Creativity

Were you born creative? Or were you brought up, groomed and brewed to become one?  Picasso says all kids are artists. We could argue the whole “nurture Vs nature” approach to continue the debate but this time, we will talk about how the use of your left brain vs. the right brain determines ones creativity.

When we did a quick survey around the creative side of the agency… it seems most of us at PG were brewed, by design, to do something creative, sampling the Arts for as long as we can remember, drawing circles, learning to play piano, playing with paint, writing on trees or on mom’s new sofa…  Do you think you have a creative mind? Chances are, YOU do, but you don’t know it! We get reprogrammed at an early age. From the day we step foot inside of a kindergarten, our memory disks are reformatted to develop the logical, language-based, rational capacities of the left side of our brain. You know, that side of the brain that is goal-oriented, intolerant, that loves to plan and lives in the past?  

What does this mean for us creative folks? Well, the left side remembers objects as they were thought to us. So, if you are asked to draw a hand, for example, we remember the symbol we have for "hand" from our left memory, replicate it like a robot and move on. By contrast, the right side is capable of expressing objects or feelings with restrictions only our imagination can limit.  
You want to muscle up the right brain and give your creative side a chance to shine? Follow the steps below:  

1. The first stage is to, as cliché as it sounds, step outside the box. Forget the past and remember that you have little use for it. The box in this case, is your left side of the brain that will already give you a concept based on what it knows. Of course, any creative innovation unavoidably is inspired by what came before it. For a journalist, this might mean reading extensively, cataloguing, assessing, defining, and ranking.  

2. Then, what you should do is, walk away. Literally walk. Since your right brain is linked with the left-side of your body and vice versa, walking will help you sync and balance your thoughts. When our left side and our right side are fighting to solve a problem, walking is a fantastic way to have great ideas come unconsciously.  

3. EUREKA! It came so unexpectedly! The lightbulb turned on! This will seldom happen at your desk. Give your left-brain some rest, and do something that would stimulate the right side: exercising, taking a long shower, sleeping (when sleeping, that’s when the right brain usually takes over, so get as much as you can!).  

4. Then, the left brain wants to take dominance. This is when you challenge the creative breakthrough you just had. Scientists do this in the laboratory. Painters do this on a canvas. Designers do it by translating a vision into pixels. If you are an accountant, you save the company a couple of buck on QuickBooks. If you are a mathematician, you do this by using new formulas. 

Ultimately, we are all born with pretty colors waving around in our brains. We are all creatives. Know the highest creativity is understanding how to engage your whole brain by moving docilely and deliberately between the right and left sides, action and timeout, determination and rest, breath and out-breath. That is also a simple prescription for how to live.  

PG, over and out.  

PubliGestion's Logo and Mondrian

Designers are sometimes the unsung heroes who make the most meaningless things come true to life. They are those talented folks who help translate the visions of marketing and the objectives of the client. With their methods, laws and creative fervor, they create masterpieces with timeless value. We think our logo is a masterpiece. Frankly, because it is. No, we're not being cocky. Keep reading... :)

Have you ever noticed, for example that our logo is inspired by Piet Mondrian’s “Composition II in Red, Blue and Yellow, 1930” painting? This is not by sheer coincidence.

 Piet Mondrian’s "Composition II in Red, Blue and Yellow"

Our name “PubliGestion” when dissected, it goes like this:“Publi” the first half of our name simply means “many” or “multi”, but when you start analyzing it in its Latin roots, it means people, concerning people or belonging to the people. Now, “Gestion” is the French for “Management.” So, in short “PubliGestion” means combining efforts to manage, influence, inspire or produce.

PubliGestion's logo

Back to Mondrian: if you look for the meaning behind his paintings, the most common is that there is a balance between all elements within his geometric pieces thanks to his use of white space and his stroke techniques generating a greater sense of depth in the white forms. Most importantly, it’s Mondrian’s relentless pursuit of new dynamism within a set of shapes and structures that really inspired us.

Now, if you're wondering about why we chose blue and orange, well that's gonna have to wait for another blog entry when we talk about color therapy. ;)

Back to the basics

My computer kept installing updates and requesting to restart, and so, rather than sitting at my desk and staring at the beautiful scenery while my mac got a dose of that wholesome goodness, for once, I took out a legal notepad and a pen, wow...

I had completely forgotten the feeling of writing. You know, pressing a pen down a piece of paper. In a matter of seconds…ok, maybe about half an hour, I had finished writing and conjuring up an urgent rationale. No writer’s block. Just business. The ease of it all surprises me up to this day – this happened a week ago.

Sure, I crossed out a paragraph while explaining why this brand should do that (unfortunately the rationale is top secret and I can’t share it with y’all), but crossing out Ts and dotting Is woke up so many of my senses: something Word Processor could never do.

This reawakening of the love of physical writing, coming from a social media strategist who’s extent of using a pen in the past year has been signing a check, is mind-boggling. Don't get me wrong, social media and the matrix still turn on my creative juices, but...

As a child, I hated reading. However, I loved to write as forming letters to me was an art – a more restrictive type of art versus drawing and doodling, but still…an art. As my senses converged, as I grew older, I started to love to read as well, for words on paper created scenes in my mind. In high school, I discovered the art of reading. As cliché as it may be, my imagination then started to run wild, to run amuck. During my college days, I found great comfort in writing and in reading essays.

In the past week, after years of simply appreciating, eating and sleeping digital material, I have come back to the basics: pen and paper. My advice to each and every one of you reading this entry is to take a little time to appreciate and relish the organic things in life. Oh, the joy...

Relationships.ai

We’ve talked about love in a recent entry, and with love come relationships. In an Absolute World, we’d all be living in harmony, holding each others hands while running along a field of purple daisies all in One Love. However in the real world, we’re working with clients and colleagues who feel like it's the apocalypse, and with Photoshop running like a speeding coffee mug. What’s a loving graphic artist to do in a not-so-ideal-world?

1. Relax, breath. When you’re in hakuna matata state, you make better creative decisions, and find ingenious solutions faster. In this kind of environment, you can’t afford to work for naught and make wasteful panic decisions.

2. Smile. The Dalai Lama said, “A smile is the only crooked line that sets everything straight.” When you smile the whole world smiles with you. Always consider giving a relaxed smile (even a giggle) when you are asked to go to mars and back in 2 seconds. By smiling, you reduce aggression and stress. You relax and you create better.

3. Plan. Can you ever think of having lots of children in a shoestring budget? The same is true with working with designs. Each day you’re given a limited number of hours, resources and most especially, patience. So you need to manage and allocate your time and energy well.

4. Eat. Your brain is a 24-hour workhorse and you use it a lot for creative work. It consumes 75% of your blood sugar and 20% of your body’s oxygen. Imagine, your brain uses 1.5 calories per minute by doing crossword puzzles, how much more when you’re dealing with your beloved clients and layouts? So eat. Well-fed graphic artists are more creative and happy.

5. Like the last entry, when everything really goes sour. When you really can’t work it out, the last resort is to go home and sleep. Everything will be different tomorrow. Fresh eyes give you new perspectives, and new perspectives offer you a better view of the world around you. Always enjoy your days off, and feed the soul! Remember, “A Sunday well spent, brings a week of content.”

These are few of the hundred ways on how to manage your calling. If you’re a graphic artist and you know of other ways please share it to everyone and leave us a comment below. ‘Till next time! Kudos!

Sources: http://www.impactlab.net/2006/07/05/how-much-energy-does-your-brain-use/