Recently I wrote an article titled Sparkling Creativity. It talks about having explored certain activities can actually increase your creative juice. The article also mentioned about sample of things you can do and discuss the reasoning why we should do it. If you are interested in growing creatively, I would suggest you to exercise and stretch your mind; get inspired and you will see things in new ways. To read more details of the article, please click this link.
Below are books that I enlisted for you, that talks about ways and guidelines to teach you the creative thinking process on a more specific subject. Read these books as supplements to become more critical and innovative in your profession.
The Writer’s Idea Book
For the myriad frustrated or blocked writers in the world comes another addition to the swelling shelves of guides designed to soothe, teach and inspire. And while Heffron, an acquisitions editor for Writer’s Digest and other F+W publications, undeniably loves his subject and knows much about it, he doesn’t break out of the conventional (and at this point, one might argue tired) format to tell it. He includes, for instance, the requisite quotes from famous authors that are designed to inspire struggling ones; the familiar pleas for details; the advice on courage and persistence; and the tried-and-true brainstorming exercises. What’s better-but still, in form anyway, standard fare-are the 400-plus writing prompts: “Write about your first experience with death”; “Write a scene in which a character returns home after an extended absence”; “Every day for a week, write down something you’ve learned in conversation”; “Write a new opening” to a piece that’s unfinished. Like any catch-all book (this one extends over scripts, poetry, fiction and nonfiction-forms and genres with their own advantages and restrictions), it is ultimately too broad to really instruct. However, those in the market for a basic, practical writing guide will find this one at least as useful as many others.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. (Reviewer: Publishers Weekly)
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The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
Novelist Steven Pressfield (The Legend of Bagger Vance; Gates of Fire) goes self-help in The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle. Dubbing itself a cross between Sun-Tzu’s The Art of War and Julie Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, Pressfield’s book aims to help readers “overcome Resistance” so that they may achieve “the unlived life within.” Whether one wishes to embark on a diet, a program of spiritual advancement or an entrepreneurial venture, it’s most often resistance that blocks the way. To kick resistance, Pressfield stresses loving what one does, having patience and acting in the face of fear. (Reviewer: Publishers Weekly)
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The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life
Perhaps the leading choreographer of her generation, Tharp offers a thesis on creativity that is more complex than its self-help title suggests. To be sure, an array of prescriptions and exercises should do much to help those who feel some pent-up inventiveness to find a system for turning idea into product, whether that be a story, a painting or a song. This free-wheeling interest across various creative forms is one of the main points that sets this book apart and leads to its success. The approach may have been born of the need to reach an audience greater than choreographer hopefuls, and the diversity of examples (from Maurice Sendak to Beethoven on one page) frees the student to develop his or her own patterns and habits, rather than imposing some regimen that works for Tharp. The greatest number of illustrations, however, come from her experiences. As a result, this deeply personal book, while not a memoir, reveals much about her own struggles, goals and achievements. Finally, the book is also a rumination on the nature of creativity itself, exploring themes of process versus product, the influences of inspiration and rigorous study, and much more. It deserves a wide audience among general readers and should not be relegated to the self-help section of bookstores.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. (Reviewer: Publishers Weekly)
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The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
With the basic principle that creative expression is the natural direction of life, Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan lead you through a comprehensive twelve-week program to recover your creativity from a variety of blocks, including limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, jealousy, guilt, addictions, and other inhibiting forces, replacing them with artistic confidence and productivity. This book links creativity to spirituality by showing how to connect with the creative energies of the universe, and has, in the four years since its publication, spawned a remarkable number of support groups for artists dedicated to practicing the exercises it contains. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. (Reviewer: Amazon.com)
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Taking Flight: Inspiration And Techniques To Give Your Creative Spirit Wings
In Taking Flight, you’ll find overflowing inspiration–complete with a kindred spirit in author and mixed-media artist Kelly Rae Roberts. Join her on a fearless journey into the heart of creativity as you test your wings and learn to find the sacred in the ordinary, honor your memories, speak your truth and wrap yourself in the arms of community.
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Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation
Johansson, founder and former CEO of an enterprise software company, argues that innovations occur when people see beyond their expertise and approach situations actively, with an eye toward putting available materials together in new combinations. Because of ions, “the movement of people, the convergence of science, and the leap of computation,” a wide range of materials available for new, recontextualized uses is becoming a norm rather than an exception, much as the Medici family of Renaissance Italy’s patronage helped develop European arts and culture. For cases in point, Johansson profiles, among others, Marcus Samuelsson, the acclaimed chef at New York’s Aquavit. An Ethiopian orphan, Samuelsson was adopted by a Swedish family, with whom he traveled widely, enabling him to develop the restaurant’s unique and innovative menu. (Less familiar innovators include a medical resident who, nearly assaulted by an emergency room patient she was treating, developed outreach programs designed to prevent teen violence.) Chapters admonish readers to “Randomly Combine Concepts” and “Ignite an Explosion of Ideas.” Less focused on innovations within a corporate setting than on individual achievements, and more concerned with self-starting and goal-setting than teamwork, Johansson’s book offers a clear enough set of concepts for plugging in the specifics of one’s own setting and expertise. But don’t expect the book to tell you where to get the money for prototypes or production. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. (Reviewer: Publishers Weekly)
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The Creative Entrepreneur: A DIY Visual Guidebook for Making Business Ideas Real
The Creative Entrepreneur is a visual, results-oriented, step-by-step method of business development for creatives from all walks of life who want to turn their passions into viable business opportunities. Whether you are and artist, designer, or small business owner, this book will empower you to renew and nurture your vision with the steps required to take an idea and make it real. The Creative Entrepreneur offers a dynamic left brain/right brain approach to developing a business focus that evaluates underlying internal issues unique to creative types and shows how to practically address them. You’ll gain a combination of powerful business and strategic planning tools and learn how to use them like a pro. Related journal exercises further explore each concept in a visual and engaging way that appeals to how creative types think, learn and process information. Your journal becomes a companion and map for your creative business journey.
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Practical Guide to Creative Visualization: Manifest Your Desires
If you’re ready to do powerful magick without using any wands, robes, or altars, you need Practical Guide to Creative Visualization by Denning & Phillips. In it you’ll learn everything you need to know to do this powerful system of magick with the mind. First, the book explains exactly what creative visualization is and what it is not. Then it gives you a technique to relax your body and mind, a necessity in order to get the most out of your visualizations. You’ll also learn how to use controlled breathing in order to enhance the magick. Then you learn a variety of visualization techniques that can help you achieve your goals. The techniques include the Simple Creative Visualization Method, the Charging Technique, the Master Method of Creative Visualization, and the Star Technique of Creative Visualization.
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Visual Communication: Integrating Media, Art, and Science
A well-rounded education in the 21st century requires not just verbal and mathematical proficiency, but also the ability to interpret, understand, critique, create, and use visual communication on sophisticated levels. In today’s visual world, it is critically important to understand and respond intelligently to the profound effects of imagery on individuals and the communities in which they live.
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Creative Jolt
Designers agree that the most difficult aspect of brainstorming a solution to any particular problem is departing from their usual way of solving things. Creative Jolt is an easy-to-use handbook that explores ways to creatively overcome these graphic design stumbling blocks. This book offers 15 zippy, ingenious approaches to unblocking readers’ minds and start looking at things in unusual ways. The authors have organized this book by type of creative approach, and have included heavy illustration with examples from the world’s leading designers. Readers will discover how to increase their creative potential and produce original, intelligent, seductive on-target designs. They’ll also learn to find inspiration from unexpected sources quickly and easily.
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Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques
THINKERTOYS will teach you how to generate new ideas for businesses, markets, sales techniques, and products and product extensions. Packed with fun and practical tools and exercises, it outlines 30 practical linear and intuitive techniques that can be used by individuals or groups to tackle and solve business problems in fresh, creative ways.
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Thinking Like Einstein: Returning To Our Visual Roots With The Emerging Revolution In Computer Information Visualization
“This book is a fascinating look at the history of the relationship between logical and visual thinking. There are aspects to this history that are both frightening and encouraging, and, with the current pendulum swing back toward visualization as a respectable thinking tool, it provides an important guide to what has been done before and what can be done in the future.” JAMES F. BLINN, Graphics Fellow at Microsoft Research: Columnist for IEEE Computer Graphics; MacArthur Fellow; Recipient of the SIGGRAPH Achievement Award and the Stephen Coons Award.
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Creative Sparks: An Index of 150+ Concepts, Images and Exercises to Ignite Your Design Ingenuity
This book is a playful collection of rock-solid advice, thought-provoking concepts, suggestions and exercises is sure to stimulate the creative, innovative thinking that designers need to do their jobs well. It will encourage readers to find inspiration in the world about them, spark new ideas and act as a guide to each designer’s creative path. Each spread stands alone as a self-contained, thoughtfully designed creative primer, focusing not only on cleverly designed creativity tips or anecdotes, but also on practical advice and idea starters.
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Visual Language for Designers: Principles for Creating Graphics that People Understand
Within every picture is a hidden language that conveys a message, whether it is intended or not. This language is based on the ways people perceive and process visual information. By understanding visual language as the interface between a graphic and a viewer, designers and illustrators can learn to inform with accuracy and power.
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Essentials of Visual Communication
Aimed at students studying for a first degree, this book is a fascinating introduction to visual communication, including graphic design, advertising, editorial, new media, film and television – in fact, any discipline that seeks to convey a message through text and images. A practical guide that also touches on visual theory, this book describes the business of visual communication and explains how to build a strong communication strategy and use words and pictures effectively to connect to the intended audience. The book is illustrated throughout with up-to-date examples of best practice from around the world that help to put visual theory into context. Summary boxes at the end of every chapter make it ideal for revision and reference.
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One is Adam, One is Superman: The Artists of Creative Growth
Providing innovative art programs to adults with developmental, physical, mental, and emotional disabilities, Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, California, is the oldest and largest nonprofit visual art center in the country. The outsider artists of Creative Growth produce extraordinary work — painting, sculpture, drawing, collage — that can only come from within. In this collection, photographs by Leon Borensztein exhibit this work and portray each artist honestly and positively, while statements from the artists themselves capture their personal connection to their work. One is Adam, One is Superman offers the viewer a window into the lives and creative souls of these exceptional individuals.
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Advertising: New Techniques for Visual Seduction
Advertisers are engaged in a constant search for new ways to grab the interest and appetites of consumers. Often they use words, but just as frequently they use eye-fooling, mind-bending images—optical illusions—to pull viewers up short and force them to glance again. The second look is the key to successful communication, and images that elicit that reaction are an indispensable trick of the advertising trade.
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Visual Selling: Capture the Eye and the Customer Will Follow
Visual Selling provides salespeople with tools to sell in an increasingly image-oriented culture. More so than ever before, the way a salesperson looks and acts, the images on a screen or in handouts, and even room environments can impact people’s trust, satisfaction and willingness to buy. The authors believe that, to sell most effectively, the seller must be the visual focal point. This book draws on 25 years of experience coaching individuals and organizations in the art of visual selling, sharing stories and techniques used in big-dollar competitive presentations and pitches to senior management. Divided into three sections (the Seller as Focal Point, Getting Ready to Sell and Selling Situations), Visual Selling will appeal to a wide variety of business readers because it can be used to help salespeople sell one-on-one, as well as to assist corporate presenters at selling new programs or products in-house.
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Stimulated!: Habits to Spark Your Creative Genius at Work
The daily drone can sap the spark of the most creative personality; this sparse, saccharine manual offers a few easy steps to revive creativity and incorporate inspiration into a daily routine. Pek and McGlade (noves: recipes for growth and innovation) posit that the need to create is a basic human urge that is not only an evolutionary imperative, but a spiritual one, capable of mitigating everyday stresses that can lead to burnout. Citing examples of people who have pursued creative satisfaction and attained material success, such as Nike cofounder Bill Bowerman, the authors demonstrate the importance and the rewards of maintaining creative thought processes. Pek and McGlade [...] are very earnest about their program, a series of five habits that can access creative potential: scouting, cultivating, playing, venturing, and harvesting. But for a book about stimulating creativity, the solutions and suggestions—the power of play, the importance of confidence and spark moments—are strikingly uninspired. Padded with trite aphorisms and unnecessary illustrations, the slim content is sufficient for a peppy magazine article—not a full-length book. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. (Reviewer: Publishers Weekly)
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Living the Creative Life: Ideas and Inspiration from Working Artists
If you could ask your favorite artist or crafter only one question, chances are you’d ask about creativity: Where do your ideas come from? How did you get started? What are your tricks for overcoming blocks? In Living the Creative Life, author Rice Freeman-Zachery has compiled answers to these questions and more from 15 successful artists in a variety of mediums–from assemblage to fiber arts, beading to mixed-media collage. Creativity is different for everyone, and these artists share their insights on the muse (if you believe in her), keeping a sketchbook (or not), and prioritizing your art, whether you aspire to create solely for your own pleasure or to become a full-time artist.
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