Reddit reviews Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People
We found 5 Reddit comments about Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Read Sparks of Genius. It's a book about "tools" that can be used for creativity/idea creation. Skim through the related books too because a lot of them are good as well.
Watch Aaron Draplin take on a logo design challenge. He uses several of the tools (e.g., brainstorming, associations, abstraction, etc.).
Too often, we think that creativity is something that either flows from you or doesn't. That's simply not true. We are all capable of being creative.
There are two scholars who devoted efforts to this topic: Root-Bernstein and Michael Araki. Below are links to their works:
http://www2.dbd.puc-rio.br/pergamum/tesesabertas/1312731_2015_completo.pdf
http://www.amazon.com/Sparks-Genius-Thirteen-Thinking-Creative/dp/0618127453
Part of the computer screen issue is computer screens are bad for your eyes; minor discomfort builds over time and you develop fatigue and eye strain.
I bet it was easier flow on the typewriter. But that had it's drawbacks; however, the tick tick tick was a mantra unto itself. But the quick fixes were not available on the fly.
Then again, the scribble of a quill against harsher paper of the old days was even better, but redrafting was time consuming.
On a side note, I'm a drummer too! As well as a student of habits, psychology, physiology; everything that make us who we are. One of the best books I've ever read is Sparks of Genius ( http://www.amazon.com/Sparks-Genius-Thirteen-Thinking-Creative/dp/0618127453/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1SRE0HA0NJF635XSZN79 )
Great book with academic sources, but accessible and applicable to everyday life. It's great--and jam-packed about the cryptic creative process while inspecting famous painters, physicists, musicians, etc.
One of the tools mentioned is body learning. The fact that our bodies gather information in a distinct way through our bodies physical motions is amazing. Thought it is not mentioned in the book specifically, I've read other places that our nervous system is at work here making our synapses stronger and faster because it is in a sense, overloading, rather than static, sitting in a chair, attempting to get all theory out of a book with mere abstract
(deciphering symbols aka words, about intangible things aka not physically represented before you.)
If I understand right, it's also part of the reason males do terrible in US schools; since they are more keen on physical activities and get antsy sitting still. I think that needs more research (not much available on it), and it doesn't explain why it's only American schools while Europeans seem to thrive (or do they?) on similar models. Truly, That's an education issue and I don't have enough info to make a complete statement on it.
Back to the point, physical access creates better learning. I think that's the true point of brainstorming--scribbling, note jotting, quick doodling--or for drums: simple rhythms, warm up exercises, "messing around," etc. It applies to anything, really.
This may also be part of why successful people are always "experimenting." It's a huge part of the mystical "creative process." You do what you can, you approach from all sides, and trust your brain to come through. I always think of Dr. House from the show House. He has a white board, writes every symptom, stares at it for hours--and most important--always fidgeting with something as he thinks: a dry-erase marker, his walking cane, an over-sized tennis ball, a yo-yo. And, as he is based on the famous Sherlock Holmes--I read a different book Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. ( http://www.amazon.com/Mastermind-Think-Like-Sherlock-Holmes/dp/0670026573 )
Another amazing resource. A big sticking point was that Sherlock would take all the info he had, go over it intensely, then he would light a pipe. The pipe was his physical object, and he might sit smoking for hours just pondering; in one particular case he sat for about three days if I remember right--and out of seemingly "nowhere" his mind would have a thought--and it would be the perfect thought that would break his trance and lead to the solution of his problem.
[I suggest the British series Sherlock--it does amazing justice to how Sherlock processes things; much unlike Elementary and other shoes which make Sherlock some kind of godly creature that just gets answers from nowhere.]
And while that may seem far-fetched to some, he is a fictional character after all--more amazing is the writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who, according to the book, helped solved certain cases using the deductive methods of Holmes (The Scientific Process as we know it today). Here's a quick one:
"One of particular interest to him was The Curious Case of Oscar Slater - for the murder of Marion Gilchrist, a wealthy 82-year-old woman from Glasgow. Doyle applied the “Holmes method”, in which he uncovered new evidence, recalled witnesses and questioned the prosecution's evidence. His findings were published as a plea for Slater's pardon. It caused a sensation and there were calls for a retrial, but all this was promptly ignored by the Scottish authorities. The desperate and incarcerated Slater later smuggled messages out of prison and Doyle's interest in the case was reignited. He wrote to politicians and used his own money to fund Slater's legal fees. One politician, Ramsay McDonald - Britain's first Labour prime minister - informed the Scottish Secretary that the police and the legal authorities had colluded to withhold evidence and influence witnesses. Slater was subsequently released from prison with £6,000 compensation but never shared it with Doyle." -Taken from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10561577/Arthur-Conan-Doyle-19-things-you-didnt-know.html
Also, may I have a look at your work? It sounds interesting and would be great to read.
I would like to encourage you a little and liberate you from the thought that a good designers must "be creative" (i.e., good at making things look pretty).
Form and function. Web design is primarily about function (i.e., problem solving). Form plays a lesser role and can be highly subjective. As a general principles, so long as form does not hinder function and is not needed to communicate a particular message (e.g., elegance, happiness, anger, etc.), then good-enough form is good enough.
Consider Craigslist. It's an ugly website. It's not going to win any good-looks awards. Yet, people are not leaving in droves because it solves a problem (i.e., post, search, and review classifieds) and does so well.
On the flip side, there are many beautiful websites that are functionally defective.
Good designers solve problems. If you want to learn good design, I'd recommend a few courses:
You can take all of these courses and specializations for free. (Make sure you select the free option if that's your preference.) They will help you learn "design thinking" from three different perspectives.
A really good book on usability (function) with wide applicability is Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug. A good book on graphic design basics is The Non-Designers Design Book by Robin Williams.
Sadly, most web "design" books focus on teaching HTML, CSS and JavaScript rather than design, so I can't provide any good resources specifically on web design. (Maybe others can fill that void.)
However, the benefit of approaching design from a variety of perspectives and in a variety of contexts is that it helps you learn how to "think design." Seeing design thinking play out across areas reinforces the basic design principles and practices and makes it easier to apply them to web design.
If you are more interested in form, then I'd recommend looking into studio art classes (e.g., drawing, painting, photography, digital imaging, etc). (Alternatively, you could follow courses on YouTube for these.) While these sometimes focus more on technique, they'll help you learn how to dissect what you see. You'll learn to see objects as shapes, lines, textures, shades, hues, etc. Combine that knowledge with good technique (e.g., drawing, HTML/CSS, Photoshop, etc.), and it becomes easy to make things look nice.
Also, don't neglect creativity. One of the best books on creativity that I've ever come across is Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People. While it's a long read, it provides you with some great tools to use to "spark" creative thought.
Hope that helps.
While you sure need engineering knowledge, learning inventiveness is something different
Two of the best books on the subject :
http://www.amazon.com/Trizics-yourself-impossible-technical-systematically/dp/1456319892/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408460727&sr=1-4&keywords=simplified+triz
http://www.amazon.com/Sparks-Genius-Thirteen-Thinking-Creative/dp/0618127453/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408464654&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=genius+bernstrein