The State Of Smarter Creativity

Everything is media and everyone has something to say.

That is why it’s not enough to be creative, you have to be smart.

New technologies are changing the way we interact with the world. And anyone that wants to can create anything they want. We are at the threshold of creative expression being redefined, exploding. Which is partly why I started this blog last fall. 

Smarter creativity is about having an idea, being able to best understand it in context, developing a strategy for its execution, and producing it in a manner that enhances the idea itself. Smarter Creativity (the blog) is about doing something I’ve always done with my collaborators, share useful and interesting information that encourages self-learning and better execution of creative thought.

Smarter Creativity (the blog) is also a hands-on experiment. After many years producing work, from beginning to end, for agencies and as a consultant it became important to me to experience directly what it is like to build an online presence. This is an experiment about content, what to share, and developing a consistent vision. It is also experimenting, trial and error, with the tools to better integrate this blog with social media services. It is about developing a functional workflow of operations dealing with the tribulations of ever changing situations, like every time Facebook or Twitter perform updates.

Since the beginning of this year we’ve reached what felt like a good process. Using the main blog as a hub to share in-depth ideas and Posterous, Delicious, Twitter and Facebook to share day-to-day finds, examples, tips and clever executions of creative work.

But something surprising has happened. The majority of interactions and collaborations are not taking place on the main blog. Because of the immediacy of social media the conversation, the comments, the reactions, are happening on the services that were meant to supplement the main blog. Ultimately if you subscribed to Smarter Creativity through the main blog you were missing a great deal of content and collaboration.

So, time to rectify and adjust the workflow process. Starting today we will share all of the content via the main blog and all the supplementary services. This way you can reach the content you want, where is most convenient for you. This will also facilitate further conversation.

And since you probably missed some of the content here are the top items so far from the various services connected to the blog. 


Top Blog Posts
The Futures of Entertainment, Narrative & Transmedia
Storytelling (A TED Remix)
In Theory Frequently Means Inaction
In 15 Minutes Ira Glass Will Make You A Better Storyteller
The Enlightening Bridge Between Art And Work
The Resume Remixed
The Meaning of Work (A TED Remix)


Top Items on Posterous
Logorama - The Oscar winner for animated short.
A day in the life of NYC in miniature
Stndrd_@
Books in the age of the iPad by Craig Mod
Dance (A TED Remix)
Leonardo Da Vinci’s Resume 
The LXD at the Oscars
This American Life launches iPhone app
A brief history of data storage
The last advertising agency on Earth
Why creativity isn’t enough


Most Retweeted
• Storytelling (A TED Remix) - Everything is a brand. Everything is media. And all that anyone ever rememb… http://ow.ly/167zVZ 
• And speaking of Gladwell, you can find links to all the articles compiled in his new book “What the Dog Saw” for free here:http://ow.ly/EG39
• The Big Picture does it again, showing amazing images of Earth Hour 2010, before and after shots to great effect. http://ow.ly/1spYO 
• The Requisite End-Of-Year Lists Continued http://ow.ly/16fhQe
• São Paulo, A city stripped of advertising by law. No Posters. No billboards. No ads on buses. No ads on trains. Images: http://ow.ly/Mxa6
• Martin Scorsese Tribute 2010 Golden Globes Awards - via youtube.comA few seconds after the one minute mark t… http://ow.ly/16mVkV
• The Enlightening Bridge Between Art And Work - Alain de Botton seeks a connection between our art and our wor… http://ow.ly/16lvnM
• Have you met @AlaindeBotton? - Alain de Botton is a philosopher with a decidedly 21st century edge. He i… http://ow.ly/1681O4
• Tom Ford on marketing, advertising and branding. Revealing point of view. http://ow.ly/L2zi 
• The Futures of Entertainment, Narrative & Transmedia http://ow.ly/169pWk 


Top Items on Facebook
• iPad Magazine Art Direction 
• Drama Queen
• ”When was the last time you backed up your files?”
• Ten rules for writing fiction 
• The T-Shirt War 
• “The owner’s manual to your career is now free. Radical Careering by @SallyHogshead: http://bit.ly/bvJ7z7”
• “Ten Essential Time Management Tips. http://ow.ly/Tk3I”
• “‘Best Practices’ are guidelines. Do not use ‘best practices’ as an excuse not to innovate.”
• “Top 10 Mind Hacks for Making Your Resolutions Stick. http://ow.ly/SzOc- Be specific and learn to distract yourself from temptation.”


Top Links on Delicious
 Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds
Compfight | A Flickr™ Search Tool
Creative Commons
HOW TO GUIDE: 60+ Great How To Sites and Resources
The Complete Guide to Google Wave: How to Use Google Wave
|| Dummy Text Generator | Lorem ipsum for webdesigners ||
freesound :: home page
Food Timeline: food history & historic recipes
LIFE photo archive hosted by Google
A List Apart: A List Apart
Bartleby Library: Great Books Online
TED
Ads of the World: Creative Advertising Archive & Community | Your Daily Dose of Creativity from Around the World


Best Selling Recommendations
[Full disclosure: Recommended items purchased via Amazon.com help support this blog.]
•  Gotan Project and their updated tango sounds in a double live cd. Great music to listen to while getting things done.http://bit.ly/4AcFV3
• The Writer’s Tale - An engaging look at a year in the making of Doctor Who. Must read for anyone into tv production.http://bit.ly/3FbDeb
• Alain de Botton’s The Pleasures & Sorrows of Work is a close look at work from a timely philosophical point of view.http://bit.ly/3oiGXU
• Jill Taylor’s My Stroke of Insight recounts a stroke & recovery. It is an inspiring exploration of human consciousness.http://bit.ly/ttPE
• Henry Jenkins, founder of MIT’s comparative media studies program, provides deep insight into “Convergence Culture.”http://bit.ly/3l2qKi
• The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Ken Robinson will inspire you to indeed find your passion.http://bit.ly/3p64E9
• In The Emperor of Scent Chandler Burr renders the complex science of fragrances into compelling poetry.http://bit.ly/4fZ8bT
• The obsessive artistry of Wes Anderson’s filmmaking lushly documented by @pentagramdesign hard cover:http://bit.ly/6NOSXC
• Luke Sullivan is the Obi Wan of advertising. “Hey Whipple, Squeeze This ” is *the* guide to creating great ads. Must read. http://ow.ly/GTts
• The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by choreographer Twyla Tharp is part thesis on creativity, part memoir. http://ow.ly/JowS 

The New Newsstand Revisited

Great to see the translation of the concept introduced at the end of last year into a working publication. The designation of a magazine+ is a good way to maintain the connection with the printed publication. There are also a couple of tips to consider when designing for the iPad. It really does look like the magazine experience enhanced, because they focused on creating new metaphors as opposed to just translating the linear format of a magazine.

Life in HD

Nature wastes no steps, wastes no resources. Nature adapts, improvises and finds the elegant solution. About a decade ago the BBC and Discovery Channel assembled a production team to document the hidden secrets of nature using the best of human ingenuity and the best technology available. After five years of grueling work the result was the eleven-part series Planet Earth, a must see for anyone working in a creative field.

Must see, not just for what it showed but how it was achieved. A filmmaker spent two weeks in the wilderness quietly waiting to capture this:



The same team is now back with Life, a ten-part series that explores the challenges of life on planet Earth. Life premieres (in the U.S.) on the Discovery Channel, Sunday, March 21, 8pm. Check your local listings and try to catch the series. It will surely inspire.



It is easy to think that we humans rule the animal kingdom. But take a look at these videos and see how animals survive with extraordinary imagination and “bizarre innovations.”





Click here to see the Vogelkop Bowerbird (with it’s “very appreciative eye for color”.)

Take a behind the scenes look:




From the colors of the rainbow, to the tides of the ocean, the impossibility of a hummingbird in flight, flying fish, the golden mean, fractals, and many other instances, life and nature prove to have the smartest creativity.


Related:
Life: web, wiki, twitter
Planet Earth: web, wiki

 

On Deadlines

Unexpectedly the origins of the word deadline appear in a book I am reading. The book mentions Benson John Lossing’s “History of the Civil War” (1868) and describes the birth of the word. “Deadline” is said to have appeared for the first time during the Civil War when a general in charge of a military prison, having a shortage of supplies and therefore no fence, drew a line around the perimeter of the prison. If any prisoner crossed the line and attempted to escape soldiers were authorized to shoot to kill. 

“Seventeen feet from the inner stockade was the ‘dead-line’, over which no man could pass and live.”

The birth of the word as serious, intense and stressful as the feelings we experience when approaching our version of a deadline. 

And a deadline is something else too. 

Despite the troubling circumstances the dead-line was a clever solution to what was a real problem for that general. 

Next time you find yourself starring at deadlines feeling like they are the enemy remember that deadlines are part of the solution to the problem you are trying to solve. 

Questions

What are you looking forward to?

What has surprised you?

What have you learned today?

Do you believe in magic?

Can you perform magic?

What are you faithful to?

What are you so afraid of that inaction is the better choice?

What is the last piece of music that made you cry?

In what ways are standards getting in the way of your creativity?

How do you define creativity?

Have you ever danced?

When was the last time you went to a museum?

What frightened you today?

What are your favorite mistakes?

Do you welcome the elephants in the room?

Are you the smartest person in the room?

What can’t you live without?

Do you mostly answer questions or ask questions?

Can you finish it quickly?

Who controls your creative work?

Why are manhole covers round?

Have you smiled today? 

What made you smile?

What do you pay attention to?

When was the last time you ate a home-cooked meal?

When was the last time you engaged in any kind of physical activity?

Can you tell a good story?

Has it been done before?

Do you like change?

What has inspired extreme anger in you?

In what areas of your life are you organized and meticulous?

What do you walk away from?

Are you good with math?

What do you deserve?

What do you want?

Have you experienced something new lately?

Can you learn on your own?

Who do you trust?

Have you ever taken yourself to a restaurant for a nice meal, alone?

Do you only know people in your industry?

Could you go a day without technology? A week? A month? A year?

What would make you give up technology?

Do ideas come easily, or do you have to wrestle with them?

What’s your best failure?

Are you interesting?

Are you interested?

In five years you are on the cover of Time and Newsweek (in whichever format they take then), what’s the headline?

How did you do it?

Why did you do it?

Are you answering the right questions?