Creative License with Dave Dufour

Tarantino, Passion and Creativity

Dave — Mon, 10 May 2010 14:14:25 +0000

Creativity Central has a great article on how passion for something fuels creativity. Tarantino is an especially current example, but look at the creative geniuses of history. Are there any here who didn’t have a burning passion for what they were doing? For example:

Picasso
Mozart
Beethoven
Pollock
etc.?

And aren’t periods of low productivity the same as those where passion is low? I’m thinking of John Lennon in particular. He had a creative spurt after the end of the Beatles, but then, for most of the latter half of the ’7os, he did nothing, but passion returned around 1980 when he produced two more wonderful albums before his untimely death.

A friend of mine, podcaster Cliff Ravenscraft, talks about “finding your passion” because that’s the way to happiness and success. Sometimes your passion finds you, but whatever — get together with your passion — invite your passion over for dinner and into your life — whether it’s painting, composing music, marketing, baseball or waste management. You’ll be more creative because you WANT to be.

Share and Enjoy:

New article from Mr. Supernatural, Peter Lloyd

Dave — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:55:09 +0000

In his latest article for Idea Connection, Peter explores the nature of museums and creativity, if the twain ever meets, and treats us to a visit to his “friendly neighborhood sculptor”.

Share and Enjoy:

Peter Lloyd stole our name!

Dave — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:02:58 +0000

Well, not really. But he DID write a great article at Idea Connection discussing the concept of “creative license” and why it’s a license to experiment but not a license to do shoddy work. He was even nice enough to mention our podcast!

Check out this fascinating piece (and many others) here.

Share and Enjoy:

7 – Nitpicking

Dave — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:25:45 +0000

Nitpicking can be a major creativity killer in any organization, besides being incredibly annoying. In this Right Brain Workout, Dave discusses the psychology of the nitpicker, how pickin’ gets in the way of innovation and how avoiding the urge to pick makes for better learning and better ideas.

Music for this episode comes from Music Alley.

Thanks to Demarée Dufour-Noneman, Paige Dufour and Peter Lloyd of gocreate.com.

Share and Enjoy:

Glow as you go! LED Lights embedded in a toilet seat.

Dave — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 02:35:09 +0000

Talk about flashy!. This luminous toilet seat is pretty interesting, and I can even see something of a safety advantage to it, but it is funny, at the same time.

Share and Enjoy:

Google Goggles Video

Dave — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:04:34 +0000

This isn’t a tech blog or podcast, but the creativity that comes from the people at Google is so impressive sometimes, I thought this ought to be included here. Cali Lewis has the video demo of Google Goggles, an app that could be a real game changer in the world of cell phones.

Share and Enjoy:

6 – What box and how do I think outside of it?

Dave — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 06:14:13 +0000

Creative License Episode #6

We’ve all heard that overused phrase, “thinking outside the box,” and we have a vague idea that it means creative problem solving that doesn’t follow the same old paths. But, uh, what IS this box, and how do you think outside it? And why?

It really goes back to some basic understandings of how our brains work. Dave talks about pros and cons of stereotyping, lateral thinking and demonstrates how “brute force” can help us break our usual thought patterns.

Basics of “brute force” to help us think outside the box:

Think of a random object, animal, concept, etc. In the podcast we use “our favorite animal.”
List some attributes of the object — fuzzy, brown, hard, soft, angry, smelly, etc.
For each of these attributes, FORCE yourself to make a connection to the creative challenge at hand. How could fuzziness, or smelliness apply to the challenge.

That’s basically all there is to it. With a little practice, you’ll get proficient at using seemingly unrelated ideas to gain insight into any challenge.

Thanks to Peter Lloyd at gocreate.com and Demarée Dufour-Noneman for contributions to this episode.

Music provided by MusicAlley.com, Jamendo and Indiana University.

Share and Enjoy:

Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Designs Them – Fake user interfaces – Gizmodo

Dave — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 03:47:09 +0000

This is fascinating. Be sure to look at the video that’s down the page a bit, too. I am always laughing at the impossible technology on a lot of TV shows and movies, but this article explains why they’re the way they are.

Share and Enjoy:

It’s not creative unless it sells (Episode 5)

Dave — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 04:34:29 +0000

Frank Cimino, who looks a lot like Tony Danza in this picture.

“It’s not creative unless it sells” is a classic advertising maxim that my grad school buddy Frank Cimino recently reminded me of. I think it applies to all creative endeavors, really, even creativity that isn’t directly aimed at selling a product.

Folks that helped on this episode, besides Frank, include Michele Morgan, Demarée Dufour-Noneman, Chris DuFour and Peter Lloyd at GoCreate.com.

Music provided by Music Alley, Jamendo and Indiana University.

Share and Enjoy:

Girl Brain, Boy Brain?: Scientific American

Dave — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:00:11 +0000

Girl Brain, Boy Brain?: Scientific American.

Share and Enjoy: