Imagine is about something that has been shrouded in mythology and speculation for centuries: human creativity. Even the most creative among us are frequently unsure of where their ideas come from. They often attribute their moments of insight to some otherworldly source, like a muse or genius which takes hold of them. Lehrer’s premise is that recent studies have helped us to now understand and explain a lot more about how creativity works than most people, even the professionally creative, might think.

As a graphic designer, I have to be creative every day. And yet, despite my familiarity with the process, there have always been certain parts of “being creative” that have always made me uncomfortable. For example, early on in every project when a client would describe their needs to me, there would come a point when I felt like I had NO IDEA what to do and I would get a sinking feeling in my stomach. Of course, the client wasn’t looking for a solution yet. They fully intended to tell me the problem then let me go work on it for a bit. But the initial feeling of uncertainty made me feel awful. This feeling would sometimes last for days. It led at times to feelings of doubt in my mind. “Maybe I’m not cut out for creative work, because I’m sure “truly creative” people don’t feel like this,” I would say to myself. I hoped and hoped that as I got used to doing creative work that this frustrated, no-idea-what-to-do feeling would go away. But it didn’t.

One of the first things Lehrer reveals is that before there can be a breakthrough, there must first be a block. An obstacle. A seemingly insurmountable problem which we wrestle with and lose. Only then will our brain be forced to search for clever alternatives. It’s this shift into a completely new and different thought process that lies at the heart of creativity. And it’s impossible to get there without first being frustrated.

Eureka! In an instant that very same feeling of frustration which before had caused self-doubt and trepidation was shifted, almost magically, to being a good thing and an indicator that what I was doing was not only not bad, but meant that I was on the right track!

And this was only the first chapter. Lehrer goes on to discuss other stigmas of creativity including how to keep creative teams from stagnating, why hot showers and cups of coffee are good for creativity (but not at the same time), and that it’s possible to cultivate creative genius much like we currently train athletes.

With so many industries changing radically everyday, it’s in everyone’s best interest to harness the power of our own creativity. The good news from Mr. Lehrer is that it’s possible for all of us to do so, whether we currently think of ourselves as creative or not. I wore out my highlighter reading Imagine. It’s a book I’ll be reading again and again in the coming years, right up there with Dan Pink’s Drive and Malcolm Galdwell’s Outliers. If you are or have a vested interested in helping other be as creative as possible, Imagine is a must read.

With so many new tools available for editing images and video, it can’t be too long before we start teaching elements of graphic design as a core competency in school. Until then, design is still something most of us have to seek out on our own.

In my experience, graphic design is a field in which you sink or swim based largely on the quality of your portfolio. This means it’s possible to become a professional in the field without necessarily having to go back to school. I did this myself over the last few years, but some recent developments have made it easier than ever to teach yourself design on a budget. Here’s what I’d do if I had to do it again today.

Adobe Creative Cloud

Price: $50

The hardest part of trying to learn graphic design on my own was first getting my hands on a copy of professional-level tools. At the time, Photoshop alone would set you back almost $1000. The entire Creative Suite would probably have cost more than the computer you’d run it on. I ended up talking someone in the graphics department at work into letting me borrow an old copy of Photoshop when the department upgraded, but today, that wouldn’t be necessary.

A few weeks ago, Adobe announced the Creative Cloud, a new subscription based model for their tools. From the literature on the Creative Cloud site, in
a few weeks it will be possible to get your hands on full versions of ALL of Adobe’s CS6 tools for just $50 a month. This is a huge deal for anyone
wanting to learn or use these tools on a budget. Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign…finally professional level tools are affordable for everyone.

Adobe Creative Cloud

Lynda.com

Price: Basic Subscription – $25, Premium Subscription  - $37.50

Once you get your hands on the right tools, though, you still need someone to show you how to use them. Enter Lynda.com.

Lynda.com is a huge online library of training videos for hundreds of modern tools. They have entire courses by experts in all kinds of things from Twitter to Microsoft Word to Adobe After Effects. The best part is that for the price of just $25 a month, you can have access to ALL of their videos. Watch as many as you want as many times as you want. And for just a little more a month you can get access to exercise files so you can follow along with the videos as you watch.

Lynda.com already has tons of videos ready to go for Adobe CS6, so you know the information is up to date. And they have courses that can take you from
beginner all the way up to advanced skills.

I taught myself Photoshop using YouTube videos and other stuff I found online. But then I found out about Lynda.com and used it to learn Illustrator and
InDesign. I highly prefer the structured content and video quality at Lynda.com to any other method.

Lynda.com

Required Reading

Price: As much as you want to spend

There’s one more essential piece of the puzzle for becoming a graphic designer. Knowing HOW to use the tools is one thing. Knowing WHAT to do with those
tools is something completely different. In order to learn that, you have to expose yourself to as much design theory and examples of good work as you
can. You can get a good amount of that just browsing the internet these days, but to really succeed you need to study. That means hitting the books and then practicing what you learn by trying to reproduce good works yourself.

I’ve found that most public libraries are lacking when it comes to design texts, so I’m gonna recommend you use the rest of your monthly budget to
actually buy some design books. I constantly want to refer back to mine so I really prefer to own them anyway. Here are a few suggestions to get your
collection started.

The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams

Graphic Design: the New Basics by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips

Univeral Principles of Design by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butler

Visual Language for Designers by Connie Malamed

Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton

Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type by Kimberly Elam

Everything by Edward Tufte

If your intention is to become a presentation designer you need to read everything by Nancy Duarte and Garr Reynolds. (If you haven’t already.)

[Image Credit: SeemingLee]

How much work went in to a Steve Jobs keynote? How many countless hours were spent and by how many people to make those minutes on stage seem effortless and natural?

Steve knew the effect that a presentation could have. What surprises me is that even after we’ve all seen the impact that Steve was able to have with his presentations, so many speakers still don’t take their presentations seriously.

This is actually a huge opportunity. Steve and other master presenters have shown us the road, but few are willing to walk it. Deciding to care about the little details, about things like presentations, is a great way to set yourself apart.

Art.com, a leading art and decor service, recently released their first iPad app, artCircles. The app was designed by Hot Studio.

The app is a lot of fun to play with. You can browse all kinds of artwork by color, by keyword, or by collections curated by some of today’s leading creatives from artists to designers to musicians.

The interface is a lot of fun, too, letting you spin through the collections until you find something you like.

artCircles is free.

via The Hot Studio Blog

The first speaker in the clip is Dieter Rams, famous for his contributions to industrial design, particularly for the consumer products company Braun. He is then followed by Jonathan Ive, the head of design for Apple.

While the speakers are discussing the design of physical objects, I believe many of the design concepts they discuss apply to all kinds of design.

If you enjoy this clip, I’d recommend you check out the documentary in full. It’s currently available on Netflix Instant.

When I first heard of the concept I thought it was cool. But after watching the video, I want to travel to Brooklyn to build myself a bike. And I don’t usually ride a bike. :^)

via Swiss-Miss

Those familiar with Slideology will recognize the (somewhat altered) diagram categories: Flow, Network, Stack, Segment, and Join. Many of the diagrams are editable versions of those sketched out for us in chapter three of Nancy’s book.

Most of the diagrams have multiple versions to facilitate different needs. All are just $0.99. And all are intended as starting places that can be manipulated, altered, and resized, etc.

This is a very exciting announcement and a very cool tool that makes it much easier to create diagrams that formerly would have required lots of time and possibly other design tools.

Yesterday Nancy tweeted that you can use the code 3forfree to get three free diagram downloads. But be careful. Once you have the first taste it may be hard to stop. :^)

Information and image via the Duarte Blog

Because your first idea may not be the best.

via 37signals.com

via Uppercase Blog

Beautiful new deck by Donny Epp.

via Note & Point