Segment V, Assumption: Vanity is a powerful tool. We must wield it whenever we can. To know is to abandon questioning, and what is abandoned can not be solved. To ensure creative thought is applied to the least amount possible, we must play upon the subject’s own vanity and convince them that what they know is enough.
In my research, I found that creative people constantly questioned their own processes, often reinventing perpetually. They rarely allow what they know to stop them from exploring more.
On the contrary, I found those who generated the more desired mediocre results tended to rely on what they already knew, filling in the spaces of knowledge with assumption—mediocrity’s kinsman. We must encourage subjects to place their confidence in their own experience and repel learning at all costs.
EXERCISE: Typography Gremlin
It’s said that the ancient art of typography originated when Neanderthals would arrange the carcasses of their kills into shapes to communicate to the rest of the tribe the manner in which they stalked their prey. As the innards of the animal began to seep, they often formed corners and extensions, the genesis of the serif. As their prey got larger, their stories got longer and the need to form more elaborate letterforms came to fruition.
OK, not really, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use that same practice to go the other way. First, choose your favorite typeface, then choose your favorite uppercase or lowercase letter in that typeface. Print that letter on an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper. Now use that letter as the foundational shape to draw a gremlin. You can turn the paper to find the angle that best supports your vision, then turn that letter into a gremlin by adding the necessary gremlin parts, whatever those are. Gremlins have no defined look, they take many forms so the possibilities are endless.
Segment VI, Restriction: Fortunately, few recognize the creative fueling found only in restriction. The misunderstanding that restriction is the enemy of creativity is a myth we must perpetuate. Subjects often believe that less restriction equates to more creativity, a legend we would be wise to spread.
My research has discovered the opposite to be true. Creative people tend to understand that greater restriction equates to greater creative opportunity. The larger the obstacle, the more creative the solution required to overcome. They tend to create restriction where little existed before, focusing their questioning to determine the exact problem required to solve for success.
Our goal should be to spread the deceptive thought that more freedom is required to produce creative thought and without this freedom, creativity can not thrive so they should cease the attempt unless restrictions are lessened. If subjects entertain restriction as an accelerator to creativity, it will be difficult to stave off the creative result.
EXERCISE: An Epitaph On Your Behalf
As creatives, there’s little we leave to chance. We are control freaks by nature, obsessing over the smallest of details and choosing to work long into the night to avoid collaborating on anything we’ve developed. Should death be any different? Once we croak, the only public communication we have left to offer is our tombstone, are we really going to leave that to someone else? Don’t let your creativity die with you, show the world what they will be missing when you’re gone.
You are to write your own epitaph but there’s one catch: it has to rhyme. You must write at least two lines but no more than four. There’s simply not enough room on your tombstone for more copy and as a designer, you understand copy just makes the tombstone feel cluttered anyway. After all, if your epitaph is more than four lines, there may be little room for the Apple logo.
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