Tag: creativity tips

play-doh for creative breakthrough

Who knew? Play-doh is a great tool for creative adults!

(not me in the pic, but apparently, i’m not the only one…)

it really is the simple things in life, isn’t it?

i’m working on the design for the main templeasylum.org website, and part of that is developing the logo and icons.

logo development.
the great mystery.
only the great masters can do it.

NOT.

it only seems that way. now, it may be true that not everyone can develop truly great logo designs. but after finding some solid logo creators online who shared their development sketches and their process, i discovered

(once again)

that there’s not as much difference between me and the “great masters” as i thought. that’s not me being arrogant. just learning again that it isn’t so much my native talent or the quality of my ideas that makes the difference between me and those who are doing well in creative business.

it’s about who’s got the play-doh®!
er, just kidding.

success isn’t in the play-doh.
it’s in continued practice, hard work, experience, persistence, networking, and all that jazz.

however i made a fun discovery this week!

sketching with play-doh frees my brain (and hands) from certain limitations.

limitations of marking, erasing, re-drawing.
of 2-dimensionality.
of too-long-traveled ruts of thinking.

you have all the benefits of being able to move existing shapes around (as if on their very own layers in a design program!) to play with overlapping, negative spacial fun, stretching and squooshing (er, resizing, that is). delight!

it works especially well for logo design (as opposed to manga page layout) because good logos are simple. and consist of hopefully-clever visual puns incorporating just one or two letters.

so, hey.
play-doh is cheap.
next time you want to brainstorm logo creation, whip out the little plastic canister of hands-on creative inspiration.

and meanwhile, check out these top-notch logo-related sites:

i was especially inspired by seeing the development sketches behind airey’s personal logo and smashLAB’s sinkit logo.

seeing the sketches (and how similar they are to mine) was what really convinced me that logo greatness might yet be within my reach. ^_^

making it count

time management tips and ways to milk every experience for all it is worth

if i tried to describe my life, and everything on my “to do list”, you’d probably sniff and say, “No wonder you call it an asylum. You’re nuts!”

i’m not appealing for sympathy, though.
not looking for pity.

after all, it seems this is normal, everyday life for most everyone in america. too busy. too stressed. too much to do.

for this reason alone, modern society seriously needs an overhaul. how can we be creative when life gets so cluttered?!? work, family, school, work, shopping, entertainment, friends, work, oh and did i mention work?

>straightens wild hair and takes a deep, calming breath<

yes, well. here’s the tip of the day:

make everything do double (or triple or squidruple) duty.

this is a strategy especially useful for creatives like us.

your average working joe cannot always make an action do double duty: he does his job, and it pays the bills. if he’s particularly blessed, it might pay the bills and provide some personal satisfaction. or pay the bills and provide some friendship and entertainment.

but for a writer, or an artist, everything can feed the creative engine.

learning a new Photoshop trick? use it to make something worthy of your portfolio. take screenshots along the way and then use those to post a tutorial so others can learn it to (also drawing more traffic to your website).

stuck in traffic? work through a knotty plot problem or dream up a good comedic relief character for your webcomic.

waiting in line at the grocery story? memorize visual details of the people around you: outfits, hair styles, body types, facial expressions, body language. use at least one detail in a drawing.

researching a non-fiction article? don’t just write that article on the local SPCA. use some detail of what you learn in a fiction story. spin what you learned so it makes a dozen articles, not one. query a women’s mag, a kid’s mag, an animal rights mag, the regional newspaper, and post something about it online.

reading a book on how to write fiction? don’t just learn from it! write a review. link to it on Amazon.com and get some revenue if anyone ever buys it from your site. stop and try one of the techniques it describes, even if you end up throwing the exercise away later. it’s not a waste — you learned something by doing it.

(yeah, i know.
i’m giving myself away here.
and that was the point of my entry the other day. i’m sharing what i’ve learned, which means you’ve probably seen me doing it if you’ve hung around enough.)

remember, now. whatever you do, make it count.
every time.
until you’ve made double duty second nature.

the I/O balance

creativity is a flow… don’t let it stop flowing and start to stagnate!

i’ve been feeling a little bloated lately.
no, it’s not that time of the month! (ewww, feminine body humor…)
and it’s not all that yummy Thanksgiving turkey, either.

i’m talking about my imagination. my brain. i’ve been on a sort of reading-watching-absorbing binge.

books. movies. websites.

>grab, gulp, munch-munch-munch, swallow, gulp. and again. and again.<

suddenly it was too much. and it led me to today’s tip:

to reach fully productive creativity, you have to balance what you take in with what you pour out.

yes, it’s also about quality. “garbage in, garbage out” is true.

but even if you’re taking in the best possible stuff, you need to be sensitive to your inner cycle of creativity. there will come a moment when you just have to put down the book (or remote) and stop all incoming calls and ideas and visuals and pour some of your own stuff out. because if you don’t, you will likely lose it.

this moment doesn’t always feel the same. but i’ve learned to recognize and honor it whenever (and however) it appears.

  • sometimes it’s an urgent desire to sit and write.
  • sometimes it’s such a clear mental image that i know it’s important to capture it.
  • sometimes it’s a holy discontent, an inexplicable restlessness.

learn to recognize how it shows up for you.

and when that moment comes–oh!
when it comes, put everything else on hold.
freeze the world!
and just create. write, write, draw, draw, whatever it is, don’t stop until you’ve poured out everything that’s inside you.

even if it takes days.
heh-heh.

so if i disappear for a few days (or weeks), you’ll know what happened to me.

don’t send in the cavalry.
just smile, and nod knowingly.

it’s a creativity explosion.
and i’m at ground zero.