5 facteurs pour entrer en mode créatif

Le grand John Cleese se prononce

Il y a des milliers de points de vue sur la créativité, son mode de fonctionnement (voir celui d'un de mes profs de maîtrise). Celui de John Cleese m’a particulièrement plu. Tout d’abord parce que je suis vendue aux Monty Python, mais surtout parce que ses cinq facteurs pour se mettre en mode créatif relèvent du gros bon sens.

1. L’espace
2. Le temps
3. Le temps
4. La confiance
5. Un tour de taille de 22 pouces

Treize minutes de sa conférence (en 1991) vous en convaincront. Son discours n’a pas pris une ride. Mais juste au cas, voici une traduction libre des cinq facteurs.

1. L’espace

Il est nécessaire d’avoir un espace pour jouer. Il faut s’isoler, ne pas être dérangé. Il est impossible de créer quand on est entouré des stress habituels.

2. Le temps

Il faut aussi créer un espace dans le temps. Une période déterminée où l’on se retire de la vie normale. Cleese recommande 1 h 30. Moins de trente minutes, l’exercice est quasi inutile. On pense à tout avant d’avoir l’esprit libre (merde, j’ai oublié d’acheter du lait; il faut que je parle à Chose). Il est aussi bien plus facile de se consacrer aux petites choses urgentes que l’on sait que l’on peut faire (p. ex. envoyer des courriels) qu’aux grandes choses non urgentes auxquelles on n’est pas certain d’arriver (p. ex. penser). Au-delà de 90 minutes, on a besoin d’une pause. Ainsi, il semble préférable de faire plusieurs séances de 90 minutes réparties sur quelques jours pour un sujet donné.

3. Le temps

Encore le temps : prendre tout le temps possible pour jongler avec une idée. Il est tellement plus facile de prendre la première solution et de s’arrêter que de faire durer l’inconfort de l’indécision. Mais c’est ce qui permet d’arriver à une idée plus originale.

4. La confiance

Rien ne coupe la créativité comme la peur de faire une erreur. Il faut avant tout admettre qu’en période de création, il n’y a aucune erreur possible, s’ouvrir à tout. Jouer à « What if? ».

5. Un tour de taille de 22 pouces

Bien entendu, il s’agit de l’humour. C’est un excellent moyen d’entrer en mode créatif. Même si le sujet est sérieux. Introduire l’humour dans le processus créatif n’enlève rien au sérieux du sujet auquel on réfléchit. Cleese demande aussi : à quoi bon être solennel? Sa réponse à 12:49 est assez claire.

Amen.

À écouter sur l’excellent blogue Brain Pickings. Merci à Laurent Simon (via Mosaic/YULBCN) pour la découverte. 

Conversation sur une affiche (Mad Men 5)

L’affiche ne comporte aucun mot, mais ouvre la discussion.

Prologue : la série Mad Men
Pour les fans de la série, nul besoin d’explication. Pour les non-initiés, vous avez du rattrapage à faire. Tellement à dire! Wikipédia en fait un bon article, il y a aussi le site officiel…En bref : Mad Men est une excellente série télévisée, de plusieurs façons. Le réalisateur est très minutieux dans la reconstitution quasi historique des décors, costumes et surtout modes de vie de l’époque. Qui plus est : le rythme de l’époque (lent, rempli de non-dits). La première saison demande même un effort de la part du spectateur pour s’habituer à ce langage si différent de ce que l’on connaît à la télévision aujourd’hui. Et, j’oubliais, l’excellent scénario porte sur le monde de la publicité des années 60.

L’affiche en question
La saison 5, très attendue, est annoncée pour le 25 mars, d’une façon délibérément crue (choquante pour les post-traumatisés du 9-11 qui y voit The Falling Man), mais excitante pour les initiés. Voici l’affiche placardée dans les rues des villes américaines. Il s’agit d’une image tirée du superbe générique d’ouverture (sur la musique de RJD2).



Mais la raison pourquoi je vous en parle aujourd’hui, c’est à cause du « dialogue » qui s’est instauré entre la marque Mad Men (le poster) et le public (graffiti).

Les affichages dans le métro de New York portent des touches amusantes. D’autres ont fait leur graffiti virtuellement, mais pas mal non plus!



Et vous, quel serait votre griffe?

J’adore, parce que c’est une incarnation du concept abstrait qu’on entend en publicité aujourd’hui : avoir une conversation avec la marque. Pour y arriver, il faut avant tout permettre à l’interlocuteur de s’approprier la marque. Comme AMC l’a permis. Était-ce prévu par l'agence derrière le concept? Peu importe, ça marche.

Thanks to copyranter for the lead on this.

Recently read

Over the last months, I’ve been reading a couple of trade books recommended by teachers and colleagues. Here are my reviews.

Just finished:

The Guardian Book of English Language ++

A small book containing extracts form Guardian Style, edited by David Marsh (2007)

A useful reference as how to write things right, such as titles and dates, which expressions to avoid, or to get to know a bit of Polari (basically a British gay slang). The more you know, the more you realise how little you know…

A Duo by Paul Arden:

It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be +

Whatever you think, think the opposite ++

The first is the famous one; the later is the interesting one. Maybe it’s because I read Whatever first, sometime last year, and I thought it was a witty book, that was in accordance with all the things you don’t really know how to justify. Not to mention the beautiful layout of the book. Then, I read It’s not how good. The same type of layout, but the magic didn’t work. A bit too patronizing, maybe?

Read in small bits:

The Big Moo by Seth Godin & 32 of world's best business minds +

This is a follow-up of Purple Cow, where dozen of stories help you to understand how you can be truly remarkable (a purple cow in a field of brown cows) and make sure people hear you too. Easy reading on the tube, inspiring stories to give you the guts to challenge everything.

And, last but not least:

D&AD Annual +++

Until this year, only a privileged few could get their hands on the bible of creative excellence in design and advertising of the year, according to the D&AD. For the first time, Taschen makes it available to the public. Marvellous! I like to think of it as my year book… Well, let’s say that I’ve studied some of the featured work during my Master. The only bad thing about this book is that I will have to buy it every year now!

Coming up:

• Conversational Capital (I’m reading it now)
• Jokes and their relation to the unconscious (when I’ll feel psycho-enabled)
• A Smile in the Mind (I just ordered it)

4 approaches to inspiration

Among our many tutors in London, we had a way too short session with Dr Kit Barton about Inspirational Ideas and Thinking. The class usually takes 45 hours, we got 3. Well, just enough to know what to look for in my next readings!

We discussed 4 methods used to get inspired, or as we like to say, to be creative. Here is an overview and some links to know more about each of them.

1. Psychoanalytic Exploration
Thinkers: Freud and Jung
Concept: Creativity lies within you, in the unconscious. This is the part of the mind that we are not aware of, where all instincts and drives reside. So, how can we access the unconscious? Sometimes it manifests itself through Freudian slips. We use a lot of ideas repressed in the unconscious when we tell jokes. Or, if you can remember them, the best way to access the unconscious is dreams.

The principle that creativity lies in the unconscious becomes even more interesting from Jung’s point of view: the collective unconscious. Ah, what a treasure for storytellers! Think of all myths and legends, which address the same issues all over the world. Then we understand how come Star Wars was such a success…


2. Symbolic Systems
Thinker: Ferdinand de Saussure
Concept: From a semiotic point of view, every name is a sign. Concept and sound-image are closely related; they are the signified and the signifier. Considering that the relation between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary, there is an opening for creativity here.

Simply use different signifier(s) for a signified. You can get something new that people will understand if there is an alteration of some elements that makes the concept. This approach is particularly used in design.

Now, how can we alter signifiers enough, but not too much, and therefore become more creative? Sources of inspiration often come from outside your culture of from the micro-cultures you can find in your own.


3. Hermeneutic Analysis
Thinker: Martin Heidegger
Concept: This approach discusses of the interpretation of things. Heidegger developed a quite complex theory, but here is a rude shrink-down of the principles exposed in The Origin of the Work of Art.

We can consider than there are three levels to interpret things.

1. As an aggregate of qualities under a single term. To interpret a door, you say “door”.
2. As a description of its natural qualities (a “scientific” approach). The door becomes “a large and thin piece of wood with a handle”, etc.
3. As “equipment”, i.e. the thing being interpreted by its purposes. The door then is a mean to go through a wall, or a way to cut us from the activity on the other side of the door, therefore intimacy, and so on.

The creativity would use the third level, or simply the opposite of level 1: let things speak for themselves. Instead of saying door, let the door say something to you. Allow yourself to be spoken to by objects.

Note: The noun hermeneutic comes from Hermes, the messenger of gods, who interpreted messages.


4. Radical Synthesis
Thinker: Nietzsche
Concept: Last but not least, the simplest way to try to be creative (I say try, because it is not a infallible technique). Radical Synthesis can be simplified into the idea of doing the opposite.

Identify what the rules are. Then willingly break them.

According to Nietzsche (Thus Spoke Zarathustra), there is the herd and the others (we can call them creatives). The herd edicts rules to keep you in the herd, mainly using guilt. Being alone or different is guilty.

Then, the others are as a matter of fact lonely and not understood. They choose that state, they are adepts of non-conformism. So, being creative is an ongoing act of will. (I got to admit I agree!)

There is also the Dionysian aspect – where you have to get rid of your inhibitions, commonly with the help of alcohol and drugs. But, not surprisingly at all, the professor did not develop that idea. Shall we discuss that over a drink?

PRO – MAC – 8 values of creativity

We had the chance to have a class with an ex-creative in advertising agencies, who became an even-more-creative with his new business IQudo (IQ – you – do?) in Germany. Since I like to share simple theories, I can’t resist telling you about what Robert Gerlach presents as the 8 values of creativity.

1. Talent: Skills, development, competition and synergy
2. Autonomy:Freedom, trust, responsibility
3. Recognition: Appreciation, incentives, respect
4. Identification: Security, loyalty, purpose, affiliation
5. Fun: Enthusiasm, challenge, play
6. Tolerance: Openness, understanding, diversity
7. Environment: Equipment, technology, interior design, fitness and relaxation
8. Transparency: Communication clarity and speed

Do you find this in your life and job? I am lucky to say that I have most of them. Or at least that I aspire to these values.

And by the way, to my (ex)bosses at Egzakt, two thumbs up. It looks like you based the company culture on those values. Not bad for an advertising agency… Keep it up!