The creative teams is running out of ways to be creative
June 21, 2011 9:59 AM   Subscribe

What are some good creative exercises?

Once a week, the design team at work meets for an hour to go over any current projects. We like to kick off with a small creative exercise or discussion. In the past, we've done brief sketching exercises based upon an open-ended phrase, highlighted examples of print ads we found interesting, or brought in our favorite album covers.

What are some other short activities we can do?
posted by kidsleepy to Work & Money (13 answers total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
Draw each other as superheroes/rockstars/saints/supervillains.
Quick-sketch an advertisement for something absurd (taken as seriously as possible).
Answer the prompt: "If all the world were ruled by [insert animal here] what would [houses, cars, clothing, buildings, advertisements] look like?"
10 minute round of competitive Pictionary.
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 10:24 AM on June 21, 2011


See who can list the most, best uses for a common object, a biro or a house brick for example.
posted by Lorc at 10:26 AM on June 21, 2011


Not sure if this will work for your team, but we did a lot of impromptu photo "contests" when I worked at a photo studio. These were fun and sort of got the ball rolling for certain meetings/everyone has a camera on their phone so all you need is a theme and a few minutes. Charrettes to brain-storm through a design problem could instead be used as an exercise. Have everyone submit a quick sketch to go along with a quote (funny/otherwise) then have everyone try to guess who did which sketch. Have everyone write a haiku about a tear of a chair (table, house--whatever is being designed) and read aloud.
posted by marimeko at 10:28 AM on June 21, 2011


You don't say what kind of product your design team actually designs - that might help us with suggestions. For now, how about....

Pick a product we use commonly today in 2011 and redesign it for 1950 or 1920.

Re-name Pepsi.

Pick a product commonly used in your country and imagine how it might be used in ...... Papua New Guinea or Madagascar or Ethiopia.
posted by HeyAllie at 10:29 AM on June 21, 2011


Google "image streaming".
posted by darth_tedious at 10:38 AM on June 21, 2011


Check out the book A Whack on the Side of the Head. I'd recommend it for stimulating creativity.

Another book, Jump Start Your Brain, seems to evoke either love or hate from Amazon reviewers. I liked it for some additional interesting ideas/exercises, but liked A Whack much more.
posted by buzzv at 10:51 AM on June 21, 2011


I used to play a game that I had no name for. It requires two people. The first player names a word, traditionally it is the word "door." It is then the second player's turn. The second player must name a word that is not directly related to the first word, and do so within 10 seconds. If it takes longer than 10 seconds, then it is a 'mind blank' and the second player loses one point. However, the second player must still provide a word after a 'mind blank.' Once the second player says a word, the first player judges whether or not the second player's word is unrelated enough. If the first player can identify a link of associations shorter than two that relate the first and second word, then the first player can interrupt and observe the connection. If the second player agrees, then the second player loses one point. The second player now must say a different word. Again, if the second player takes more than 10 seconds, then he loses an additional point. Once the word is said, the first player judges whether this new word is also too closely related to the first word given. This repeats until either the second player loses three points, or an acceptably unrelated word is found. Once the first player is unable to claim a close connectedness of the two words, and judges the provided word suitably unrelated, then it is now the first players turn to say a word. This puts the second player in the position of the judge, and the roles reverse. This continues until one player loses three points, either by failure of unconnectedness or mind blank. Whoever loses three points is the loser. The next round's first turn is given to the Winner.

To give an example of how this game works:

Round 1 -
Player One says, "Door"
Player Two says, "Knob"
Player One judges door and knob to be too close, Doors have Knobs.
Player Two agrees.
Player Two has -1 point.
Player Two says, "Wood"
Player One judges door and wood to be too close, doors are often made of wood.
Player Two agrees.
Player Two has -2 points.
Player Two says, "Satellite"
Player One says, "Rock"
Player Two judges Satellite and Rock as too close, meteorites are rocks, and come from space which is where Satellites are.
Player One disagrees.
Player Two says, "Billow"
Player One says, "Brass"
Player Two says, "Lemon"
Player One can't think of anything for ten seconds.
Player Two calls 'mind blank'
Player One has -1 point.
Player One says, "Giraffe"
. . .
Player Two says, "Trapeze"
Player One says, "Circus"
Player Two judges Circus and Trapeze as too close. Trapeze acts are in the Circus
Player One agrees
Player One now has -3 points, Player One loses!
Round 2:
Player Two says, "Door"

I recommend you keep track of how long you and a friend can sustain it. It is a difficult game that gets harder the better you know the other person's associations.
posted by TwelveTwo at 11:03 AM on June 21, 2011 [4 favorites]


A better example of a longer reach connection that is difficult to dispute would be:

Player Two says, "Trapeze"
Player One says, "Tent"
Player Two judges Tent and Trapeze as too close. Trapeze acts are in Circus Tents

Satellite -> Rock is still too vague, and you would need to know the person pretty well to make them concede to a relation between the two. Maybe rocks hit satellites.

Oh, I forgot to add an additional aspect to this game. The clock is on as soon as the other person speaks, so you need to judge within ten seconds to avoid a claim of 'mind blank' and put them back under the clock. So, under completely formalized regulations, a failure to get the other to agree to your judgment loses you time and is likely to get you a mind blank. An unsavory player would deny all judgments, but that is not really in the spirit of the game. The game isn't played to win, but played as a mental and creative challenge.
posted by TwelveTwo at 11:11 AM on June 21, 2011


(They themselves might have a chunk of a satellite that is indistinguishable from a metallic rock. That would also make it a pretty obvious connection. Oh, or they might have a brass lemon on their mantle.)
posted by TwelveTwo at 11:12 AM on June 21, 2011


Synectics -- "the joining together of different and apparently irrelevant elements." -- is a great way to get your brain to explore new territory. A synectic exercise that I find fun & useful is to pick a few random nouns using a dictionary or a random noun generator, and draw narrative connections between them. As a design team, you could come up with an imaginary product based on two of the nouns, and then create an ad campaign for it based on the remaining noun(s).
For example, using the random noun generator, I just got:
BUZZARD
JUDO
SEASON
...so now we've got a campaign for a men's cologne called "Judo Season" being pitched by a buzzard mascot. Ridiculous, yes, but you see what I mean. Possibly my favorite quote related to synectic thinking is: "Trust things that are alien, and alienate things that are trusted."
I get a lot of mileage out of this way of working when I sit down to make things.
posted by D.Billy at 12:55 PM on June 21, 2011


I've been using this book, which sounds like it might be exactly what you're looking for.
posted by Sweetchrysanthemum at 4:18 PM on June 21, 2011


Surrealist Games, specifically the type called "exquisite corpse" -- you get a strip of paper, and the first person starts drawing then folds over that part, leaving only a few lines exposed. The next person starts there and draws out another section and then folds over that and passes the strip of paper down.

I've done this before where one person begins with the head, then you go on section-by-section drawing arms, legs, feet. You can also just do random sketches. These usually turn out to be very interesting. Some neat examples on flickr and google images.

Can't hurt to add in a round of Mad Libs, too.
posted by belau at 5:16 PM on June 21, 2011


I feel like these sort of exercises seem a bit contrived. They are good at weeding out those who are not real team players.
posted by ovvl at 8:17 PM on June 21, 2011


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