Brainstorming Tip: Think Inside the Box

Oftentimes we hear the phrase "think outside the box" to generate brilliant ideas. This brainstorming tip by Michael Karnjanaprakor proves it otherwise:

When forced to work within a strict framework the imagination is taxed to its utmost – and will produce its richest ideas. Given total freedom the work is likely to sprawl."

— T.S. Eliot

As creative professionals, we’re always told to “think outside the box” and "go crazy with creative ideas." But, as you know, that comes with tons of frustrations and brainstorming sessions that lead to nowhere. How many times have you left a creative session in a worse place than where you started? Now innovative thinkers are saying that we should think inside the box to come up with creative innovative ideas. I’ve been reading a lot of the Harvard Business Review lately and came across this great article. Excerpt below..

“Many managers fail to generate a stream of solid ideas because they employ two common techniques: They encourage their people to go wild and think outside the box or they assign them the task of slicing and dicing the old boxes (in the form of existing market and financial data or specially commissioned market research) in new ways.

In its descriptions of how Nobel laureates and other creative people achieved their breakthroughs, an interesting insight emerged: Once they asked themselves the right question, their ideas flowed rapidly. This revelation prompted us to examine how the most successful companies in recent history had achieved their positions. We found that a number of their innovations sprang from responses to particular questions. But, subsequently, we realized that it didn’t matter whether they had actually asked a question or not. What mattered was whether there was a question that could have uncovered the kind of extraordinary opportunities that CNN, Google, USA Today, eBay, and Amazon identified and exploited.”

And what do you know? The Made to Stick guys wrote a recent article in this month’s Fast Company along the same lines..

Boutique hotelier Chip Conley has used this principle ingeniously in creating his unique properties. He told his team: Let’s bring magazines to life. His company, Joie de Vivre Hospitality, designed the Hotel Vitale in San Francisco to be “Real Simple meets Dwell.” That’s a crystal-clear box. And it makes it easy for his team to brainstorm features of the new hotel. The architects elevated the yoga studio to a prime top-floor location, rather than tossing some token yoga mats next to the elliptical machines in the gym. The front-desk clerks waged war on clutter: Imagine a countertop with no pen cups or frequent-stay rewards-club brochures. The housekeepers don’t just clean the rooms; they organize them. Other Conley hotels feature a Rolling Stone theme and a New Yorker theme. We can all be grateful that he hasn’t yet unveiled the Economist hotel, where staffers continually remind you of your ignorance of foreign affairs.

So what does this all mean? Most innovation and creativity occurs with a good starting and end point. Without a good starting point, great ideas can and will not happen. Here are some tips on how you can run an effective creative brainstorming session.

1) Keep the brainstorming session groups small (no more than 4). Gather people from diverse backgrounds, experiences and interests. The best ideas happen when different people with different experiences collaborate. If you have a big group, break them into smaller groups and keep them separate from each other.

2) Start each session by asking the right questions - “If your city got destroyed, how would you rebuild it?”

3) Or start each session with the right context and framework as guidelines - “Imagine if Good Magazine meshed with Apple to create a hotel. What would that look like?"

4) Hold more than ONE brainstorming session with an end goal at each one - "What are we trying to accomplish? A new product."

5) Leave the meeting with ACTION STEPS. Hold each person accountable for always moving the ball forward.

That’s all for today. Feel free to leave your thoughts below! Or if you have any tips you would like to add, I would love to hear them!

When Cloning Goes Wrong

I envy the photo manipulation skills of the artist who did these. Look very closely on the details and check if you see some flaws.











View the rest here.

13 Signs You’re A Bad Graphic Designer

Do you hate rainbow gradients, Comic Sans and Bevel and Emboss?

Find out how to do bad typography on the list compiled by graphic designer Jason Cass.

13 Signs You’re A Bad Graphic Designer

Interesting article! Find out if you're guilty of these signs. Feel free to react if you think there's anything objectionable.

Drunk Driving Ad

OVERSENSITIVITY

Oversensitive people are constantly licking their wounds. They look inward and are not aware of the needs of others. Naturally, people don't flock around them.

John Maxwell

PERFECTIONISM

Perfectionism is an obsessive need to perform flawlessly. It stifles creativity and freedom and it turns people away. Perfectionists can rarely affirm themselves; therefore, it's very difficult for them to affirm others.

John Maxwell

Animator vs. Animation

This video was shared to me by altumviditur.



Awesome animation by Alan Becker

Clorets Ad

This ad has a very strong and effective visual representation of a stinky mouth/breath. If this happens to me, I think I'd feel like cutting off my tongue rather than resorting to Clorets. :P

Playboy Beach Towel

Will you use it if you had one? :)

PEPSI "Straws" Ad

Unforgettable PETA Ad

"The action is named ‘None of us would like to end up like this.. neither would other-than-human animals’ and it was done with four big foam trays, each of them containing a naked activist inside, and covered with a see-through plastic with a ‘Human meat’ sticker on it. The idea was to imitate the ‘meat’ trays we can find at the supermarkets and to show that we are also animals, just as other-than-human animals, we neither would like to end up there."

Sources: Vegan Activist | Unforgettable Advertisments

COLOURlovers™

COLOURlovers™ is a resource that monitors and influences color trends. COLOURlovers gives the people who use color - whether for ad campaigns, product design, or in architectural specification - a place to check out a world of color, compare color palettes, submit news and comments, and read color related articles and interviews. See More Color

Plus63

+63 is a collective blog dedicated to providing an online venue for Philippine creatives. The idea behind +63 is to create a rallying point for the industry by adapting and updating the international country code for the Philippines into a recognizable trademark for Filipino culture, design, and art. 


PRIDE

A prideful person will have a tendency to look down on other people, feeling a sense of superiority. People will not follow or identify with a snobbish personality who is conscious of status and position.

John Maxwell

AFFIRMATION

Affirmation - the ability to build up. We tend to become what the most important person on our life thinks we will become. Think the best, believe the best, and express the best in others.

John Maxwell

What happens to you speaks of your circumstances. What happens in you speaks of your character. And what happens through you speaks of your charisma.

John Maxwell

Our First Out-of-Luzon Event

We just acquired an events management project! We're all excited about it because its going to be held in Boracay two weeks from now.

This will be our second project for the Filipino-owned adhesive company. We handled their sales convention which we mounted at Mount Sea Resorts last January. I guess they liked our work so they're getting us again for their next sales con.

Our general tasks: coming up with the main concept of the event which includes the event title, design and activities aligned to the sales objectives; management of the event flow, production of an AVP -- overall we're planning an experience that the company's sales people will not forget and at the same time will let them inculcate the values, motivation and empowerment the top management wants to instill.

As I am writing this, our director and account manager are boarding the plane to Caticlan for an ocular and our writer is already drafting the AVP script. Our creative team has already executed design studies for the approved event title and I am tasked to submit adjustments on the costs within the day. It feels nice that everything is under control. :)

We have exactly 12 days to make everything happen. Here comes the adrenalin rush!

"BAYANI" A Short Film on the life of a Modern-Day Hero

"BAYANI"
Story and Direction: Mike Alcazaren
Script: Patrick Manahan
Production Company: Vitalstrats Creative Solutions
Produced by BPI

Bayani, an IT specialist, is duped the first time he goes abroad intending to seek the proverbial “greener pastures”. Wife Felize is all heart and would not find fault, in spite of her man's obvious blunder. Meanwhile, Bayani's mother-in-law Lola Conching, is much less understanding. Fact is, she has never liked plain-looking Bayani for her pretty daughter. The couple has an only child, Roland, from whose point of view the story curiously unfolds. From gaffes to triumphs and a curious twist at the end, follow the travails of Bayani and his family as he attempts to overcome his first failed foray as a migrant worker and try a second time around. A light-hearted tale about the Pinoy modern-day hero.

MAIN ACTORS
Jun king Austria
Kalila Aguilos
Abner Delina
Julius Danielle Gareza
Maribel Escover
Bernard Laxa

STAFF AND CREW
Director - Mike Alcazaren
Screenplay - Patrick Manahan
Director of Photography - Pao Pangan
Assistant Director - Melvin Lee
Musical Score/ 2ND AD - Nani Naguit
Producer/Editor - Amrei Dizon
Assistant Editor - Francis Ventura
Production Designer - Joy Puntawe

"Bayani" will premiere tomorrow and will be shown to over a hundred people at BPI's posh function hall at their main office. Most of the attendees are from the top management of BPI and their clients from other big corporations. Press people will be present too.

VitalStrats has co-produced two full-length independent films -- Nick Olanka's 2006 Cinemalaya entry "Ang Huling Araw ng Linggo" (starring Johnny Delgado, Boots Anson-Roa, Baron Geisler) and Ed Lejano's "SEROKS" (Juliana Palermo, Neil Ryan Sese) for Cinemaone Originals. The premiere for these two films were both held in cinemas (CCP and Robinson's Galleria Indie Sine).

"Bayani" gave us a different experience because it is a commercial work. Although we worked with the same team for our independent film projects, the experience with veteran advertising director Mike Alcazaren and Melvin Lee gave us a taste of how it is in a TV commercial production setting.

VitalStrats has produced a number of corporate videos and producing TV commercials in the near future is one of our goals. This project has been a great big opportunity because it leads us one step ahead. ;)

INFLUENCE

Influence - the ability to lead. Leadership is influence. If something new, exciting, and interesting is happening in your life, you will want to share it. In doing so, you will influence others and they will want to follow your lead.

John Maxwell

RESULTS

Results - the ability to produce. Charismatic people want to be on the winning side of life. People like being around winners and want to play on the winning team. Find your strength and then find someone who needs your strength. That creates productivity.

John Maxwell

ACTION

Action - the ability to make things happen. Something exciting always seems to be happening around a person with charisma. The charismatic person has an aversion to being boring. He or she may be controversial, unusual, or entertaining, but never boring.

John Maxwell

HELP

The ability to reach out. Put simply, charismatic people are helpers. They are out to see others profit; they have the gift of grace. In fact, the Greek word of gift is "charisma" meaning "gift of grace."

John Maxwell

CONCERN

Concern - the ability to show you care. Charismatic people have the ability to show concern for people's deepest needs and interests. That doesn't mean charismatic people are mushy or patronizing, but when you are around them, you sense their interest and care and leave them feeling that you are important.

John Maxwell

Going into Food Photography

Photography is one of the artistic skills that I want to develop. I am a photography enthusiast and I started to photograph commercially when our agency acquired restaurant clients that required for us to shoot their food items.

Way back in 2004, I used a point-and-shoot camera to shoot food for banners and menu boards. Last year, since client's budget cannot afford the rates of our freelance photographer, I took the plunge and went for it. I only had a few DSLR technical knowledge, composition skills and a lot of guts. I borrowed a Canon 400D and lighting equipment for our first stint. After the succesful trial, we were referred to other restaurants and had regular food photography projects.

All the shots above were taken with just the lens kits. You may view the rest at my food photography set in flickr.

CHARISMA

C-Concern
H-Help
A-Action
R-Results
I-Influence
S-Sensitivity
M-Motivation
A-Affirmation

Keep in mind that these traits are not simply inborn; they are attainable by anyone who cares about other people and wants to develop his or her rational skills.

John Maxwell

Our Home-Office

We used to have a home-office set-up for VitalStrats during its first few months of operation.

We set-up our own telephone line, bought a fax machine along with our then powerful single PC workstation. I sleep next to the computer and fax machine and we have no definite working hours. I work till the wee hours of the morning and wake up with the sound of the phone ringing. I answer the clients with a husky bedroom voice.

Whenever we leave for meetings, I tell my mother to answer the phone with our company greeting spiel, and to note down client messages and queries. We don’t pay electrical bills, I just contribute a meager amount to my parents. Meals are served for breakfast till dinner and I am free to watch tv anytime I want. It was so comforting and I felt so free. It’s like being a bum and working when I just feel like it.

So what made us decide to rent our own place when working at home can be oh so comforting?

After a few months, we started to feel that it’s about time to move out. Being a below the line advertising company, we can’t avoid situations where clients have to come over, view our work as we revise impromptu. One time, a client-friend surprised us and I had no choice but to let him in my messy room where our workstation is. He had to tip-toe through my unmade bed and scattered pillows. There was another time when a prospective American-Swedish client called to discuss a website design project. I had to breathe deep before engaging in the call because I have to project a very confident, business-like, articulate English-speaking conversational tone to be able to impress him and close the deal. As I manage to control my nose and ears from bleeding, suddenly my 8–month old visiting baby cousin helplessly cries in the background. Can you imagine that? On other scenarios, our dog Nina barks furiously whenever somebody peaks at our gate. It’s even worse when speeding motorcycles and tricycles pass by.

Last April was our third year in our humble Quezon City office. We plan to stay there in the next couple of years until we feel the need to get a bigger space. The rent, the electricity, the distance from my home, the 9-6 work hours – having a real working space --- has been a big leap for the company and has brought us a lot of opportunities.

Whenever I dream big and have a vision of the very long road we still need to take to realize our vision, sometimes looking back to where we were a few years back makes me realize that we’ve traveled a long way after all. It makes me feel good and inspired that we have managed to survive the three long years. Up to now our client base is still growing and there are plans of expanding. We’re taking it slowly but surely. We’re walking in the right direction and there’s no turning back.

A Vow to Learn Accounting and Finance

It's been awhile! I've been really busy organizing our office's Admin. I am now surrendering and opening myself into learning DETAILS and PROCEDURES involving finances, taxes (all kinds of taxes imposed on our company!), income statements, etc, etc!

From now on, I will not just sign payments my accountant presents. I will always have the time to ask 'why'. I have to know what each tax means, and how it is computed and where an amount is derived. I have to have time to CLOSELY analyze income statements, determine where the company has been overspending, and find out in which areas we can cut costs.

I am involving myself directly and will have the command in organizing the filing systems. I will have a hands on training with Admin work. I have to know EVERY ASPECT of the business, and not just the creative side of it. That was my mistake during our first business year. I am hanging on because I am doing what I love -- and I thought I could get away with the left brain and logical stuff. :)

To be an entrepreneur also means having knowledge with accounting and finance, not just being skilled and innovative with your interest and line of business.

I am still in the process of improving our business system. I am awaiting for the time when it can run by itself and grow even when I am not physically there!

I truly have learned a lot, and I am still learning! It's a never ending process and I truly enjoy it!

Career Check: Dreams Do Come True

In the middle of exporting video files and copying vcds, I got a chance to browse my old journal. I am amazed to have read my ranting about my regular job, and how I wanted to be free and to go freelance. That was a few months back.

Looking back makes me appreciate what I have at present. Well, there have been a lot of moments that I feel so down, lost and empty. But when I come to realize my achievements, it makes me feel proud and more challenged to climb a higher ladder.

I have acquired a business at the early age of 23. Vitalstrats, now seven months old, have come as far as having an office unit where we could accommodate our clients. Now we can take on projects that require the clients to stay on while it’s progressing, such as video editing accounts, and projects that require computer viewing. Before, we used to have my small room as our office area. One time we had to rush a project and the client had to give instructions in front of my computer. I had no choice but to let him inside my cramped and messy room! Imagine the mess – scattered clothes, unmade bed, books on the floor, clothes everywhere! I am so thankful we have an office now!

Another turning point for me as entrepreneurs is the experience of hiring our first employee -- our messenger and housekeeper, Arthur. At first, we were faced with the dilemma of losing track of our cash flow since hiring extra manpower would mean more expenses. It also means more pressure to get regular projects. But thank god, we were not mistaken. In fact we even became more productive. Instead of my partner and me having to go out most of the time to deliver big rolls of tarpaulin banners, or pick up a single file in Makati, we were able to use up our executive time in being more productive in our fields of specializations. My partner gets to focus more on accounts, admin and correspondences, while I get to focus my energies on conceptualizing and implementing designs for our projects.

We’ve come as far as having a project aired on national television, and we’re proud to say that those projects came in because of goodwill. From doing 1 pro-bono editing project, referrals came in and projects were non-stop. That’s an indication that they like our work. We haven’t even started marketing. All the projects came from direct referrals and repeat businesses.

We’re on the stage of considering to hire help for our admin and accounts. We’ll be starting to market our services to upgrade our market reach. Hopefully, we’ll get to expand soon in terms of equipment and human resource. I am now dreaming of a power book for myself, so I can bring it to client presentations and I can edit videos anywhere. I’ll pass on the Power Mac G5 to our future in-house Art Director. (Sigh!) It’s always nice to dream… And all I’ve got to do is follow where my heart beats. Before I know it, a wish from the past has come true.

I know that I will only fail if I let myself. And so I live everyday as a challenge. Other aspects of my life may pull me down the drain, but this endeavor, this path, and my goal to achieve my dreams will always be my inspiration.

Some Notes About the Biz

Starting up a business is more challenging than I expected. It’s a big test of one’s capabilities. And I am not just pertaining to what one’s ‘talent’ and ‘skill’ can contribute in his field of expertise. Attitude and leadership qualities are what usually matter most.

In the span of three months, it’s just occurred to me that handling a business is pretty much the same as my job description in heading a theater organization way back in college. Back then, I got so engrossed because I was doing what I loved most. I didn’t care if I had to work overtime. The organization became my top priority. I loved managing the people – and I loved the people I worked with. I held on to the company’s vision and goals – be it long term or short term. Everyday was a challenge. And each performance gave me a very high satisfaction rate because I believe in what we did and we were all passionate with what we were fighting for.

Being a leader entails having to take the initiative. Being a leader requires a huge amount of self-discipline.

Starting now, I would have a different and better outlook on how I’d go about our business. I have realized that this is it – this is what I love to do and this is what I am doing for the rest of my life. My dream to succeed is really up to me. There is no such thing as luck. Successful people made it because of their hard work. And I should bear that in mind. From now on, I’d put double value on time and money. No more lying around, no more snoozing of alarm and asking for 10 more minutes when it’s really time to wake up. (Except when I work straight til 6 or 7AM and I am really doing injustice to myself by waking up at 9am).

So, there! Right now I’m in the mood to bring it on and give out my best in this endeavor!

Moving Out of the Home-Office Set-up

Today we went to see the office. There are a lot of advantages in getting it and it seems that I am already 70% convinced to go for it. My number one drawback is that it’s far from home, far from my room, and I won’t be able to be with my G5 when I leave the office. I want to use the G5 for both home and office. Next are the hassles of traveling from home to office and back home late at night. It’ll be like a regular office set-up once again. But I guess that’s how it really should be. I shouldn’t waste my time lingering and lying around whenever I feel like it. Time should be spent wisely and I should make sure that every minute is not wasted and I can become very productive.

Though I am being bothered by my drawbacks, I feel like we should take the risk and sacrifice a little for our business. We ventured into business to earn money. So a little sacrifice won’t hurt because later on it would really pay off.

When I was in college I thought I’d never become a millionaire before I reach 30 years. And I never thought I’d be in business at the age of 23. Now I believe my goals are really within reach – if only I continue striving to work and not lose my motivation.

I just feel like I don’t have enough time for all the things that I want to accomplish… I have a lot of pending web projects and I can’t manage to fit my schedule and finish all of them one by one. It’s as if I am overwhelmed by the quantity of workload and how I’d use my freedom to apply all the designs I have in mind that’s why I can’t seem to get started.

My resolution is to make productive use of my time during Holy Week! I should get the websites done, one by one!