creativity

Doing is the best way of thinking

The Video Section

You’ve probably seen the video. But this is a good reminder: Doing is the best way of thinking.

Take a look and then take action.

You are at your most creative when you are 5 years old and by the age of 8 your creativity is halved.

By age 44 you enter a state of perpetual seriousness.

Structure determines your life and reality lags behind.

This video is a plea for ‘doing’. Make it work!

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐚 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭

Art & Photography

Something that is in the foreground often gets all the attention.

It could be a famous person who sees all eyes on him or her.
It can be an intriguing object, a wonderful creation.

Or a popular topic, you will see the same content given a new look over and over again.

‘The Extra List’ puts people in the spotlight who are or were in the background. A film extra (an extra or sometimes even described as ‘atmosphere’) is a person who appears in a film or television show, but has no lines.

It is a reminder to not just look at what is directly in front of your eyes, but to widen the lens. In many situations we are unaware of the beauty of details or of something that is extraordinary and wonderful.

Looking is not the same as seeing!

1. 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐕𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐢𝐞𝐫
This film (in Dutch) unravels the discovery of 100,000 negatives by the unknown amateur photographer Vivian Maier. Image credit.

2. 𝐈𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞
Erik Kessels, advertising man, artist and designer, creates fascinating photo books and exhibitions of found amateur photography.

3. 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭
Bartlett, an American who led a secluded life, created a series of lifelike dolls in the mid-20th century. His sculptures were posthumously discovered and admired for their artistry. Image credit

4. 𝐈𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐩𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐧
Talpazan, a Romanian artist and UFO enthusiast, created vivid paintings depicting his encounters with aliens.

5. 𝐉𝐢𝐥𝐥, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝
At first you don’t even notice her, she is one of many. But little by little you start to become aware of the presence of ‘extra’ Jill Goldston.

6. 𝐆𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐎𝐡𝐫
Art potter, he calls himself. After his death, George became one of America’s most celebrated ceramicists. He pushed the standards of traditional ceramics. But during his lifetime his work was considered strange. Image credit

7. 𝐆𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐚 𝐃𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚
Gilda Domenica worked as a seamstress all her life. Without realizing it, she has become an artist. All her works are made with recycled materials: newspapers, plastic plates, food packaging, toys. Image credit

#widenthelens
#see
#noticing
#creativity
#inspiration
#dowhatyoulove

The Operating Model That Is Eating The World

Strategy Talk

Interesting article:

Today’s fastest growing, most profoundly impactful companies are using a completely different operating model. These companies are lean, mean, learning machines. They have an intense bias to action and a tolerance for risk, expressed through frequent experimentation and relentless product iteration. They hack together products and services, test them, and improve them, while their legacy competition edits PowerPoint. They are obsessed with company culture and top tier talent, with an emphasis on employees that can imagine, build, and test their own ideas. They are maniacally focused on customers. They are hypersensitive to friction – in their daily operations and their user experience. They are open, connected, and build with and for their community of users and co-conspirators. They are comfortable with the unknown – business models and customer value are revealed over time. They are driven by a purpose greater than profit; each has its own aspirational “dent in the universe.” We may simply refer to them as the first generation of truly responsive organizations. {….} and

To win in the marketplace, someone has to create and deliver exceptional products, services, and experiences, and planning won’t get us there. the emphasis on People is all about making. “Makers” are people who have skills (as opposed to credentials). They think by doing: experimenting, testing, and learning. Within these high performance cultures management has evolved into something more akin to mentorship. The thinking goes, if workers are capable of making decisions about their priorities and workflow, what’s left for the manager is skills development, knowledge sharing, and helping with roadblocks – the Montessori method gone corporate.

Read the whole article

Technology + Creativity

Strategy Talk

Trends from Cannes Lions 2015. Great overview with all the best campaigns included..

Shyam Negi, India’s first voter

Strategy Talk

Storytelling. Intriguing question is: How far can you push a while making an ad?

Saving your creative soul

Strategy Talk

A well told message from Scott Berkun about how the creative process works. Listen to yourself, independent of others. Keep Going, do it anyway. Because “Making Stuff” is all about sit there and do the work. That’s the challenge. Loved this, made me get back to work with my own ideas about design thinking and strategy.

Conversation start from within

Strategy Talk

A great presentation “the conversation starts from within’ about remarkable communication. And that it has to be built into or around the product. It’s increasingly difficult to compensate average, undifferentiated products through remarkable communication. A new generation of brands built around remarkable new services. In different fields Tom Himpe gives inspiring examples.

Positioning

Strategy Talk


A new interesting presentation by Helge Tenno on positioning.