10 Free Brainstorming Apps and Tools to Spark Innovation
The key to brainstorming isn't just getting as many people as possible in a room so they can collaborate on the greatest ideas ever. It requires a bit more work to get the most out of your brainstorming session. Sometimes, the best brainstorming sessions are accompanied by a simple tool that allows you to record and visualize the progress of ideas. This allows your team to see the flow of ideas and gives more context around next steps.
7 Techniques for More Effective Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a useful method to bring together a wide range of viewpoints. Additionally, it's a quick way to generate a large quantity of ideas. Here are 7 easy ways to brainstorm effectively, encourage collaboration, and eliminate judgement.
Graphic Design for Beginners: Top Tips
With so many brands vying for customer attention in a sea of digital content, it’s more important than ever to use effective images that draw people to your message and brand. But having Photoshop loaded on your work laptop doesn’t automatically make you a designer, and a bad visual can annoy viewers (at best) and attract the wrong kind of attention (at worst). Good design is not something you can master overnight. There's simply too much to learn. The principles of brand identity, layout, and white space, color and typography, how to convey a message — not to mention complex design software. So how do you, as a non-designer, avoid common mistakes and navigate a suite of design applications to create eye-catching visuals without getting bogged down by too much information? We've collected a library of quick tips, cheat sheets, and online courses to help you master the basics and design beautiful creative assets for your business in no time. Why learn graphic design? Why should you spend time learning about graphic design for beginners and consider this as a career field? 1. Graphic design skills are in demand For starters, it’s an in-demand career path. Research suggests that the job market for graphic designers is expected to increase by 4.6% between the years 2016 and 2026. CareerFoundry echoes a similar sentiment, placing graphic designers at number seven on a list of the top 10 most in-demand design job titles for 2022. 2. Graphic design offers plenty of career options Another perk of learning graphic design for beginners is that it’s applicable to just about every industry. Graphic designers can assist with a variety of services, including business promotion, software, trade shows, and product packaging, to name a few. And because there are so many different types of services graphic designers can help with, the graphic design skillset is relevant across all industries, whether you work with product or service-based clients. 3. Graphic design work keeps you on your toes While some professionals prefer a consistent day-to-day workflow, graphic design means every day is different. New projects and work vary across the board, so there’s never a dull moment. The types of tasks that you work on will differ depending on client needs — one moment, you could be working on a logo design, and the next a full branding guide. There’s no telling what each day will bring, but it’s guaranteed to be a mix of types of work, unique tasks, and clients spread across industries and sizes. 4. Graphic design lets you flex your creative muscles Graphic design provides the opportunity to tap into your creative brain, and Entrepreneur suggests that reaching our creative potential in our work is paramount to feeling fulfilled and living a meaningful life. Sure, there are technical skills in design, such as using particular software systems and understanding design basics. But good graphic design also requires creative expertise. Coming up with new and unique designs means you’ll need to tap into your creative brain as much as possible. Graphic design courses for beginners Are you convinced and ready to learn graphic design? It can be tempting to dive in and try to learn everything all at once but don’t overwhelm yourself. We’ve rounded up some graphic design for beginners courses to help you get started. Free graphic design courses Graphic Design Workshop For Beginners Professional Advertising & Graphic Design [Mascot/Logo] Graphic Design for Entrepreneurs…Who Can’t Draw Graphic Design Basics Introduction to Graphic Design History Graphic Design Paid graphic design courses Become a Graphic Designer Graphic Design Basics: Core Principles for Visual Design Introduction to Graphic Design: Illustrator Basic design fundamentals everyone should know Want to take your learning a few steps further? Let's dive into some basic design fundamentals and resources for you to uplevel in these areas. Typography Your choice of typeface gives your design character, in addition to legible text. A stylish font is pointless if it’s unreadable, and using too many different fonts can be overwhelming to the eye. In general, limiting yourself to two to three complementary fonts in your design is recommended. Color theory Achieving harmony with color is essential for an eye-pleasing design. You don’t want your design to be either too bland or too chaotic. Some basic formulas for color harmony include using analogous colors (three colors that appear side-by-side on a 12-part color wheel), complementary colors (any two colors that are directly opposite each other on the color wheel), and a color scheme based on nature. Hierarchy What’s the most important element of your design? Don’t overwhelm your headline by overlaying it on a bright, bold image, for instance. Prioritize each of your design elements and keep that priority in mind when placing them, determining size and color, etc. Grids and balance Grids create guidelines for how visual elements should be positioned within your design layout and help determine proper proportion and balance. The golden ratio, or the ‘“rule of thirds,” is commonly used with grids to create an eye-pleasing result. And by placing certain elements outside of the grid, designers can naturally draw the viewer’s eye to these break-outs. Another way to learn graphic design? Study others’ work Start a collection of designs that you like, taking the time to define what you like about them and why. By analyzing successful designs and adopting certain elements into your own creative assets (without copying the design outright, of course), you can learn what works and quickly improve your visuals. Some common design mistakes to avoid: not using enough white space, placing too much text on one line, and using too many fonts and colors. Additional resources: Fundamental design principles for non-designers Want to learn graphic design? 9 tips and tricks for beginners The designer's guide to grid theory Typography design: Rules and terms every designer must know 10 basic elements of design Logo design: 15 golden rules for crafting logos How to design the perfect business logo (infographic) Graphic design software: Three options (and how to learn them) When it comes to software for graphic design, there are a few choices on the market that seem to reign supreme – and they’re all from Adobe. Below, we’re breaking down some tips and helpful resources for each of the most popular options: Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. And when you’ve improved your graphic design chops and need to manage the ins and outs of your creative projects? Adobe Creative Cloud integrates seamlessly with Wrike. Photoshop Tips for beginners Unfamiliar with Photoshop? We have a few quick tips and extra resources to help you get started with this popular design software. Crop your images to create the best composition. If you find the horizon is off, you can level it by dragging any corner of the image box to rotate your photo. Use the Healing Brush to erase any spots on your image left from specks of dust or scratches on the camera lens. Bump up the contrast by brightening highlights and deepening shadows using the Levels window. Go easy on the color saturation. You can boost saturation to make your image more colorful, but too much can make it look glaring and overwrought. Additional resources: 2022 Adobe Photoshop keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet 5 easy Photoshop tips for beginners 18 quick Photoshop tips for beginners 10 Photoshop tips and tricks for beginners 120 Photoshop tips, tricks, and fixes Illustrator tips for beginners Illustrator is another popular software option used to create vector graphics. Vector graphics can be enlarged without compromising the integrity of the original image, so you get a crisp image no matter the final size (unlike bitmap graphics created by Photoshop, which can look jagged and blurry when scaled up). Additional resources: Adobe Illustrator cheatsheet Keyboard shortcuts for Illustrator 10 essential Adobe Illustrator tips and tools for beginners 11 quick tips for Adobe Illustrator The absolute beginner's guide to Adobe Illustrator InDesign tips for beginners InDesign is built specifically for designing printed materials, including brochures, ads, business cards, books, and more. It’s the tool you use to put the visual elements you create in Photoshop and Illustrator together into one place or publication. One of the trickiest aspects of print design is being artistic while also making sure your work can be printed without any technical issues messing things up. You'll need to understand things like bleed, file format, image resolution, measurements, and more. Additional resources: Beginners guides to InDesign 2022 Adobe InDesign CC keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet InDesign tips I wish I'd known when starting out 14 little-known InDesign tips Adobe InDesign tips and tricks Take your creative campaigns to the next level Of course, having the right graphic design chops is crucial. But, when it comes to organizing your work, using collaborative campaign management software helps ensure that everyone on your design team is using the latest, approved creative assets and that what’s produced is in line with brand guidelines. It’ll save you hours (and headaches) and result in a better finished product. Wrike’s all-in-one solution for creative teams streamlines the administrative side of creative projects and includes proofing and approvals and an extension for Adobe Creative Cloud. Start your free trial to give it a try, with nothing to download or install.
Why You Need a Motion Graphics Project Template
When creating a new creative project, it may be easy to get sidetracked with all the possibilities, which is why a motion graphics project template can help plan and get your project done on time. Read more to discover the 3 essential parts of a motion graphics project template and how Wrike can help you get started.
Effective Brainstorming (Video)
Brainstorming project ideas can be challenging. Some ideas get lost due to disorganization or louder voices override quieter ones – as a result, brainstorming sessions can devolve into chaos. Check out our video on how to effectively organize and run your brainstorming sessions and maximize productivity.
5 Reasons Creative Teams Should Adopt Systems Thinking
With an ongoing avalanche of information and data now available on a multitude of platforms, it’s easy to become more focused on tools than the creative side of work. It’s time to change your approach. Check out our list of 5 reasons why systems thinking can revolutionize the way you work.
Creative Leaders: Be Consultants Not Just Service Providers
An interview with Jason Resch, Vice President and Creative Services Director at Umpqua Bank.(This is part of a series on managing and creating world-class internal creative teams.) With the increased pressure to deliver more output faster, creative teams — and especially their creative directors — must find ways to manage work and teammates efficiently. Creative leaders must find ways to behave as a marketing project manager, and offer themselves as professional services experts. But what is a professional services consultant? This interview series seeks to learn how creative leaders can succeed even under these circumstances and what advice they have for others in the field. Here, we talk with Jason Resch, Vice President and Creative Services Director at Umpqua Bank as well as assistant professor at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. At PNCA, Jason established and now serves as Director of the Center4Design, where students can work on real client projects under his supervision. His diverse experience includes music licensing with Rumblefish, experiential marketing for Red Bull, event marketing for NAU, award-winning multi-touch design project management for Citrix, Johnson Controls, and McAfee, award-winning work for both Nike and Target at Wieden+Kennedy, and he recently led a team of creatives to secretly build the brand identity for Xbox ONE. Jason was also an influencer in the making of our eBook, The Definitive Guide to Building a World-Class Internal Creative Agency. You created the Center4Design at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Can you tell us about the program and what inspired you to start it? I first joined PNCA as the guy teaching marketing to a group of artists. Initially, the topic was not met with much enthusiasm. However, shifting the topic towards being more informed about your audience ultimately led to the evolution of the program from fine art to commercial art. This paved the way for the creation of the Center4Design, which acts as a design agency within an art school. The goal: create opportunities for the students to connect with the community in order to develop actual deliverables rather than just “class work.” How do you get your students and your team at Umpqua to think of themselves as leaders as well as designers? Upon discussing the power of marketing as a discipline, a student recently said something that made us chuckle a bit: "So we have superpowers? Like in Spiderman — with great power comes great responsibility?’ It opened up a deep conversation around what we do as creatives and how we do it. The majority of us left feeling like we could better serve the industry if we acted as consultants. Not just service providers, but strategic partners who can contribute to the big picture. That conclusion continues to drive me as a manager/educator to this day. [inlinetweet prefix="" tweeter="" suffix="via @Wrike"]"We could better serve the industry if we acted as consultants." —Jason Resch, Vice President & Creative Services Director, Umpqua Bank[/inlinetweet] What are the biggest challenges in marketing that you see right now ? Social media has opened up a medium for anyone interested in having a very vocal and honest opinion about goods/services. Marketing attempts to differentiate, but I believe it has to try harder than ever to find a balance between being authentic while simultaneously pushing its message. What blogs, podcasts, websites, or other great design resources do you regularly follow or reference? This is a great question. On a typical day, I often find myself at Design Milk, Cabin Porn, Core77, Draplin.com, Fast Company, LinkedIn, Remodelista, Gardenista, I am also oddly fascinated by TheFancy. I definitely look forward to every issue of Communication Arts. And a new issue of Plazm always makes my day. Build Your Internal Creative Team We hope you got some insight from our interview with Jason. For a comprehensive guide to building your creative agency, download our free eBook: The Definitive Guide to Building a World-Class Internal Creative Agency. Author Bio:Kate Thome is a writer and consultant. In over 15 years in banking and payments in various marketing, analytics and risk-related roles, Kate developed a keen understanding of the internal workings of marketing and creative organizations. She's worked for Visa, HSBC, and Capital One, leading marketing teams to success. Her writing appears on LinkedIn, Mutha Magazine and Talking Soup. She blogs about her memoir in process at http://irememberthatnight.blogspot.com. Follow Kate on Twitter @kthome219.
Creative Leaders: Balance Business Strategy and the Latest Technologies
An interview with Alex Calicchia, Founder & President of Hive Partners.(This is part 1 of a series on managing and creating world-class internal creative teams.) With the increasing speed and digitalization of business, creative teams are under a lot of pressure to deliver projects - faster, better and in higher volumes. With this interview series, we learn how creative leaders can succeed even under these circumstances and we share their advice with others in the field. In this interview, we converse with Alexander Calicchia, Founder & President of Hive Partners, who has 25 years executive experience in the financial services sector as both strategic planner and project manager. Prior to this, he held senior leadership positions at Capital One and regional banks such as Amegy Bank and MidSouth Bank. In those positions he's built internal creative agencies from scratch, grown creative teams, and driven marketing and MarTech strategy — all while working past internal challenges. His creative agencies became strategic partners for their larger organizations. Here's his outlook on what it takes to lead an internal creative team to success. Alex also contributed to our free eBook, The Definitive Guide to Building a World-Class Internal Creative Agency. On the challenges of marketing What are the biggest changes you see in marketing happening right now and over the next few years? First, I think the pace of change is in constant flux. The technology with which we can communicate with our target audiences is always changing. This requires assimilating information and changes at breakneck speed. If you stop to reflect for too long, your competitors outflank you. But without reflection we might miss the next big Idea. Second, because the pace of change is so fast, there is a void in experienced talent that can use the newest solutions. This puts more pressure on leadership to be aware of the next big thing so they can be hiring ahead of the curve. Third, because of this rapid pace of change, institutions of higher learning need to focus on the foundational aspects of strategy and not just how to navigate the latest tech. In fact, creative leaders need to demand this change from institutions. I often see lots of great tacticians who can navigate the latest high-tech innovations in the digital and social media space but who lack a core understanding of business strategy. "I often see lots of great tacticians who can navigate the latest high-tech innovations in the digital and social media space but who lack a core understanding of business strategy." —Alex Calicchia, Founder & President, Hive Partners On being a creative leader What's one piece of advice you'd give to a new leader now heading an internal creative team? Trust your instinct AND trust your team. You are not in it alone and if you set a clear vision and hold your team accountable to the goals you set forth. You will gain their respect and also get the greatest output from them. What's the difference between leading an internal creative team vs. leading an agency? I don't think they're all that different. At its core, the client leads the strategy and the creative team. Without strong leadership on the strategy, the internal or external creative team is likely to miss the mark. It's critical that the client drive the strategy and define what is expected from the creative message. Who is a creative leader you admire and why? This one is easy. Stan Richards. I was lucky enough to work for The Richards Group early on in my career. Stan and his team have demonstrated time and time again that they can keep up with the changing information consumption preferences of customers while creating strategically-driven messaging that resonates with them. What are some blogs, podcasts, websites or other great design resources that you regularly follow? I find myself going through Flipboard at lunch, when taking a break, or before going to bed. I set my preferences so I receive a regular stream of information on topics such as business, film, design, emerging technologies, branding, business intelligence, street style, culture, personal development, and ethics. I believe that in order to develop great strategies and ultimately great messaging, you have to look in areas that are not always your core discipline. [inlinetweet prefix=" " tweeter="" suffix="via @Wrike"]"Trust your instinct AND trust your team." —Alex Calicchia[/inlinetweet], Founder & President, Hive Partners On creating value for your company/clients How did you get your first big career "break?" How would you advise people looking to start a career in the creative space? My big career break actually came through an internal layoff due to a RIF (reduction in force) at the organization I was working for. Initially, I was a casualty of the RIF. But rather then accept the layout without a fight, I chose to challenge my layoff as a missed opportunity to keep a strategic thinker on staff during what was going to be a difficult economic period for the company. I laid out a scenario that illustrated that I could focus on both strategy and the day-to-day tasks thus ensuring a smooth transition through the layoffs. You recently launched Hive Partners. Tell us about what Hive does and your inspiration for starting it. Hive Partners helps organizations harness the individual and collective intelligence of teams. We design custom solutions tailored to our clients needs; whether it be around strategic planning, leadership development, or problem solving. The inspiration for HIVE really came from years of working with internal teams who often struggled with growth. Just as in a beehive, each individual — each bee —has a role. But when the hive is under threat from the outside, the collective intelligence of the hive kicks in and everyone works together to defeat that threat. At HIVE, we look for ways to amplify the individual intelligence of teams while ensuring that, should the organization come under threat, individuals are prepared to work collectively as a team to ensure long-term sustainability. Now, Go Build Your Creative Team We hope you learned a lot from the discussion with Alex. For a comprehensive guide to building your creative agency, download our free eBook: The Definitive Guide to Building a World-Class Internal Creative Agency. Author Bio:Kate Thome is a writer and consultant. In over 15 years in banking and payments in various marketing, analytics and risk-related roles, Kate developed a keen understanding of the internal workings of marketing and creative organizations. She's worked for Visa, HSBC, and Capital One, leading marketing teams to success. Her writing appears on LinkedIn, Mutha Magazine and Talking Soup. She blogs about her memoir in process at http://irememberthatnight.blogspot.com. Follow Kate on Twitter @kthome219.
3 Ways to Better Manage Freelance Creatives
If you're a creative team working with freelancers, then according to the 2014 In-House Creative Industry Report, you're in the 90% of all creative teams that will hire remote freelancers this year to meet peak demand. But as with any remote work situation, there are challenges to making it work. While remote work may be ideal for introverted creatives who perform best in silence and isolation, projects remain collaborative efforts. Feedback needs to go both ways: your freelancers need to proactively communicate with the team for better coordination, and your team needs to support and engage freelancers on a human level to create camaraderie. So how do you make the situation conducive to creativity and out-of-the-box thinking? Take a look at the Slideshare below for advice on how creative teams and freelancers can work better together: 3 Tips for Creative Teams Working with Remote Colleagues Learned something new today? Share this Slideshare on social media, or repost it on your own blog using this embed code: 3 Tips for Creative Teams Working with Remote Colleagues from Wrike Need More Tips on Managing Creatives? Download our free eBook: The Definitive Guide to Building a World-Class Internal Creative Agency. The eBook gives a detailed plan for growing & enhancing your company with an internal creative team, including what support you’ll need to get there.
How Collaborative Work Management Software Improves Production Management
If you’re ever planning to manage a production process, you absolutely need a collaborative work management software. Check out our overview of the importance of production management, including examples of how leading brands use collaborative work management software to successfully complete projects.
10 Free and Paid Online Resources for Learning Creative Skills
Whether you’re working as an advertising/marketing professional, freelancing in graphic design, or a hobbyist photographer, there's always something new you can learn in order to enhance your creative skill set. So instead of wasting time on social media or cat videos (my favorite), why not check out these recommended online resources that can help you learn new, creative skills? And sometimes, flexing your muscles in unfamiliar territory may be just the spark you need to give a little 'Oomph!' to your daily problem solving and creativity. Online Resources for Learning New Creative Skills Free resources 1. edX: It was tough deciding which of the three to include on this list: edX, Coursera, or Khan Academy. edX won out because of its wider range of courses on Design, Art & Culture, and even Music Production. Courses are totally free, however they are not on-demand. Like a brick-and-mortar school, they have start and end dates and must be accomplished within the allotted time. 2. FutureLearn: Owned by The Open University, FutureLearn offers free courses in everything from business and law to literature, history, health, science, language, and of course, a lot of creative arts & media (e.g. storytelling, songwriting, fiction writing). Again, courses are not on-demand; they have set start and end dates. 3. Tuts+ Free Tutorials: In a sub-section of the larger Tuts+ website, they offers free (and short) tutorials on specific creative tasks under categories, such as coding, web design, photo/video, music/audio, motion graphics, and business. 4. Instructables: Ever wanted to make your own geeky Halloween costume or build a security camera from a 3-D printed body and a Raspberry Pi CPU? Instructables is where you'll find the detailed, photographed instructions to accomplish your unique do-it-yourself projects. Comes with a built-in quirky creative community to support your every project! 5. Smashing Magazine: A well-known online magazine for web developers and designers focusing on coding, design, mobile, graphics, UX, and Wordpress. Aside from niche articles tackling everything from web standards to gorgeous wallpapers, there is also an abundance of tutorials to help you accomplish step-by-step tasks. Paid resources 6. Udemy: Despite this being more of a general online learning resource, don't discount Udemy's huge bank of design, photography, and music courses. Every so often they even have site-wide promos that discount all courses to around $10. A good starting point for any education. 7. Lynda.com: A true holdover from before Web 2.0, Lynda is possibly the most well-known online tutorial website. Partly because it covers such a wide breadth of topics, from web development to design, from animation and video, to music and audio. They even have courses in business and education. You'll need to be a member to gain access, and membership starts at about $20/month. 8. CreativeLive: Dozens of creative classes segmented by interest: audio, crafts, art/design, photo/video, money/life. The beautiful thing about this site is that on-air classes can be enjoyed for FREE. But on-demand access to it will cost you anywhere from $20-$99, depending on course length and complexity. 9. Curious: Their name explains a lot. This is a site created so you can indulge your curiosity and learn a thing or two on a wide variety of topics. Under their free plan you can take a new free lesson everyday — choose from hundreds of courses broadcast over 10 channels that include crafts, music, photos, and more. But with a monthly or annual subscription, you get the whole shebang, including mobile access and an ad-free experience. 10. Treehouse: This resource is specifically for those who want to learn web design and web development, with courses centered around programming languages like PHP, Ruby, HTML, CSS, Wordpress, and even mobile app platforms. Basic plans begin at $29/month. What will you learn this month? Keep learning new skills and encourage the rest of your teammates to join you on the journey. It's a great way to add to your skill set as well as bring more expertise to your organization. For actionable strategies on growing your internal creative team into a world-class agency, please download our free eBook, available now. Photo Credit: iVincent by JD Hancock on Flickr. Some rights reserved, changes made.
7 Sasquatch-Sized Creativity Myths That Need Busting
Praying to the muses, serendipity, eureka moments — the creative process is clouded in superstition and mystery. Despite the ability to peek into the brain and watch different areas light up on an MRI, neuroscientists are still fairly stumped about exactly what happens during bursts of creative inspiration. With all the obscurity surrounding creative thought, it's no wonder so many myths and misconceptions linger around the topic. But outdated or inaccurate habits can hinder your creative efforts, so we're separating fact from fiction on 7 pervasive myths to set the record straight and help you spark your team's creativity. Myth 1: Group brainstorming sessions are the ideal starting point for creative team projects. You've just landed a big new creative project. First step? Get the team together for a group brainstorm! But wait just a second — research actually shows that people come up with more and higher-quality ideas when they work on their own first. Collaborative brainstorming is a great way for people to combine and build off each other's ideas, but not so great for generating new ones. Don't get straight to work after your brainstorm, either; let people ruminate on the group's observations and ideas for a bit to see what new insights pop up. Myth 2: Creativity is time-consuming. Victor Hugo spent 17 years writing Les Miserables. Chaucer invested ten years of his life in The Canterbury Tales, and they still weren’t finished by the time he died. Stories like these make us believe we simply don't have time to devote to quality creative projects. But luckily, that's just not the case. According to Lee Crutchley, author of The Art of Getting Started, even little things like doodling while you're on the phone, taking one daily photo during your lunch break or commute (even just on your phone), or contributing a single page or paragraph to your book, can improve your creative capacity. As Crutchley says, "The trick is not to worry about whether or not it's good, but just enjoy the process.” So give yourself permission to start small, and remember that incremental progress on your project or skill-building adds up quickly! Myth 3: Creativity is fueled by "out-of-the-box" scenarios, environments, and mindsets. The unexpected or random can actually stifle creativity, depending on your personality type and the kind of environment you thrive in. If your best work is done in an ordered, predictable setting, throwing a curve ball into your process or routine can derail your creativity. Only if you feed off of novelty and surprise can mixing things up keep your brain fresh and help you make new breakthroughs. So next time someone tells you to jumpstart creative ideas by trying something new, feel free to tell them to buzz off if that doesn't fit your style. Myth 4: Creativity is stifled by limits. How many times have you heard, “Let your creativity run free,” or “Just go with your stream of consciousness”? Many people believe that freedom yields a higher number or better-quality creative solutions or innovative ideas. But studies show that too many possibilities overwhelm the creative brain, and that restricting your options can improve focus and channel your creativity. As Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile points out, the Apollo 13 missions are a perfect example of this. Ground control was working with all kinds of crazy constraints: scant materials, limited power, a strict deadline, etc. — and yet that narrow scope allowed them to focus intensely on the problem at hand and come up with creative (and effective) solutions. Myth 5: Deadlines fuel creativity. Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson Ask a group of creatives when they're most productive, and many of them will say it’s when the next deadline starts looming large and they're under the gun. But studies show that people are actually the least creative when they’re racing the clock — in fact, there seems to be a lingering recovery period: creativity not only takes a hit for that day, but the next two days afterwards as well. The fact is, creative ideas require an "incubation period." You need time to mull things over, come at the problem from different angles, and let all your ideas steep in your unconscious mind. So as tempting as it may be to procrastinate, start ruminating on your next project early on for better results, and use the last-minute drive to focus on execution. Myth 6: Good creative solutions only happen when a group is on the same page, building off each other’s ideas. The best creative teams are actually those that have the confidence to share and debate ideas. To disagree with each other productively and offer constructive criticism. BUT (and this is a big "but") without attacking each other. Altering points of view and disagreements have to be made in the spirit of collaboration, not competition. When everyone in the group feels confident and supported, disagreements become welcome opportunities to challenge each other and rise to new heights. Myth 7: You need a fresh brain in order to come up with creative new ideas. Studies show that you’re actually more creative when your brain isn't running at 100%. A tired mind isn’t as good at filtering out distractions or remembering connections between ideas — both of which can be beneficial to the creative process, where you’re trying to make unusual connections, stay open to new ideas, and take in a broad range of information and observations. So next time you sit down to do some creative work, skip the caffeine — your brain's ability to passively take in a lot of unfiltered stimuli is actually good for your creativity. Feeling Stuck? Check out our list of 14 inspiring websites, videos, podcasts, and other online resources that will rekindle your creative spark. You can also download our free eBook on how to build a world-class in-house creative team. It includes tips for finding the right people, sustaining your creative success, and building the right processes to help your team get from beginning to end. Get the eBook now: The Definitive Guide to Building a World-Class Internal Creative Agency
3 Crucial Keys to Creative Project Management
If you think overseeing creative projects and supervising creative teams is the same as managing a project with software developers or a manufacturing crew, you may want to think again. Every group has its own quirks and unique concerns that must be taken into consideration if you're going to be an effective leader. Below are the three crucial keys to successfully managing a project with creatives.
