WEEK 2: WHAT IS CREATIVITY?

This week’s lecture was focused on creativity. The objective of this lecture was about refining our creative skills, expanding our perceptions and look at life as exciting and transformative. We are born imaginative, curious, creative, and capable of totally fresh responses. However, over time these will change. This is a result of our lives, experiences, and society changing and influencing our thoughts and actions, distorting our views, preventing us from seeing things afresh. We will need to recover what we had as children as our creativity can be developed, rediscovered, sharpened, and amplified. We asked ourselves the following questions; ‘What is creativity?’ ‘Are you creative?’ ‘How do you know you are creative?’ ‘What inspires you?’ ‘What triggers your creative flow?’ ‘Where do your creative responses come from?’ ‘Where do you seek creative inspiration?’ ‘How do you capture, represent, realise your creativity?’ The first question had the most importance this week. This is because creativity can be explained in so many ways. Creativity can be defined as ‘Expressing yourself’, ‘Using your imagination’ and ‘Not having the fear of being wrong’. My definition of creativity is turning new and unique ideas into reality. I chose this definition because it explains how we as product designers think of ideas/designs, sketch/write them down, and try to bring them to life.

It’s very easy to know that you are creative. There are plenty of signs that help make it easy for you to notice this. The most obvious sign is when you get positive feedback from others about your work, which shows that they think you are creative. Other signs include that you get excited about your work, when you feel happy with what you have created, whether it’s on paper or physical.

Our creative inspiration can come from anywhere and everywhere. You can get inspiration from your surroundings, whether it’s something you see every day, or something that you enjoy doing. You can also get inspiration from people close to you, such as from your parents, your friends, your siblings, teachers, etc. This is because everyone is different and had their own qualities, motivations and personalities. Sayings written by others can also inspire you. The following are some examples of quotes that inspire creativity; "Creativity doesn't wait for that perfect moment. It fashions its own perfect moments out of ordinary ones" - Bruce Garrabrandt "Everything you can imagine is real." - Pablo Picasso "You can't use up creativity. The more you use the more you have." - Maya Angelou (1)

I’ll admit that most of the time I sometimes avoid going the extra mile or thinking outside the box. This is because I sometimes find it hard to overcome limiting my creativity and inspiration. However, I personally feel that this lecture helped me to “open my eyes” on how I can improve my creativity skills.

Reference:

Mikesh, K. (n.d.) '10 positive quotes to inspire creativity' , Happier [blog] (Accessed 4th April 2020) ; https://www.happier.com/blog/10-positive-quotes-to-inspire-creativity/

Picture Reference:

Mikesh, K. (n.d.) 'Creativity is intelligence having fun' , Happier [blog] (Accessed 4th April 2020);

https://www.happier.com/blog/10-positive-quotes-to-inspire-creativity/