networked knowledge and combinatorial creativity: Nothing is completely original. Amen. And even more in the vein of the Brain Pickings ethos, reminiscent of this favorite quote by iconic designer Paula Scher: We can pick our teachers and we can pick our friends and we can pick the books we read and the music we listen to and the movies we see, etcetera.
A Bow In gift wrap emergencies when you've got the present but need some wrapping, here's an idea for turning a magazine page into a bow. There may be better ways to stick this thing together, but I used what I had on hand: staples and adhesive glue dots. Double stick tape or brads should work, too. Cut a magazine page lengthwise into 9 strips, 3/4" wide. Leave 3 of the strips full length. If you're using a magazine that's 10 1/2" tall, you'll end up with: 3 strips, 10 1/2" x 3/4" 3 strips, 9 1/2" x 3/4" 2 strips, 8 1/2" x 3/4" 1 strip, 3 1/2" x 3/4" Twist each strip to form a loop at both ends and staple it in the center. Layer the three longest pieces on top of each other, spacing them evenly and securing each with a glue dot. Use other papers, like a map of your city.
How To Find Startup Ideas – Wesley Tansey I recently have met a number of people who expressed how badly they wanted to do a startup but said they lacked any good ideas. I know that startup ideas are worthless, especially since I have lived through the dozens of iterations involved, first with EffectCheck and now with Curvio. Nevertheless, you need to start somewhere and that means you need an idea that sufficiently captivates you. Now, I could simply give these people a list of startup ideas, but for an idea to really stick in your mind enough that you’ll want to start a company around it, you need to come up with it yourself. I’ve come up with a brief collection of strategies that you can use to generate new ideas for startups: Repurpose Take a service or approach applied to one market, and apply it to another.Examples: Chill (Turntable.fm), Yammer (social networks for businesses) Digitize Take content or functionality that exists only in a legacy form and put it online or in an app.Examples: Dr. Automate Unify Componentize Connect
Patterns that I have developed | Denzer Family Art My step outs are sometimes crazy, I usually find myself using a new pattern in a zentangle and then try to figure out how someone else could do the same. My mind isn’t always logical but this is what happens. I will share all the patterns I have given steps to in this post. I apologize for some of the photo quality in my earlier postings. A Bed of Roses Birds of a Feather Lady Bug Border Pinwheel Flower Clover Leaf Star Fan-Leaf Cathedral Wedding Chain Reaction Cherry and Leaf Star Burst Bel Fiore Easter Lily Curly Border Sego Lily Sea Shell Bracelet Tuxedo
Thinkertoys’ 10 Tips to Become an Idea Person In an age where new ideas quickly becomes commodity, creativity is a must. It is creativity that continuously give us new ideas to keep us ahead in the competition. Regarding this, I recently found an interesting book: Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko. This book contains a lot of actionable ideas on how to become an idea person and get our creative juice flow. In chapter 2 of the book, Michalko gives us 10 tips to become an idea person which I find very useful and thought-provoking. Here are the summarized explanation of the 10 tips: 1. Set yourself an idea quota for a challenge you are working on, such as five new ideas every day for a week. 2. Fighter pilots say, “I’ve gone tone” when their radar locks onto a target. 3. Deliberately program changes into your daily life. For example: take a different route to work, change your working hours, make new friends, and read fiction if you normally read non-fiction. 4. Creative thinkers read to feed their minds new information and ideas. 5. 6.
Diva's Challenge #184 2 2014 In The Quest For New Ideas, Can The Internet Replace Random Real-Life Discovery? What does Renaissance art have in common with a pencil? If you believe in knowledge through serendipitous discovery, then quite a lot. This week I was looking for a book on Renaissance art in the library. While walking through the stacks, Henry Petroski’s The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance, a book about the origins of the pencil, caught my eye. This was just the book to help with another project I am working on, one associated with business-related technology artifacts. What luck! Rewind one week. As more and more book sales move online, brick and mortar bookstores are stocking only the most popular titles, reducing our chance of stumbling across that random, fascinating book that you never would have looked for. And it’s not just me. So if the likelihood of chance encounters through paper decreases, where else can these serendipitous encounters occur? Online Serendipity At first glance, the possibility of encountering random information online seems small. What’s Next?
Creative Problem Solving with SCAMPER SCAMPER is a technique you can use to spark your creativity and help you overcome any challenge you may be facing. In essence, SCAMPER is a general-purpose checklist with idea-spurring questions — which is both easy to use and surprisingly powerful. It was created by Bob Eberle in the early 70s, and it definitely stood the test of time. In this posting, I present a complete SCAMPER primer, along with two free creativity-boosting resources: a downloadable reference mind map and an online tool that generates random questions to get you out of a rut whenever you need. SCAMPER Primer SCAMPER is based on the notion that everything new is a modification of something that already exists. S = SubstituteC = CombineA = AdaptM = MagnifyP = Put to Other UsesE = Eliminate (or Minify)R = Rearrange (or Reverse) To use the SCAMPER technique, first state the problem you’d like to solve or the idea you’d like to develop. Consider, for instance, the problem "How can I increase sales in my business?" Combine
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