In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer.
It’s interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains of the sofa.
But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design.
Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.
— Steve Jobs
The above quote comes from a diverse collection of thoughts about inspiration and creativity.
I'm back.I've realized that there are still so many things I encounter in my everyday life that inspire or intrigue me and beg to be shared.The collection of quotes in which I found the Steve Jobs one above struck me as an interesting display of contrast. There's a wide variety of thoughts about creative pursuits and their relationship to culture and society.I have found that my personal view of the world centers on the realization that one cannot have light without darkness, success without failure, good without evil. In order to do something "different" and artist must know from what he or she wants to differ. The realm of art, design, and creativity would not exist without the presence of contrast in materials, challenges, purpose, thought, perspective, vision. Similarity is equally important, but I think the contrasts in life provide the true flavor and fulfillment many of us seek.
I consider myself a creative person, but I believe that all people have some capacity for creativity, despite what individuals believe or profess about themselves. I think my opinion about "creativity" is centered in how frame where creative thoughts come from, and what creativity truly means. To me, no thoughts or ideas are truly and strictly original. There is always a wisp of something that came before, some outside influence, inspiration, or impetus. Creativity is more a unique or new combination, use, process applied to old materials, thoughts, or modes of action. Things can be discovered, as in a new plant in the rain forest or imaging the far reaches of the universe, but creativity is not discovery. The materials of life on Earth have been in existence far longer than I have, but I may find some new way to use them. Artists, who are usually the first "creative" people who come to mind, use media that generations before them have manipulated. The creativity comes from drawing on inspiration and experience to make something unique. Alternately, artists often take materials that have not traditionally been used to create art, such as lego blocks (that's a topic for another post) and make them into sculptures the same way ancient artists worked in stone.I hope that the paradigm relating to who is creative and who is not can change, but that will only happen if those who claim to lack creativity allow themselves take the old around them and make something new.--------Here's a Stanford Professor who agrees with my point of view. He's talking about creativity as it relates to entrepreneurship.http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1187
