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