One of the consistent themes in research on creativity is that it ISN'T all about the "right brain". While the unstructured and unexpected are at the heart of the creative process, realization of useful creative output requires structure, discipline, and execution. This series of ads done for Mercedes-Benz in 2011 (Shalmor Avnon Amichay/Y&R Interactive Tel Aviv, Israel) highlights the contrast beautifully.
​My goal in starting this blog was to provide a tour of the creative world, and that tour begins at the dictionary. What is creativity? While there are probably a number of definitions, I'll rely on the definition of creativity as the production of novel or useful ideas in any domain. In order to be considered creative, an idea must simply be different from what has been done before, which is a pretty low bar until we add that the idea "cannot be merely different for difference's sake; it must also be appropriate to the goal at hand, correct, valuable, or expressive of meaning" (Amabile, 1996). Note that this is a much broader grab than oil paints and art projects; creativity is fundamentally the creation of novel and useful ideas in any domain. It therefore includes almost every corner of the human world; a movie poster that catches the mind as well as the eye, a novel way to open a can, a better way to cross the road. It excludes only the rote, the unanalyzed, and the purely random.
This definition still has a couple of issues, however.
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Sometimes it's the smallest ideas that are the most inspiring. I came across this clever trick to ditch the pegboard and keep things organized; no word yet on whether it will induce pacman themed nightmares. Discovered on Reddit, original credit to Lifehacker.
Here's a really excellent artist who blurs the distinctions between engineering, art, and philosophy. Theo Jensen has set out to create "life" from silicon and PVC, creating ambulatory works of art that react to stimuli and can move to evade danger. Irrespective of Jensen's philosophical argument, the engineering (and art) in his work is certainly beautiful. Check out his work on the BBC [link] and a related TED talk [link].