Fra hoften-kreativitet

Jeg går og hedder Frede ... hvad hedder du?

I beg your pardon....I never promised you a rose garden

Sad man selv og skrev det, så ville ens indre kritik stoppe en med det samme. Men sætningerne er jo fede, de fungerer!

Naivitet er undervurderet. Den løse formulering, den der bare kommer sådan vupti ud af ærmet. Den er undervurderet. Meget.

Hvad gemmer der sig i dit ærme lige nu?

Skyd efter stjernerne

It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.

It isn’t a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disaster to be unable to capture your ideal, but it is a disaster to have no ideal to capture.

It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim is sin.

- Benjamin Elijah Mays

The creative adult is the child who survived.

- U. LeGuin

[via swissmiss]

10 råd til den unge kreative

Her kommer 10 indsigtsfulde råd fra reklamebureauet Wieden+Kennedy's Executive Creative Director, John C Jay.

10 Lessons for young designers.

1: Be authentic. The most powerful asset you have is your individuality, what makes you unique. It’s time to stop listening to others on what you should do.

2: Work harder than anyone else and you will always benefit from the effort.

3: Get off the computer and connect with real people and culture. Life is visceral.

4: Constantly improve your craft. Make things with your hands. Innovation in thinking is not enough.

5: Travel as much as you can. It is a humbling and inspiring experience to learn just how much you don’t know.

6: Being original is still king, especially in this tech-driven, group-grope world.

7: Try not to work for stupid people or you’ll soon become one of them.

8: Instinct and intuition are all-powerful. Learn to trust them.

9: The Golden Rule actually works. Do good.

10: If all else fails, No. 2 is the greatest competitive advantage of any career.

Slet ikke uefne råd. God vind!

[via swissmiss]

Kreativ hverdag

Forleden hørte jeg om to unge, intelligente mennesker, som i snak med en vordende faktabogs-forfatter undrede sig over, at hendes redaktør på forlaget havde rettet og sågar givet forslag til forbedringer af den tekst, hun havde afleveret. 'Det må være fordi du skrive en faktabog', sagde de. En fiktionsforfatters tekst retter man jo ikke i. Jo, svarede min faktabog-veninde. Ej, det kan ikke passe: Altså tag nu Jørgen Leth. Hans tekster bliver der ikke rørt ved!, sagde de to unge. Men faktisk kunne redaktøren på forlaget fortælle min faktabogs-veninde, at Jørgen Leths tekster er en af den slags tekster, der har brug for særlig kyndig redaktion. Leth bliver hjulpet og strammet op af en dedikeret redaktør. Ej, sagde de to unge. Men hvad så med poesi... Poesi kan man da ikke rette i!

De unges holdning er symptomatisk på et træk, vi alle deler: Tendensen til kun at hylde et kreativt produkt, hvis alt bag det er 100% beåndet. Hverdagen bag det kreative arbejde, at der fx kan sidde en redaktør og hjælpe med at forbedre de indledende tekster, den vil vi ikke kende til.

Det er en form for inspirations-snobbethed: Kun hvis 100% af værket og dets frembringelse er perfekt, kan vi respektere det - og lade os inspirere af det. Sæt nu, hvis Jørgen Leth faktisk staver som en brækket arm. Og Tina Dickow synger pivfalsk og skal pitches op og ned i studiet. The horror!

Men sker der noget ved, at vi luller os selv ind i denne it's got to be perfect-tro? Meget. Og det meste er skadeligt. Ihvertfald hvis man selv har ønsker om at være kreativ.

For løfter man alle de kreative frembringelser derude på markedet op på en piedestal i troen på, at de er skabt i et beåndet vakuum, sætter man en alvorlig bremse op for sig selv: Så kan man selv kun være kreativ i de tilfælde, at man er guddommeligt beåndet.

Og det er man altså ret sjældent. Og slet ikke ret lang tid af gangen.

Der er en hverdag bag at arbejde kreativt. Og i den hverdag findes der redaktører. Uden hvilke de kreative værker, vi alle nyder og hylder ikke ville eksistere.

Så respektér lige den hverdag. Uden den, ingen Jørgen Leth.

“The best way to complain is to make things.”

- James Murphy

[via swissmiss]

Kælenavne til hverdagsting

Jeg faldt lige over denne her ovre på The School of Life (som du i øvrigt burde checke ud - mere herom en anden gang). En skøn måde at holde sig legende i dagligdagen.

How pet names for everyday things make life a teeny bit more interesting.

Things need names. The iPad - someone named that. Ford's Ka, LG's Chocolate and (possibly, maybe) Kiwi Man & Van all had name brains behind them. As a wordy company, we do a lot of naming and it's much harder than it sounds. Especially when most phone companies want space-age names like Infinity and Galaxy, while anything from breweries to banks want the name Freedom.

But away from the nine-to-five, we have free rein. And no trademark lawyers to worry about. So we rename things to make the everyday more interesting. Our folder for the admin bits and bobs that come with running a business is called The Folder Of Extreme Importance. The tax folder (zzzzz) is called Taxi!

It's not just me (although I do I have an extreme case of renaming). One of my friends calls her foodmixer the whizzer (another calls it the magic stick), and her hand-held vacuum cleaner is thehooche - no I don't get it either. Kids rename things all the time, too, and their names stick. A friend's daughter aimed high as a littl'un and renamed Hyde Park, High Heels Park. Not even the Queen's land is safe. In my family, when we were little and my mum made a cake, she'd ask me and my brother if we wanted to lick the lickers (ie the whisks) once the cake mix was ready. I can't call whisks anything else now, which can be embarrassing.

But we don't think you should stop when you're a grown-up. Renaming everyday things adds a bit of sparkle to the mundane. If you look for the icon for the web browser on my computer, you'll find it says procrastinate, go on. The folder that hides the games on my iPhone is called playaway. And the contacts in my phone are a crop of strange names. Do I know the world's tallest man? No, but he claimed he was, so that's his title. Some are more straightforward: a guy called Damian runs a deli, so he's Damian Deli, naturally. It makes finding phone numbers a challenge: you need a good memory because alphabetical order by first name gets you nowhere.

You don't need a pet to have a pet name. Get creative - rename those everyday objects, boring programs on your computer and the folder with your bank statements in. Let us know what you come up with, or tell us the pet names you already use for the whatsits and oojamaflips.

Det er Molly MacKay fra We All Need Words, der står bag teksten. Og synes du det lyder sjovt, skulle du overveje en smuttur til London for at lege med. Mollys arrangement er d. 22. januar 2011 på The School of Life.