Core77

Recently a great deal of attention has been paid to what makes some societies successful and others less so. From the macroeconomic perspective, Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel garnered a great deal of attention as well as a Pulitzer Prize for its exploration of the synergies that agrarian cultures gained from population density, as opposed to the autonomous roving societies typified in hunter-gatherer cultures. Richard Wright explains this synthesis more thoroughly in his book Nozero where he hypothesizes that population density generates a group dynamic (based on capitalism and trade) where self-serving individuals working for their own benefit can create positive-sum games, where all parties can benefit from serving their individual well-being. Ultimately when Diamond and Wright speak about "success" they are speaking of innovation; and while we all may agree that innovation is a good thing, neither author provides a mechanism for creating innovation outside of a society.

So given a desire for creativity, what can an individual do to spur progress? Although regimented sequences and heuristics seem anathema to creativity, Curt Cloninger sets out to create an itemized protocol for generating creativity in his book Hot-Wiring Your Creative Process. Many remedies for creative stagnation have been proposed in the past, mostly involving pursuing alternate or "out-of-the-box" approaches such as brainstorming or sabbaticals for creative thought. Folk wisdom usually advocates that the best way to attack a creative problem is to run away. Leave the dilemma behind and allow the subconscious mind to tackle the problem while your conscious mind takes a walk in the park, sometimes literally.

Cloninger takes the opposite tack, emphasizing the importance of a creative "process." In his mind, it is better to simply "do" than to think. Hot-Wiring the Creative Process includes clear methodologies and examples of iterated approaches (yes, including brainstorming and flashcards for inspiration), but he also advocates exercises to keep creativity flowing, particularly tasks that are not related to the job at hand, but closer to a designer's personal passions. Much like most art teachers, Cloninger emphasizes the importance of speed and artificial constraints. By limiting the number of possible avenues, a designer can feel free to focus on particular areas rather than being overwhelmed by all of the possibilities of a project. Constraining time further liberates a designer from fussiness and tightness, two of the most reviled adjectives in art class. For those of us who've gone to school for art or design, this is all stuff that we've heard before, but may need to hear again.

Sadly, however, the working world also tends to smash these sorts of freedoms from creative types, so it may be worth a review. Vilfredo Pareto, a French sociologist and economist, observed what has become known as the 80-20 rule, or the Pareto Principle, whereby 80% of the wealth is owned by 20% of the population. More recently, this rule has been applied more broadly, where people realize that they wear their favorite clothing (20% of their closet) 80% of the time. The same may be true for the productive use of time. A book called The 4-Hour Workweek, written by Timothy Ferriss emphasizes the importance of the Pareto Rule in the business world, advocating using time wisely and productively. In our world of IM and cell phone interruptions, none of us can work as efficiently as he advocates, but some underlying truths remain. Creativity is an ephemeral commodity and one good idea is worth hours of work. So if tools can be found to facilitate good ideas, any designer would be served to adopt them. The trouble is that the demands of work persist well beyond the four hour mark to consume time.

Between interoffice memos and a deluge of email, the psychological space conducive to a creative workflow rapidly erodes in most offices. Cloninger's book provides a thorough refresher on techniques to put creatives back on track. While flash cards themselves may seem gimmicky, "Hot-Wiring Your Creative Process" is essentially a collection of strategies that can be perused just like flash cards themselves. And while ideas flash cards themselves are in there, they are not the whole. Cloninger presents a variety of strategies, of which a few are bound to resonate with even the most single-minded designers.

Despite the breadth and variety of ideas within its pages, Hot-Wiring Your Creative Process is hampered with one of the least inspirational covers I've ever seen on a design book. Amazingly, the author deals with book covers in a later chapter, including presenting a number of cover alternatives designed by a piece of generative software called the n-Gen Design Machine. As an industrial designer rather than a graphic designer, I'm not fully qualified to pass judgment, but several of the designs that seem presented there are far more impactful than the cover itself. But maybe that's the point. Simply creating a diverse output will breed success. Richard Wright, the author of Nonzero wrote another book entitled The Moral Animal where he paralleled the life of Darwin with the moral code that evolutionary biology has instilled in us. Here we come full circle, realizing that creative output is not a singularity, but a flock of creations all vying for success.

As such, Cloninger's book succeeds where its cover does not, by providing designers with the tools to create an output prolific enough to bear a few inspired creations. The trouble with Pareto's Rule, however, is that it's awfully tough to tell which members of society are going to be the productive 20% without retrospective judgment. Tools like Hot-wiring Your Creative Process give designers the skill set to create cornucopias of ideas. The sign of a truly great designer is the one who can pick the fruits of their creativity that will bloom the brightest.