To be different, we must embrace the unusual - The Boston Globe
February 28, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
This is the best story to start my day. I had never before heard of Chip Kidd, the iconoclast book designer, but I relate.
I’ll also take a moment say to all the superiors, bureaucrats, bad
teachers, obstructionists and control freaks, who told me my ideas were
too ‘far out’, or that I was not a ‘good fit’…THANK YOU!
To be different, we must embrace the unusual - The Boston Globe:
By Dale Dauten | February 26, 2006
Most people in business don’t aspire to a style, but a
system. Every new problem is sorted into old solutions. (”What our new
client wants sounds like the proposal we did for McDonald’s. Just
change the name, do a little tweaking and we’re done.") It’s systematic
anticreativity, efficient mediocrity. Most companies aspire to being
different, but few understand that to get there they must embrace the
unusual, whether it be a person or idea.To return to Kidd’s greatest lesson and sum it up in a single word,
successful performers must be antipreconceptionist. And I hope someday
to see that word on ”Jeopardy," perhaps in response to ”The secret of
being a superstar is being one of these."
”Early on my freshman advisor told me about a relatively
obscure area of concentration within the [art] department called
Graphic Design. How obscure? Well, they graduated 18 seniors a year. On
a campus of 30,000-plus kids."Without realizing it, Kidd had made his first decision toward being
extraordinary, simply by rejecting the ordinary. And once in the
program, he learned what he called his greatest lesson: ”Any
preconceived notion of an approach to take before you properly define
the problem is folly."The result? ”I’ve been described as not having any recognizable
style and that’s one of the greatest compliments I could hope for. I
want each book to have as much of its own individual personality as
possible, based on what it is and what it’s about." Chip Kidd got where
he is by accident, not design.
To be different, we must embrace the unusual - The Boston Globe
February 28, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
This is the best story to start my day. I had never before heard of Chip Kidd, the iconoclast book designer, but I relate.
I’ll also take a moment say to all the superiors, bureaucrats, bad teachers, obstructionists and control freaks, who told me my ideas were too ‘far out’, or that I was not a ‘good fit’…THANK YOU!
To be different, we must embrace the unusual - The Boston Globe:
By Dale Dauten | February 26, 2006
Most people in business don’t aspire to a style, but a system. Every new problem is sorted into old solutions. (”What our new client wants sounds like the proposal we did for McDonald’s. Just change the name, do a little tweaking and we’re done.”) It’s systematic anticreativity, efficient mediocrity. Most companies aspire to being different, but few understand that to get there they must embrace the unusual, whether it be a person or idea.
To return to Kidd’s greatest lesson and sum it up in a single word, successful performers must be antipreconceptionist. And I hope someday to see that word on ”Jeopardy,” perhaps in response to ”The secret of being a superstar is being one of these.”
”Early on my freshman advisor told me about a relatively obscure area of concentration within the [art] department called Graphic Design. How obscure? Well, they graduated 18 seniors a year. On a campus of 30,000-plus kids.”
Without realizing it, Kidd had made his first decision toward being extraordinary, simply by rejecting the ordinary. And once in the program, he learned what he called his greatest lesson: ”Any preconceived notion of an approach to take before you properly define the problem is folly.”
The result? ”I’ve been described as not having any recognizable style and that’s one of the greatest compliments I could hope for. I want each book to have as much of its own individual personality as possible, based on what it is and what it’s about.” Chip Kidd got where he is by accident, not design.
The Unconscious Mind: A Great Decision Maker - New York Times
February 27, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
I’m happy when I’m productive but I get frustrated that I can’t be
creative on a more regular basis. You could put a gun to my head but it
would not get a good idea produced. So I’ve learned to be more aware of
my personal creative process. I get my best ideas: in the shower, while
rowing, during Sunday a.m. long drives when its sunny, when I wake up.
I went through a lot of head-banging anguish before I accepted it. Then
I had to get really diligent about taking notes. My best ideas can be
like dreams…they can fade fast if I don’t get them down.
Well..I’m happy to read that according to a recent study this is
exactly how it should be! If you are interested in creativity and ideas
you will like this NYT ($) article:
The Unconscious Mind: A Great Decision Maker
By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: February 21, 2006
Snap judgments about people and places can be remarkably
accurate, and there is no substitute for simple logic and reflection in
determining questions like which alarm clock or cellphone is the best
value.But many more important decisions — choosing the right apartment,
the optimal house, the best vacation — turn on such a bewildering swarm
of facts that people often throw up their hands and put the whole thing
temporarily out of mind. And new research suggests that this may be a
rewarding strategy.