Tools (tech & traditional) to nurture your creativity

Tools for “Write Things Down”

Don’t underestimate the value of freewriting for this. Try a freewriting site:

• Try One Word (www.oneword.com) if you want something super-simple, only 60 minutes a day.
• Or 10 Write for Ten (www.writeforten.com ) to develop a 10-minute writing habit .
• Or 750Words (http://750words.com ) which specifically coaxes & reminds you to write on a daily basis.

Tools for “Watch for Accidents”

• Try Wikipedia’s ‘random page’ feature. Try 5 random hits or until you find some interesting or intriguing link in one of them. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random)

Tools for “Reverse the Polarity”

Try these activities with your team:

• Think of a current, past, or potential problem faced by your department. Ask everybody to think of one great solution, & one lousy solution to the problem. Collect all the good solutions in one hat, all the bad ones in another. Then toss out the good solutions. Redistribute the lousy solutions (one to each team) & ask participants what it would take to ‘make it work’. They can (& should) be as imaginative as necessary.

Tools for “Think in Metaphors”

• try your hand at creating metaphors with this straightforward marketing site: http://www.howdesign.com/design-creativity/metaphor/
• for an example of how a metaphor can be used as a starting point for a design project have a look at this short SkillShare course: (https://www.skillshare.com/classes/design/Designing-Repeat-Patterns-From-Icons-to-Apparel-and-Beyond/357137191/classroom/discussions )

Tools for “Arrange Blind Dates”

• we need something here

Tools for “Steal from Other Domains”

If a lot of your work is text-based, try browsing for ideas in something more image-based. If you often work in images or diagrams, browse in something more prosaic:

• The Noun Project (https://thenounproject.com) includes a staggering number of icons to match any idea
• Spoonflower (www.spoonflower.com) translates images & patterns into fabric, wallpaper & gift wrap
• Colourlovers (www.colourlovers.com) lets you browse endless colour combinations, palettes, & patterns.
• Don’t forget general image sites like Google images, Pinterest…
• Brain Pickings Weekly (https://www.brainpickings.org/) will introduce you to some new ideas, new philosophies, new writers, & some surprising artwork.
• do you gain inspiration from music? Try visiting an online music site (e.g. Spotify) & search for ‘meditation’ or ‘spa music’. Play an instrumental playlist while searching for text or image ideas.

Tools for “Start from a Different Place”

These approaches vary from the low-tech ‘go for a walk’ to the more desk-based wanderings:

• Push yourself away from your desk, get up, & move around. Identify 3 or 4 places within a few minute’s walk from your desk where you can go & sit, unobtrusively, & look out the window or people-watch or close your eyes & listen to ambient sounds.
• Go to Google maps, drop into Street View somewhere random. Revisit a childhood memory or tour a town you’ve never seen before.
• There are many webcam sites but beware – many of them feature ‘adult’ content rather than scenery. Try EarthcamTV (http://www.earthcamtv.com) when you can’t go wandering around to cool places around your office area. Go to the website & look at ‘the best of Webcam TV’ where every 5 mins. or so you will visit a different live webcam, placed somewhere in the world. Downtown Moscow, a polar bear enclosure in Ontario… the audio is a bit flakey but you can turn down the volume.

Tools for “Think in Pictures”

we could use some doodling websites here, or maybe a good online mindmapping app

• try expressing your idea in a series of icons from The Noun Project (http://www.thenounproject.com )
• Do you say things like “I can’t draw” & find yourself intimidated when holding a pencil & staring at a blank piece of paper? Try a charcoal pencil & a piece of (just black & white text) newspaper. Somehow it feels much less self-conscious to sketch over the help-wanted or obituary pages.

Tools for “Ask Simple Questions

“The Daily Create: (http://daily.ds106.us/) posts a new creative task for you every day. Easy, difficult, surprising. Gets you thinking outside the box.

When you’re ready to ‘Make’ – translate your ideas into reality, try these websites:

• Spoonflower (http://www.spoonflower.com) to create fabrics, wallpaper, or gift wrap
• Here’s a nice (free!) short SkillShare tutorial (https://www.skillshare.com/classes/design/Designing-Repeat-Patterns-From-Icons-to-Apparel-and-Beyond/357137191/classroom/discussions ) on how to design repeat patterns, using The Noun Project (to make the design process easier) & Spoonflower (to print your finished design)
• Zazzle (http://www.zazzle.com) where you can upload your design & create a unique t-shirt, mug, phone case, gym bag, etc.