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In News

How Being Uncomfortable Can Be Your Best Creative Weapon

December 3, 2018 No Comments

Would it shock you if I told you that we’re ignoring our greatest creative resource every single day–even stifling it? What would you think if I told you that creative resource had nothing to do with what you do every day of your life?

For the sake of this article, let’s define creativity as the ability to solve problems in an unexpected or surprising way. Many of us may be in careers that are perceived as “creative”: designers, developers, writers, or entrepreneurs. But we don’t force ourselves regularly to solve problems that are clearly out of our areas of expertise. That’s where we’re squandering our greatest creative resource. With routine, people tend to get stuck in patterned forms of thought. By forcing our minds out of our comfort zones, we can become a part of a more intellectually diverse crowd that helps us continue to learn and challenge our own assumptions.Creativity Creativity Creativity Creativity Creativity

This concept has been called a lot of things, but one of my favorites is “the curse of knowledge.” As Chip and Dan Heath wrote, when we attempt to problem-solve within our own boundaries of expertise, even within our own companies, we assume others know what we do. Nothing is more dangerous. We become incapable of communicating clearly to others, and end up with an idea that goes nowhere.

So, how do we get out of our own way? By challenging ourselves to feel uncomfortable regularly, to solve problems we never would in our day jobs, or to take on projects where we really have no idea what we’re doing. In other words, make that uncomfortable feeling your new hobby. Sounds a little crazy, but other people and companies have experimented with this with great success.Creativity Creativity Creativity Creativity Creativity

For example, our team worked with Jonathon Parker, an MD/PhD student, on a design project for audio systems. He got a chance to collaborate with a group of mechanical engineers, designers, and artists (individuals he would have never been able to work with in the medical field) on a short-term idea-generation project. Jonathon humbly told us that he learned so much from the group, but he also provided key input on how the brain responded to audio signals–information they wouldn’t have thought of without his expertise. In this particular project, “wisdom of crowds” took on a whole new meaning.

Parker is a modern-day Renaissance Man. It’s easier than most of us think to become Renaissance Men and Women, even if the capacity to do out-of-bounds things doesn’t exist within our day jobs. It seems as if once every few months I see a new workout program that promises results within 30, 15, even 5 minutes of exercise. While I can’t attest to how effective these programs are for the body, the brain can be exercised in similar increments to challenge patterned forms of thought.

The web has an incredible capacity to connect all different kinds of creative people to form communities of diverse thinkers. As people who desire a greater connection with creativity, we can seek out these communities to do things we’d never expect to do–design the next package for a consumer good, write a jingle for a national ad campaign, or even re-sequence protein enzymes.

On the other end, as companies seeking out sources of creativity, we no longer have to resort to expensive focus groups and studies to test out concepts, or even come up with those concepts in the first place. If the web truly becomes a destination for all sorts of Renaissance Thinkers to exercise their creativity, there’s an amazing untapped creative resource just waiting to be challenged.Creativity Creativity Creativity Creativity Creativity

So, welcome to the 21st Century Renaissance Community, where your grandmother is learning to code and your colleague in accounting is inspiring the next beverage flavor. What are you doing to make yourself feel uncomfortable today?

Sourced from jemebuyan.com

In News

What’s all the fuss about FOMO?

November 6, 2018 No Comments

By Sophie Katsali

When was the last time you saw a queue outside of what you would call a fairly ‘ordinary’ restaurant? Or an ‘exclusive’ concert? Perhaps a pop-up that gives away gluten-free bread outside of a tube station? Quite recently, I suppose.

People love queues, don’t they? That uncomfortable feeling of standing on your feet for ages while thoroughly investigating someone’s back just to get access to something…special. Well, not really. This is not something people particularly enjoying doing. But the fear of missing out (or ‘FOMO’) is so frantically embedded in our DNA that it is a far greater ‘discomfort’ for us to miss out than to waste some time in a queue.

How does this tie into social media marketing? Social media is nothing more than our world under a microscope. Sometimes marketers are too close to their own profession and don’t quite remember that it is as simple as that. They treat “social media users” as a different group of people altogether. This doesn’t particularly help since they sometimes fail to tap into human psychology 101.

Take your average Facebook ad. How often do you see a call to action that truly lures you in? In 2018, 69.95% of ads have included a CTA – a great jump from 2016’s 51.54% – but what do the rest of the ads (the 30.05%) include? They probably have some nice imagery. However, even if a picture is worth a thousand words, words (or in our world, “copy”) can elevate your ad to drive conversions. How? Enter FOMO.

The power of FOMO

How do you incorporate FOMO in your marketing efforts? Essentially, it’s about coming up with a “FOMO” proposition around your brand/product/service that’s too strong to pass.

There is a reason why ‘limited offers’ work. It’s all about framing what you offer in a timeframe. AdEspresso recently conducted a Facebook ad experiment to test three of the most popular CTAs; “Sign Up”, “Download Now” and “Learn More”. The “Download Now” CTA outperformed the other two by more than 40% in terms of cost per lead. Time-sensitive words like “now” and “today” work successfully because of the urgency they call out. You also want to make sure you call out your customer. You want to make it personal. According to Hubspot, personalised CTAs perform 202% better than basic CTAs. Words like “you”, “your”, “yours” make your copy instantly more approachable. All of a sudden, the ad is about them! They stop and listen.

What are people going to miss if they don’t join/download/buy/sign up to what you offer? This is a question that you can only answer after going deep into your social data and understanding who your audience is and where it lives on social. It could be a case where you discover that your main audience is more outgoing and sociable than the average social group. This comes with the assumption that they probably have a lot of friends they care about (and subsequently, care about their opinions) so you make it about their friends. You run a Facebook ad that is targeting people whose friends have joined YOUR Page and you go in with the hard sell: “Your friend is already part of [enter brand/product/service here]. Isn’t it time for you to join today?” This is one way to take advantage of our hardwired urge to not miss out on anything.

Common-sense marketing tells us we need to exaggerate about whatever we are selling. As a result, we focus too much on the specifications of the end-product and how well our brand compares to others. We make the sale about us. However, if you change the narrative and flip the mirror, a more persuasive argument is helping people see that if they don’t join you they will miss out on an opportunity that hasn’t been presented to them before.

By Sophie Katsali

Sophie Katsali is lead strategist at Wilderness

Sourced from The Drum

In News

‘Don’t be afraid to make mistakes’: 11 ways to be more creative

September 12, 2018 No Comments

By Anne-Celine Jaeger

Where do great ideas come from? We asked artists, designers and writers, including Marina Abramović, Richard Quinn and Ben Okri, what gets their minds whirring

Judith Kerr, children’s author and illustrator

I’m not sure I’d call it creativity. It feels like getting on with the job. It feels like something you’ve got in your head that should be drawn. Walking often helps me to think of things or solve problems I’m stuck with, but mostly it’s just going up into that room and sitting down and then comes the “Now what?”

Practically all my ideas are autobiographical. The Tiger Who Came To Tea came about when I was trying to entertain my daughter with a bedtime story. Mog, the first of that series, was just about our cat. I’d never had a cat and always wanted one, and it was just about all the things he did, which to me were such a surprise. The Crocodile Under The Bed came about because my children used to think there might be something under the bed. Ideas come in bits and pieces.

Judith Kerr’s new book, Mummy Time, is published on 20 September.

Kengo Kuma, architect, V&A, Dundee

My creative sparks come at the moment when a meeting is over and everything has been decided and agreed on. Of course, during the meeting – typically, with clients and staff members – we brainstorm and discuss a lot, rapidly and with incentive. Even so, there are times right afterwards that I realise I was wrong and made bad decisions. Then I immediately call the people who were present and tell them I’ve changed my mind, with sincere apologies.

I don’t behave like a God-like architect. Being able to say sorry is key to being a designer, and can be a source of inspiration.

The V&A, Dundee, Scotland’s first design museum, opens on 15 September, vam.ac.uk/dundee.

Tom Dixon, designer

It’s putting yourself into unfamiliar worlds that does it, looking at something from a naive perspective. I’m lucky enough to travel a lot. I go to the local museums and like being exposed to the worlds of sculpture or cooking, or music – anything that is not my core area of design.

Marina Abramović, artist

I am always coming back to certain lessons that I have learned over the course of my career:

Lesson 2: More and more of less and less.

Lesson 3: “What you’re doing is not important, what is important is the state of mind in which you are doing it.” (Constantin BrâncuȘi)

Lesson 4: Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

Person painting lines of colour — Illustration: Nishant Choksi

Lauren Child, children’s author and illustrator

There is something about movement that is very good for allowing my brain to go into free flow. I’m quite good at having thoughts when I’m driving or cycling or walking. I think you go into this place when you do something very physical and your brain starts to put together interesting thoughts. I also get this when doing something mechanical with my work, like collage. The act of cutting out pieces of paper, the intricacy and the concentration combined, allows my brain to pick up on other thoughts.

I often find myself staring out of the window. I think we assume that’s dead time, or an act of procrastination, when actually that time of just staring, when your brain goes into a slightly bored state, is quite important. In it, we start to notice things and put them together.

Richard Quinn, fashion designer

I like to try to find something that’s not on the internet. I go around lots of old bookshops. There are amazing charity shops in Walthamstow, east London that sell rare, limited editions. I like finding odd, obscure objects, so odd that when you type their name into the internet nothing comes up.

The collection I currently have in shops was inspired by a really obscure book about upholstery and fabrics from the 60s that featured bold florals, sort of Americana: camper-van florals. More recently, a picture of an artist covered in oil got me thinking about using an oil effect on shoes and bags. I like collecting a physical thing that you can touch, and turning it into something new.

Camille Walala, artist

Creativity is good in the morning. I take one hour for myself to just play around without any purpose or design in mind. I always carry a sketchbook with me, a pencil, some tape, a file with different-coloured paper, and things to collage with. Most of my work is based around graphic elements and colours, and I fill my sketchbooks with patterns and designs that I often refer back to. I love going for a coffee in that hour: I’ll spread out on the table, usually outside; or it might be when I’m travelling, when there is more freedom to be playful.

Tamara Rojo, artistic director, English National Ballet

I love going to see other art forms, especially theatre, and I’m an obsessive reader, not just of books but everything – magazines, newspapers, Twitter. I also love listening to the radio. My mind has a strange habit of remembering all kinds of information that often seems completely pointless, yet sometimes it all comes together to form this clear concept from beginning to end; and then it becomes a story that I feel has to be told. After that, all I have to do is convince everyone else to help me make it real. That’s usually the hardest part.

Ben Okri, author

I walk long distances. I walk to go through zones of the mind. I become empty and aware and I listen. I never know what I am listening for and then it comes, sometimes indirectly, sometimes as a stirring.

Creativity is our normal and fundamental way of being. It is everything else – our education, our social conditioning, our cultural mores, our upbringing – that imprisons our creativity. If you don’t believe me, watch a child at play. To them all things are possible because they have not learned that some things are impossible. We don’t need to learn to be creative. We need to unlearn not being creative.

Faye Toogood, designer

Wolfgang Tillmans, photographer

I find that the best ideas well up from the subconscious and knock on my “conscious” door. When I hear one knock for the third time, I know I must act. It happened like this with my series of photographs, Concorde. At the time it was in no way obvious that spending weeks around Heathrow and south London, looking out for the Concorde plane, would result in a strong work. But in the previous two years, the idea to do just that had popped into my mind on three or more occasions, without any outside cue. Listening to those ideas is important – to hear the faint voice of what you’re genuinely interested in, and filter out the loud noise of desire and vanity.

• Commenting on this piece? If you would like your comment to be considered for inclusion on Weekend magazine’s letters page in print, please email [email protected], including your name and address (not for publication).

Feature Image Credit: ‘Play around without any purpose or design in mind.’ Illustration: Nishant Choksi

By Anne-Celine Jaeger

Sourced from The Guardian

In News

Amazon Music animates Ariana Grande, Kendrick Lamar and SZA in ad campaign for the service

September 4, 2018 No Comments

By Kyle O’Brien

Amazon Music is pushing its paid streaming music service with a new campaign as a way for listeners to power their preferences by using Alexa.

The service is building on its momentum with the launch of ‘A Voice is All You Need.’ The campaign highlights the powerful vocals of notable songs while demonstrating the simplicity of voice with Alexa, featuring leading artists at launch including Ariana Grande, Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Queen and Kane Brown.

The ad creative, developed with Wieden+Kennedy, celebrates the growth of Amazon Music against rivals like Apple and Spotify, by noting its lead in voice innovation while playing off isolated vocals from notable artists in a journey through the voice experience with Alexa on Amazon Music.

In the first video, Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s All the Stars gets animated in a 30-second spot that starts off with brightly hued lips singing the lyrics. The lips then turn blue as the Lamar’s rap begins, then morphs into the Amazon arrow, which also turns into a mouth and asks Alexa to play the song as it promotes the 30-day free trial for the service.

Another ad rises high above Times Square to push Ariana Grande’s new album, Sweetener. The three-tiered digital ad starts with the ‘A Voice is All You Need’ phrase, then turns rainbow colored with a pic from the album and the text: “Alexa Play New Ariana Grande.”

Launching at a time where the number of Amazon Music hours streamed globally on Alexa-enabled devices has doubled over the past six months compared to the same time last year, ‘A Voice is All You Need’ will begin appearing today in select US cities, and will expand to the UK and Germany throughout the year across media channels including national online video, radio, and out-of-home billboard advertisements in support of upcoming new releases. Select creative from the campaign will also appear on national TV later this year.

By Kyle O’Brien

Sourced from The Drum

In News

Creative burnout is inevitable. Here are 10 ways to beat it

August 13, 2018 No Comments

By Co.Design and The Creative Independent

Ten pros share their tricks for staying engaged with your work.

Burnout can strike at unexpected moments, regardless of whether you’re your own boss or work with a team. We’re living in an era when round-the-clock communication is simply a fact of life, and the always-on culture of many workplaces can take an outsize toll on creatives, who need mental and physical energy to do their best work.

So, how do you avoid burnout? Co.Design collaborated with The Creative Independent, a resource for creative people with a deep archive of how-to guides and interviews, to bring you 10 takes from leading artists, designers, musicians, and chefs on what they do–or don’t do–to keep themselves sane, energized, and creatively fulfilled.

Plan “slow-downs” in your yearly calendar

“The burnout thing is real. I went hard for the last year and a half. I ran a great Kickstarter, and had my first proper book come out, and then took it on a book tour, and traveled all over the place, and was gone constantly. It was lots of adventure, but also lots of hectic stuff, and that definitely took a toll. I psychologically told myself that I would stop, and somehow, it took me [many months of] pumping the brakes to actually feel like I was slowing down. I think as a freelancer, you fall into the trap of thinking that your time and your schedule is very flexible, and I’ve started to come to grips with the fact that it’s not. I have to set time aside a year in advance, and hold it sacred.”

Illustrator and cartoonist Lucy Bellwood on the pros and cons of being an independent creator

Treat your work like a 9-to-5 job, even if it’s not

“I schedule out hours to work. I know that if I’m working during those hours, then I can have that night to myself to exercise or watch a TV show or read a book or whatever. That’s a difficult thing, because you want the record to do well and you have your management and your publicist and the label working to get you press opportunities, [so it can be hard to be like,] ‘I’m just not going to do this today.’ But, with the songwriting process, it’s really important because you don’t want to burn out. You don’t want to feel like you don’t enjoy playing music.”

Musician Alicia Bognanno on managing your creative time

Find a totally unrelated creative outlet

“The only time I was really on my way to burning out was when I was working at fancy restaurants doing only desserts. That’s when I started playing music again after a few years of not doing that. Playing music helped me keep myself in check. I was able to do this other thing that balanced things out–something totally and completely different from my job.”

Chef, restaurateur, and musician Brooks Headley on how running a restaurant is like being in a band

Take a day off

“I’m very lucky because I’m able to do what I love every day, [and] I always feel like there’s something that I can take from life and sublimate into fiction. Of course, I have many days that feel like pulling teeth—like the worst dentistry. Days where I delete everything and start over. Taking one day off a week is good, so is going to a museum, or the galleries in Chelsea, or an afternoon movie, or walking around New York if the weather is in a good mood.”

Novelist Katherine Faw on not multitasking

Work in spurts, and keep a rhythm

“I do very well under duress. My voice sounds better when I’m dehydrated and tired. So, burnout is actually okay when it happens. That’s why I live upstate; it’s a tank and a vacuum where I can go in for several weeks—get up at six, lunchtime, dinnertime, same time every day. Go to sleep at nine. An amazing amount can happen in three weeks, maybe a year’s worth of work.”

Artist and composer Sahra Motalebi on working without a map

Practice saying “no”

“I was definitely burnt out this past fall and it was rough. I’m learning the value of sleeping more. I’m learning the value of longevity and projects that take time. For me, something I’ve also been learning is how so many black women feel like we can’t say ‘no,’ or that we have to work extra just to prove our existence in a certain space. I’m trying to resist all of that.”

Curator Erin Christovale on curating

Don’t treat your work like something you need to escape from

“Honestly, the only time that I feel things start to spin out is when I buy into the whole ‘work really hard and then just don’t work at all’ idea. It’s the retirement model. It’s the ‘I’m trying to do as little work as possible model,’ which is unfortunately what happens to a lot of touring musicians. You come off the intensity of being on the road and then you want to just be the king of pina coladas on the beach for the three months. For me, the only time when I actually feel like my creative drive starts to wane is if I fall for that bullshit. I only burn out when people try to convince me that somehow this is a job that I don’t want.”

Musician Emily Haines on commitment

Work on multiple things at once

“I think I avoid burnout by doing different things. Moving the headspace from one thing to another thing helps me keep moving. It becomes easier once you go away from something to go back into it. Like, with books. I’m not really a one-book-at-a-time person. Sometimes I’ll stop feeling like I’m enjoying a book, that I overall am enjoying, and I go look around somewhere else and then go back. I think that’s how I avoid the burnout. It more feels like coming back to something, and it’s different when I come back to it.”

Musician Greg Fox on doing things on your own

Be honest about when you need a break, and then really give yourself one

“I think it’s important to keep a schedule, a ritual even. Usually I can go long periods of time with a routine, then one day something will click and I’ll switch it up for a week. I think allowing for mistakes in your creative work is important. You’re allowed to give yourself a break when you need it. This will include for me: being in nature, being still in my own space, or writing ideas down instead of actually working on them.”

Visual artist and teacher Angela Pilgrim on creating work in your own voice

Be true to yourself

“You have to feed yourself creatively. I hate using the term ‘self-care’ but I think that’s a part of it. Even if it’s just going to bed early. I think those little things you do for yourself can help. I also think being realistic helps . . . Eventually you just find the part of what you do that is evergreen and true and you focus on that.”

Designer and architect Emily Fisher on finding a path that makes you happy

Check out more interviews on The Creative Independent.

[ Feature Source Images: laflor/Getty Images (photo), VPLA/iStock]

By Co.Design and The Creative Independent

Sourced from Fast Company

In News

Coca-Cola is breaking the agency model to experiment with crowd-sourced creative briefs

April 27, 2018 No Comments

By Katie Deighton

Coca-Cola’s latest experiment in opening short design briefs to the entire world illustrates its plans to no longer be seen as “a traditional advertiser” by appointing consumers – not agencies – as its co-creators.

The drinks giant’s head of digital, David Godsman, admitted at the Adobe Summit opening keynote that the digitally connected world is “somewhat unknown” to the brand. Nevertheless, 12 months ago it embarked on a five-year digital transformation programme, underscored by four key areas: operations, business, culture and experiences.

Surprisingly, Coca-Cola has filed its marketing and advertising operations into the latter category. Not only is Godsman asking his “traditional brand marketers to become experience makers”, but he’s earmarked the fans of Coca-Cola as vital to its content creation strategy.

David Godsman, chief digital officer, Coca-Cola

“Digital allows us to create unifying experiences which – regardless of language or place in the world – helps to bring them together,” he said. “Digital enables them to participate actively with us and co-create the experiences we bring to market

“We don’t see a world where we will continue as a traditional advertiser in that sense.”

James Sommerville, Coca-Cola’s vice president of global design, introduced one of the first forays into this strategy of consumers-as-creators. Coke x Adobe x You, which quietly launched last October on social media, comprised a succinct brief open to the entire internet, which read: ‘Create a work of art celebrating Coca-Cola, sport, movement, strength, and unity using Adobe Creative Cloud tools’.

“We thought: ‘What would happen if you just gave the world’s designers three or four simple tools and a short brief – so short that you could tweet it?’,” explained Sommerville.

The brief for Coke x Adobe x You

So far, the project has thrown up around 1,500 submissions, from trippy, fun animations to meticulous hand-drawn illustrations. All the designers were commissioned to feature the red Coca-Cola circle, while Adobe and Coca-Cola kept the Tokyo Olympics 2020 under wraps.

“If you scan these pages you’ll see the enthusiasm to work on our products and our brand,” said Sommerville, adding that the project “really is the start of our journey”.

The brand is arguably in need of a revived creative strategy. Diet Coke’s latest offerings have failed to capture the mass imagination that 1995’s ‘Diet Coke Break’ managed to, for instance, while ‘Because I Can’ was pretty much panned creatively.

It’s unlikely that Coca-Cola will eschew working with creative agencies for consumer creations altogether. Sommerville stressed that “we love our agencies partners, we need our agency partners”, but he also loves to “discover the hidden gems”. By that he means freelance artists such as Noma Bar, the graphic designers going viral, or “some guy working in Starbucks right now on a laptop”.

Noma Bar for Coca-Cola

But when conglomerate does come looking for agencies in the future, it may start knocking on other doors. Sommerville’s design lab is currently experimenting with prototypes such as a fountain that dispenses mobile data in lieu of soft drinks – the kind of project that will certainly require the expertise of creative technologists, but perhaps not those of traditional creatives.

“I really want to invite the creative community to reimagine the whole experience,” said the Atlanta-based, Huddersfield-born designer. “Everyone in this room, everyone on this planet, has the right to work with Coca-Cola.”

How does he plan on keeping those divergent, global ideas tied to a common brand idea? By looking back on the vast history of Coca-Cola.

“We have a little phrase called Kiss the Past Hello,” he explained. “A lot of people talk about failing fast – for us this is the Coca-Cola way of saying a very similar thing. Our past is so important to us. It educates us. The good, the bad, what worked, what didn’t.

“Those stories are the same, but the context has changed. We are about technology, we are about transformation and we are about talent. But ultimately for us the experience starts at the product – it’s the texture, it’s the touch of the glass, it’s the temperature.”

By Katie Deighton

Sourced from THEDRUM

In News

12 Simple Tricks For Anyone Who Wants To Feel More Creative

April 12, 2018 No Comments

By Emily Shwake

Stop telling yourself you’re not creative, and start telling yourself you’re the next Picasso.

1.Try working from a café, because a little noise will actually do your imagination good.

The writer in a café is a classic stereotype, but for good reason. Several studies have shown that a moderate level of noise (70–80 decibels, to be specific) is actually really helpful for getting in the creative zone.If you can't get to a café, try listening to white noise or music without lyrics.

2. Ignore the little voice that keeps telling you you’re not a true creative, and fake it ’til you make it.

instagram.com

If you feel like you’re too left-brained or logical to be creative, you’re selling yourself short and shooting yourself in the foot. The stereotype you embrace is the one you embody: the educational psychologists that tested out this idea call it the creative stereotype effect. So, if you walk around acting like you’re the next Picasso or Sylvia Plath, you may find that you had more ideas than you originally thought. On the other hand, if you try to write a short story thinking like the Type A mathlete you always thought you were, you’re probably going to have a tough time.

3. Give your mind permission to wander, because you’ll burn out really quickly if you push yourself to focus for hours at a time.

When you're trying really really hard to make yourself focus (like when you plan an eight-hour block of time to spend at the library), you're going to burn yourself out really quickly. It's important to take active periods of unfocus, and deliberately disconnect from the task at hand. Try doing something you find relaxing like taking a walk, doing a puzzle, or doodling. Doing so will allow your mind to wander and might actually spark that creativity that you've been pushing so hard for.

4. When creating, dig deeper into your own experiences so you aren’t leaning on cliché, overused tropes.

Let's say you're trying to write a comedy set about a plane trip. You could talk about how ridiculous the security line in the airport is or you could talk about how tiny the seats are, but you won't be telling the audience something they've already heard. Look past that, and think about your specific experience the last time you flew. Maybe you had a really strange conversation you had with your seat mate. Maybe you felt so freakin' awkward trying to get in line for the bathroom because you kept on getting in the way of the flight attendants. (Hey, I'm not a comedian, it's your job to make it funny.) Those are the things that everyone knows are true without realizing it. It's your job to make them pay attention.

5. Write all of your ideas down…and then get them out of your sight so they aren’t distracting you.

Sometimes the hardest part isn't coming up with ideas, it's getting yourself to focus on them. Keep a list somewhere — on a sticky note, a page in your journal, the draft of an email — of all of the ideas that you're so excited about. In a couple of days or weeks, when you've "run out" of ideas, consult it. Find the one that actually still makes sense and has some potential, and get rid of the others. Rest assured: if the ideas are really good, they'll come back to you.

6. Write a few pages every morning to clear out the cobwebs, and establish a habit of actually getting some writing done.

Morning pages is an old-school trick for clearing out the cobwebs that writers still swear by. It's super simple: just write three pages every morning. Period. That may seem daunting, but you can write literally anything. It doesn't matter. You could write a hundred lines of "I will write my morning pages every day" and it will still count. Eventually, something good will come out. You're creating a routine, an expectation for yourself that you will write every morning when your brain is fresh and the day has just begun.

7. Or do it at the end of the day when you’re totally exhausted.

Weirdly enough, we're more creative when we're tired. Your brain isn't as good at filtering out distractions, so you're more likely to have a crazy idea. Work some time into your evening routine (maybe an hour or so) to unpack all of those ideas onto a page. Not a screen — actual paper, please. Putting all of your thoughts down instead of letting them race through your head may actually help you get more sleep.

8. Let yourself get totally bored because that’s when your mind starts to wander into something awesome.

Those five minutes it takes you to walk to the bathroom, ten minutes it takes to grab a cup of coffee, or twenty minutes to commute to work are all healthy boredom breaks for your brain. Instead of scrolling through your Twitter feed or checking your email, do absolutely nothing else. Those little breaks will give you the space to think and imagine, and might even free up a bit more time for your creative endeavors.Listen to Manoush Zomorodi's podcast "Note to Self" or read her book Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self for more ideas like this. Get the book from Amazon for $18.35, from Barnes & Noble for $19.28, or find it at your local bookseller on IndieBound.

9. Keep your “darlings” in a separate file so you don’t actually have to kill them.

If you've ever created art, written a line, or created a character that you were sure was peak genius, you have darlings. And when someone doesn't understand them, it seems like the most ridiculous, outrageous thing in the world. Throwing out, killing off, or scratching out your darlings is painful. But if they're getting in your way, hide them away in a place you don't see but can dig up later. It'll be less painful to get rid of them later when you've replaced them.

10. Join a team of other creators so you have people to rely on when the going gets tough.

Creating something can be a lonely business...but it doesn't have to be! Create a network or start a monthly meeting with a few people trying to pursue on creative endeavors. You'll hold each other accountable and have people to bounce your ideas off of. If none of your pals are interested, join groups that already exist. Meetup can help you find communities of people in your local area that are doing the same things — writing, drawing, photography, etc. — as you!

11. Stop judging yourself and take that first step because imperfect action is better than no action at all.

The hardest part of doing something is doing it. Don't worry about whether it sounds good, looks good, or even makes sense. Start creating and don't look back. You can edit, delete, burn (idk, it's your process) it later.

12. And remember that you have the skills to get it done, and that the hard work will be worth it in the end.

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If you’ve never doubted your creativity or potential, then hats off to you. But for most, it’s one of the most paralyzing parts of the process. It’s so easy to tell yourself the reasons that you can’t do it, that it’s hard to remember the reasons why you can. You’re a creator. Keep telling yourself that. Or get someone else to do it. The Creative Pep Talk podcast will support you through those tough times, and give you the tools to get through it.

Now go create your pants off!

By Emily Shwake

Sourced from BuzzFeed

In News

Geico pre-roll ads interrupt again and again to grab attention

March 1, 2018 No Comments

By Kyle O’Brien

Geico has been trying to grab people’s attention online with its pre-roll ads, and it continues to do so with its latest, ‘Interrupt-a-palooza’ campaign that interrupts and then interrupts again.

The first Geico pre-roll campaign, ‘Unskippable,’ won plenty of accolades for its freeze-frame live action silliness and ability to entertain, where many pre-roll ads were highly skippable. It returned with ‘Fast Forward,’ which appeared to skip the middle of an ad to get to the point. ‘Crushed’ smashed the actors as the sets closed in, making for entertaining mayhem.

With ‘Interrupt-a-palooza,’ Geico and The Martin Agency again reinvent the now-tired pre-roll, cramming in more action, information and branding into 15-seconds than ever before. The company admits upfront that the ad is interrupting the viewer, then the spot in progress is also interrupted by more action, plus a falling logo.

‘Nighty Night’ sees two people in bed talking about how glad they are that they switched to Geico. They’re then interrupted by two people on elliptical machines crashing through their bedroom wall as they tout Geico’s 24-7 access. Both are then interrupted by a Geico logo that flies in from off camera. Other spots in the six-spot campaign follow a similar path.

“In the previous three rounds of pre-roll work, we played with the concept of time. First by skipping to the end, then fast-forwarding through the middle, and last year, condensing our ads,” said Neel Williams, vice president, creative director at The Martin Agency. “This year, we took a different approach, but still kept things very self-aware. Rather than apologize for the interruption, we thought it would be fun to lean into it.”

Associate creative director for the agency, Mauricio Mazzariol, added: “Getting interrupted before watching an online video is not exactly a Ferris wheel ride. So, these new Interrupt-a-palooza ads are supposed to bring some humor to the issue by embracing the disruptive nature of pre-roll and taking it to a whole new level.”

By Kyle O’Brien

Sourced from THEDRUM

In News

Diet Coke hopes a sleek rebrand and some new flavours can reignite sluggish sales

February 19, 2018 No Comments

By John McCarthy

The Coca-Cola Company is looking to solidify the future of Diet Coke in North America with a new colourful rebrand that brings with it a handful of premium fruity flavors.

Over the last few years, sales of Diet Coke in the region have plummeted, partly cannibalized by Coke Zero and even Coke Life. 2017, conversely, saw the rebranding of Zero to Zero Sugar in the US and the end of Life in the UK – where sales of the drink have also been fizzling out.

In 2016, Coca-Cola rolled out a global one brand strategy to promote all of its products at the same time, rather than instinctively separating them into different marketing campaigns. In spite of this, in the same year the drinks maker still decided to champion Diet Coke in North America, pushing ad spend behind the variant with a bottle refresh campaign.

Now, in the US at least, the brand appears to have flipped its strategy and decided that answer to attracting new drinkers to the 35-year-old diet brand is a sleek and bold redesign that features tall cans.

Along with this, variant flavors, Ginger Lime, Feisty Cherry, Zesty Blood Orange and Twisted Mango have come to the fore, inspired by millennials’ love for strong tastes like “hoppy craft beers to spicy sauces”. These flavors were chosen after the company spoke to 10,000 Americans and developed around 30 final combinations – down to four.

Rafael Acevedo, Coca-Cola North America’s group director for Diet Coke, said: “Diet Coke is one of the most iconic brands loved by millions of fans in North America, throughout this relaunch journey, we wanted to be bold, think differently and be innovative in our approach. And most importantly, we wanted to stay true to the essence of Diet Coke while recasting the brand for a new generation.”

Acevedo said the work would make the brand “more relatable and more authentic”.

James Sommerville, vice president, Coca-Cola global design, said the work “elevates the brand to a more contemporary space, while still using at its foundation the recognizable core brand visual assets”.

To support the relaunch, an integrated marketing campaign will be activated later in January to introduce the new look and tastes to consumers.

By John McCarthy

Sourced from THE DRUM

In News

You’re 96 Percent Less Creative Than You Were as a Child. Here’s How to Reverse That

February 13, 2018 No Comments

By Rohini Venkatraman

If you haven’t said it yourself, someone has said it to you: “I’m just not that creative.”

Most of us wouldn’t mind being just a little more creative. Fortunately, you can. Not only are there proven ways to increase your creativity, but also, according to research, all of us have a creative gene.

In a longitudinal test of creative potential, a NASA study found that of 1,600 4- and 5-year-olds, 98 percent scored at “creative genius” level. Five years later, only 30 percent of the same group of children scored at the same level, and again, five years later, only 12 percent. When the same test was administered to adults, it was found that only two percent scored at this genius level.

According to the study, our creativity is drained by our education. As we learn to excel at convergent thinking–or the ability to focus and hone our thoughts–we squash our instinct for divergent, or generative, thought. The 5-year-old in us never goes away, though. Here are four ways to rediscover your creative genius.

1. Go for a Walk While Listening to Happy Music.

Unconstrained by judgment, kids are especially effective divergent thinkers. According to science, there are specific ways to facilitate divergent thinking. One is to listen to music. In a recent study by behavioral scientists at Radboud University in the Netherlands, researchers found that when people listened to happy music (defined as classical music with a positive mood) while performing a divergent creative task, they performed better than those who were not listening to any music. In another study by Stanford researchers, participants were asked to complete creative tasks. Over 81 percent of people were more creative when they were walking (on a treadmill or outside) than when they were seated. They next time you need to think creatively, drown out your inner critic with musically charged walk. Start by thinking about the obvious answers to your creative task, then push yourself to come up with twenty more solutions.

2. Let Your Mind Wander.

Kids are natural daydreamers, and studies have even found that those who let their minds wander perform better in school. While it may seem counterproductive, one of the best ways to focus on solving a creative problem is to let your mind wander. In an experiment by UC Santa Barbara researchers, people were asked to complete a series of creative tasks. Between each task, some groups were asked to do demanding activities while others were allowed to rest. The group whose mind could rest between tasks performed significantly on the subsequent creative tasks than the non-rest group. The next time you’re faced with a creative task, give it some serious thought. Then, allow yourself to zone out, just like you did in elementary school.

3. Partner With Actual Kids.

To think like a kid, you may as well think with one. According to Ayse Birsel, author of Design The Life You Love and fellow Inc.com columnist, you can build your creative muscles through practice–the same way you build the muscles in your body through weight training. In her list of 32 simple daily creativity-boosting exercises, two as well-suited for collaboration with kids. One might be to use legos or other toys as props while brainstorming. This will push your thinking beyond whatever you might be able to write down on a piece of paper. Another exercise, inspired by the infamous Marshmallow Challenge, is one in which you might ask a kid to join you as you gather a number of materials like pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, Post-it notes, and other miscellaneous items. Then, glue them together to build a structure. Once you’re finished, go further to discuss all the uses for your structure.

4. Imagine the Best-Case Scenario.

Even in the “real world,” there is a place for youthful optimism. Young kids care less about how they are perceived and more about immersing themselves in whatever activity they’re pursuing. And this is good for creativity. Studies have shown that when we immerse ourselves in “joyous doing” versus “anxious mulling,” we are actually more creative. During your next brainstorm, take some time to think about how each idea could go right instead of how it could go wrong. What is the best case scenario? What has to go right for this to work? In doing so, you can prevent yourself from throwing away nascent thoughts that could turn into effective creative solutions through further exploration.

We hear over and over that kids are more creative than adults. But don’t let yourself forget that you were a kid once too, and while it might be difficult to get those years back, you can certainly recover some of that creativity.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images