LifeDesign | Creativity

Creativity is a combinatorial force: it’s our ability to tap into our ‘inner’ pool of resources – knowledge, insight, information, inspiration and all the fragments populating our minds – that we’ve accumulated over the years just by being present and alive and awake to the world and to combine them in extraordinary new ways.

— Maria Popova

Class Resources

Creativity is the ability to harness imaginative ideas and bring them to reality. This can involve seeing the world in a novel way or being open to inspiration, asking good questions or brainstorming solutions in an innovative way. Creativity, like other skills, can be built and improved, and a key starting point is believing that you have the capacity to be a creative person and building your ‘creative confidence’.

How to Build
Creative Confidence

In this TED Talk, David Kelley suggests that creativity is not the domain of only a chosen few, but that we can all tap into our own creativity and build our creative confidence. Telling stories from his design career and his own life, he offers ways to build the confidence to create. (12 minutes)

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

In this humorous and engaging talk, Ken Robinson explores how we might re-conceptualize the educational process, placing creativity on equal standing with other subjects. (18 minutes)

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Can Creativity Be Taught?

August Turak explores insights about creativity in his short piece published in Forbes Magazine.

Some thoughts about creativity.Check out The Gap by Daniel Sax and Ira Glass here:https://vimeo.com/85040589This is Yes Theory's 2nd channel! If you don't su...

What We Get Wrong About Creativity

A beautiful reflection on creativity from Thomas Bragg of Yes Theory

The Science of Creativity

Screen Shot 2021-01-06 at 10.50.52 AM.png — How Creativity Improves Health

Ashley Stahl explores how creativity improves mental health, physical health and brain function.

Read the Article

Your Brain on Art

A National Public Radio Piece that explores how art and creativity impact the brain and body. "Creativity in and of itself is important for remaining healthy, remaining connected to yourself and connected to the world," says Christianne Strang, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Alabama Birmingham

Listen Now

Make it happen

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You Can Draw!

In this TED talk, Graham Shaw walks you through a series of simple steps that gives you confidence that you can draw, even if you never thought you could.

(15 minutes)

Think Creatively

The American Psychological Association suggests these tips to generate more creative ideas more regularly, and to help to build systems that support your creative impulses.

I think it was in the time of spring 2012, when I came across David Shiyang Liu's lovely piece of work about Ira Glass. It was the most inspiring and motivating video I had ever seen in my life. I watched it over and over again, listened to Ira Glass' voice, and told myself, that I am not the only person who is constantly disappointed about the gap between one's taste and one's skills. Later in 2012, I decided to do my own filmed version of Ira's interview - using my own language to tell his message. It took me about a year from concept to upload. I made it for myself and for anybody who is in doubt about his/her creative career. I also think that Ira Glass' message isn't only limited to the creative industry. It can be applied to everyone who starts out in a new environment and is willing to improve. THANK YOU Ira Glass, whom I've never met in real life, but who had such a big influence on my development. Thank you for telling beginners what nobody else does. David Shiyang Liu for the video that inspired me to start the project. You all should watch his awesome kineticTypo-version here: http://vimeo.com/24715531 The people from current.tv who originally recorded the interview with Ira Glass. See the relevant part here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI23U7U2aUY The people from Magic Lantern who gave DSLR videography a new dimension (I chose this project to be a test run with the RAW plugin)! Steven Sasseville for painting the "taste" painting for me. Pedro Sousa for his advice and working his ass off at the "creative work" chalkboard. Wolfgang Kraus for letting me borrow his sound equipment. Kai Löhnert for working out on his birthday in the "fight" take. Wolfgang Hendrik Schnabel for giving me the museum-like atmosphere and his silhouette in the painting takes. Hermiyas Ötztürk for his hairy "good enough" hand. Orange Hive Studio for light equipment and location. Mima and Heinz Sax-Schmitz for the location of the "ambitions" take and finding me the "finish 1 story" typewriter. Joyce Chen (https://vimeo.com/clownmori), Soufiane Mabrouki (http://vimeo.com/user21466567), Damien Tsenkoff (https://www.behance.net/damtsnkff), Nikita Samutin (www.baselinedesign.ru) and Andrej Mikula (http://amara.org/en/profiles/profile/65015/) for taking the time and patience to create Chinese, Arabic, French, Russian and Slovak subtitles and dissolving language barriers to make even more people understand Ira's words. A SPECIAL THANK YOU Solveig Gold for being the most patient and supporting person in my life. She appears in a lot of scenes in this video. Jutta and Uwe Sax for several pieces of equipment and their support.

The Gap

How to be creative and get going again when you hit a block, or you do not feel you are at your best. How to get from where you are to where you want to be.