I Am Reposting This

Hi all!  This was one of my more popular posts of the last year, so I thought I might throw it back here front and center. This sparked much conversation and I received an overwhelming amount of emails about it! So for those of you that didn't read it the first time...

Where does an idea come from? Ideas, or creativity, come from the right side of the brain according to most, take a look at the classic book for art newbies Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. So do creative people have bigger right brains? I doubt that. Maybe they can just tap into that side more often and more opportunistically than left-brain thinkers. But can the two be separated? I'll leave that up to the scientists.

But it is a known fact that the creative portion of our brains is on the right. So how do we tap into that? I have no idea, neither do the scientists. One thing that I do know is that once that access, that secret door, that maze of our minds leads us to a new thought, a new idea, a new…anything…we truly have a cathartic moment. We don’t usually recognize when it happens, it just happens.

I am going to take a second for a shameless plug for my partner, Savannah Gregory. She is an illustrator by heart, but got caught up in the advertising world. She does something that I feel is a lost art. She uses her brain with the assistance of a pencil and paper. She draws. Starting with only three tools – paper, pencil, brain. Only then does she use the computer and its various tools.

But in the digital age, these skills are rare, almost non-existent in the advertising business today. In my humble opinion, they are crucial. I learned Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign myself. I can put real heads on fake bodies, I can retouch some flab on a celebrity, even airbrush some flab out – but I can’t create something. Since it is Fall, I will use a Fall analogy.  I can use Photoshop to make leaves blood red, slowly and aimlessly falling in crimson colors, vibrant yellow, partially dying reddish brown – but I can’t make the trees do it themselves. In other words, true creativity comes from nature, the nature of the trees, the nature of the brain.

So back to the idea. If you want to work in advertising in a design capacity, start with the three tools mentioned above. The computer is a wonderful sublime helper to enliven, make the impossible possible, make the real surreal (too bad Salvador was only on the cusp of the computer era, but still you can learn from him here).

Take a look as these illustrations (again shameless plug). They were all done starting with paper and pencil. If you are in the business now, go back and hone these skills. If you want to be in the business, start with the three simple tools. If you want your children to be creative, give 'em the tools.

I can’t say or write enough about how much creativity starts with a simple inspiration and the access to that brain door where someone is on the other side trying to slam it closed, and you the owner is shoulder to door breaking it down.