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Check out this inspiring article from Sharon Fisher, at HOW Design, on how to set the stage for an innovative thinking and creative work environment. Below is an excerpt of ideas from the post, happy brainstorming!
“1. Innovation isn’t just for creative types. Involve everyone — even outsiders. We frequently ask the UPS man to stop in and share a quick idea. Invite customers, too.
2. John Cleese, of Monty Python fame, once gave this advice: “If you spot any colleagues engaging in unfamiliar activity such as wondering out loud or gazing thoughtfully into space, poke them with a sharp stick and accuse them of wasting time.” Enough said.
3. Hang a giant piece of paper on your office door; at the top, write a question or issue that you need help with. Invite everyone to come by at their leisure to share thoughts and ideas.
4. Show a stand-up comedy video before every creative session. Laughter stimulates great thinking.
5. Keep magazines unrelated to your business in the office. Encourage your team to cut out pictures that relate to a project you’re working on and make a collage.
6. “The amount a person uses his imagination is inversely proportional to the amount of punishment he will receive for using it.” This anonymous quote says it all. Allow your team to get comfortable taking risks and support them for doing so. From small things like sharing personal anecdotes and wearing goofy hats, to physical challenges like trust falls and walking high ropes, seek activities that get people out of their comfort zones.
7. Hang an “If Only” board. Let people jot ideas, then use them to spark your imagination during the next creative session.
8. Have everyone choose a different hat, then participate in the creative session as if they were that person.
9. Trade environments. Going somewhere else to generate ideas—the park, a toy store or even someone else’s conference room—will stimulate fresh thinking.
10. Encourage people to do something with their hands during the creative process. While playing with toys and doodling have been criticized as being “too simplistic,” there’s scientific evidence that 97% of the nerves in our hands are connected directly to our brains. Busy hands stimulate brain cells.”
Who doesn’t LOVE a picture book now and then?! If your interested in organizing your web discoveries to help generate inspiration – check out Wookmark! It’s a great place to collect what visually inspires you while your traveling across the world wide web! Happy Collecting.
Check out this interesting write up from eMarketer, on the effects of the economy has on online couponing, and how consumers are responding to digital marketing efforts. Are the days of clipping through the Sunday circular a thing of the past?
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008414
Need an afternoon pick-me-up? Check out The Cool Hunter for a little daily inspiration. I must say, I love visiting this site – it offers a unique global collection of all things creative! It truly is a “hub for what’s cool, thoughtful, innovative and original.”
And the best part is – you can subscribe for free!
Happy clicking!
As designers, we often think that our inspirations are unique. However, as this video proves, even we are susceptible to effective advertising. Designers can sometimes be hyper-sensitive to their surroundings, always looking for visual information they can use. But as we see in Derren Brown‘s experiment, simply being in a space or experiencing a product can subliminally influence us in the same way we try to to visually influence consumers. Weird.
Stumbled upon this latest find today, thought I’d share this fascinating new book…
Influence and Inspiration, From the Original Trailblazers to the New Groundbreakers
“The immense body of work produced by graphic designers around the world is astoundingly varied, rich and widely celebrated. Yet in publications, conferences and other public realms, women designers tend to be outnumbered by their male counterparts whose appearances, work and achievements are constantly in the spotlight. Luckily, it’s a reversing trend. While this book does not attempt to relieve the imbalance, it does bring full attention to the wonderful work, careers and contributions of women designers, writers, teachers and entrepreneurs around the world.”
For more, you can visit www.underconsideration.com/womenofdesign, here you can see a list of the women included in this book, and even view spreads inside the book.
Some Early Opinions
This book about women in design turns out to be a great book about design, period, except with fresher, more surprising work, and less bombastic interviews. Highly recommended to 100% of the population.
— Michael Bierut, Partner, Pentagram
This modern matriarchy has given birth to practically every important visual and conceptual form of design expression. I remain humbled and indebted to these many courageous visionaries.
— Rick Valicenti, Designer & Founder, Thirst
While recently visiting www.howdesign.com, I stumbled across an interesting post, that I thought was worth commenting on and sharing.
The Art Directors Club & Idealist, have created a partnership to bring like-minded creatives & causes together for social change. The two have teamed up to create www.DesignismConnects.org. This new site helps bring together & connect nonprofit organizations in need of advertising/creative services, with advertising/creative professionals who provide those services. On this site, a creative can narrow their search to the causes they believe in, with the skills they offer to find a partnership they would be interested in pursuing.
Both individual and organization can post profiles listing their needs or services. From national to global organizations to choose from, and projects ranging from printed collateral to a TV PSA, I urge fellow creatives to check out www.DesignismConnects.org if your looking for a cause to support! And the same goes for all you nonprofits out there in need of pro-bono talent, sign up now to post your cause projects! What better time to start with the new year approaching and the need to fill a new year’s resolution draws near!
The Creative Team at Omni work on many projects, and sometimes it’s tough to stay creative. However, we all use various techniques to stay on top of our game. One thing that we all use is music. There is a great article on How Magazine’s website about the benefits of music in the creative environment.?
The article highlights a few different companies that use music to their advantage and provides great insight into how music influences them, like this quote from John Besemer of Planet Design Co. in Madison, WI:
“If you’re working on a project that’s elegant and beautiful, you might listen to something like jazz, something that puts you in that mood,…But if you’re designing an in-your-face project, you want music that gets you there. After all, you wouldn’t go to the gym and want to work out to a lullaby, right? Music shapes the message.”
Another way to keep things fun is to take a few minutes each day to find an interesting/awesome video on YouTube and share it with everyone. This is one of my favorites:
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Attn at you social media gurus, ninja’s & wizzards, check it; Adweek’s Erin Griffith’s top Social Media Trends for 2012
December 15, 2011 in Client Services, Marketing, Social Media by Jessie at Omni | No comments
Below is a link to video, where Erin shares her thoughts on what’s to come!
Erin Griffith\’s top four social media trends to watch in 2012
http://www.adweek.com/video/technology/business-social-christmas-presentiments-137116?auto
While your at it, feel free to tweet, post or comment at us with your predictions!
Happy Holidays to you and yours! Cheers!