Video: Edward de Bono on...

...a number of things, actually. All of them about thinking, creating, creativity and how to think originally.

Here is the video in question. Some notable points are:

at 0.37 - "...on creative thinking"

I find the distinction between talent and skill at making the most of your talent to be most intriguing. In fact, I am brought back to being interviewed for this degree, and being asked whether or not I considered raw talent to be more important than perseverance and hard work in the fashion industry.

To this day, I am not entirely sure what my answer was. From what I can remember, I said that to be operating in industry, there is surely talent somewhere. But only by truly pushing yourself, your business ideas and your processes can you be successful. (There was actually a lot more rambling going on, but I try not to dwell on it.)

However, I digress. The point is that this short little segment of video left me wondering as to how we as designers should best go about making the most of our talent. It is a reminder, too, that a creative mindset can't simply be just switched on. We have to work, and sometimes work hard, at being creative. If 'creative thinking is a skill', then how do we refine this skill to become better at generating creative and innovative ideas?

at 1.21 - "...on being different"

An interesting way of looking at the creativity: by considering its opposite. In this case, being truly 'creative' means generating ideas that 'have value'. Of course, 'value' is extremely subjective, and perspectives upon what has worth are driven by social, cultural and economic factors which change over time.

I suppose the root of this idea is that, if something only exists because it is different to what has gone before, then there is no true value or use and the process of thinking that lead to its existence was not creative. There was no innovation; no necessity. In regards to the fashion industry, I am now pondering upon how the 'non-creative' thinking contributes to unsustainable practices. If something has no value, it is much more disposable...

at 1.57 - "...on making mistakes"

I love this section to bits. So much so that I have to directly quote:

"... a big deficiency in language, certainly the English language, is we don't have a word which says fully justified venture, which for reasons beyond your control did not succeed. So anything that did not succeed is called a mistake, and people don't like mistakes..."

Well, I happen to love mistakes. Some of them, anyway. Throughout my training at RMIT, I have slowly learned to embrace the 'happy accident' - where the outcome of a trial was not expected, but lead to interesting results that were further explored. I believe this says a lot about how the ability to reflect upon and consider something other than the expected is integral to a successful, creative design process.