Other forms of creativity

So you land a huge web contract and can't wait to get your hands dirty. Your ideas procreate like bunnies with a range of beautiful imagery, white space (not MySpace) layouts and fancy 2.0 buttons with a duplicate layer shadow opacity set to 45% or by applying a gradient. Product requirements take a secondary role in your design phase because quite frankly, this new design will blow away requirements. A few tweaks here, left navigation there, and there it is. You step back mesmerized by the contemporary Mona Lisa.

A few days later, you submit the proposal. Greetings. Hand shakes. Smiles in anticipation, then the ball drops. The designs are completely out of the realms of corporate branding, the yellow does not match the client's yellow (although it's really close), the layout is all wrong - gasp, and the list goes on. Meeting adjourned. One more chance and back to the drawing board. Where did I go wrong? What's wrong with my design? In your frustration, you take a day off and watch Dr. Phil with a bag of popcorn and head towards depression.

OK, OK, put down the popcorn. Let's say you have a good eye. No, let's say you have an excellent eye for design. You are what people would call creative. In your innovation, you whipped up what you and other firms would probably call the "perfect design". I'm sure it was, but for this particular client, it wasn't. Why? Well, creativity is often times misunderstood. It's usually categorized within the realm of art and design, but there's a little more to it than that.

It also takes a lot of creativity to review and communicate product requirements, define development time, resources, and identify next steps to complete a project. You need to see the bigger picture. One element which designers lack is the balance between creativity and client requirements. Again, I'm sure you are talented, not doubting that. The point is, your design must be within the bounds of what your client needs. Think about it, your client may very well have identified their niche market. They may also have contracted with another vendor for layout and theme selection. All you had to do was style the thing with CSS!

So don't limit creativity for just new innovative designs. You'll get your shot at those. For some projects, you may only be one component of the bigger picture. That's fine too, but it also takes creativity to design and work within the bounds of client requirements. Being creative doesn't always have to be design. Resourcefulness in itself is creativity birthed within the limits of what others would call a wall or road block.

Ex-Google engineers debut 'Cuil' way to search

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, Associated Press

Rather than trying to mimic Google's method of ranking the quantity and quality of links to Web sites, Patterson says Cuil's technology drills into the actual content of a page. And Cuil's results will be presented in a more magazine-like format instead of just a vertical stack of Web links. Cuil's results are displayed with more photos spread horizontally across the page and include sidebars that can be clicked on to learn more about topics related to the original search request.

Check it out

What do you think about this?

Familiar Places

A few months ago during a huge pow-wow Saturday morning teleconference, I started getting antsy. No, it wasn't from bad pizza. It was too early for pizza. Forward march to our deadline, resource, and budget analysis - meeting adjourned. Shortly after I asked Gladys what our plans were for August 3. Shrug. I threw out another random date, how about Nov 15? Double shrug. We had no idea. More in a second.

In a recent talk I heard (don't know where the survey is from, but thought it was interesting), fathers were asked, "if you could do it all over again, what is the one thing you would have done differently?" The majority replied with, "I would have spent more time with my kids". That answer has echoed countless comments and advice from the most brilliant folks I've worked with. "You'll always have business opportunities. You'll always have a chance to be innovative and inventive, but at the end of the day, you'll only have one family. Invest your best years into them."

So in response to my post meeting queries, our family has become more proactive about how we spend our time together. It's not enough that I get home from work on time or be physically present with them. We are constantly trying to find creative ways to connect with each other throughout the day when I'm working, home, or wherever. You're right, easier said than done, but we remind ourselves that it is a process.

Thanks to all those who have been constantly drilling into my head, family first!

If you're looking for an inexpensive weekend getaway, Shepherd's Lake in Ringwood, NJ is always a good time. It's a place to kick back, relax, turn your gadgets off and enjoy infinite amounts of authentic quality time. They've got a great beach area, boat access, and hiking grounds. My greatest investment is and will always be the time I spend with the two most beautiful and important people in the world. Row row row your boat...smile Gabe!

Clouded Communication

Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants”, dissects the core of human communication. Hemingway’s use of verbal imagery through dialogue strikes a common vein with all readers. The characters’ play on words evoke thought provoking realizations that people find it difficult to communicate the essence of what needs to be said. Unlike most stories, Hemingway builds the story from simple discourse drawing the reader deeper into the context of communication. If you've never had a chance to read this story, read up!

Thanks to Alan Mitnick for sparking the need to dive deeper into literary dialogues!

Talent, hard work, and determination...

When someone is very good at a given thing, what is it that actually makes him good? What separates a good organizational contributor from an exceptional one? We gain some insight on the subject as Christopher Percy Collier from Fastcompany.com interviews Anders Ericsson.

Read more on this article and find out more
Here's an additional article from the New York Times

Ericsson has spent 25 years interviewing and analyzing high-flying professionals. He's the coeditor of the 918-page book Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (Cambridge University Press, 2006), in which he says elite performers aren't genetically superior. They just do things differently.

Pitvertising

Gotta love it. Advertisers have taken a whole new approach to advertising through the use of pitversing.

Check out what Darren Murph journaled from engadget.com.

Now that's creative advertising!

iPhone gone wild

So I waited the next morning for Santa to make his full delivery of presents like a good boy should. Wrapped with all the hype from 364 days of waiting, Christmas morning is about the anticipation of something you've waited for. Imagine getting a present that looks like a million bucks from the wrapper. You break through the ribbons. Your eyes begin to illuminate from a shine that glistens through the packaging. As you open to find your newly found obsession, you're shocked to find that the box is empty. Huh?

Santa came in the form of Apple this morning. A firmware 2.0 was all I needed to transition to the new exchange features, and tons of other useful UI tasty iPhone apps. I was able to backup my first gen iPhone, install the 2.0 firmware, and then it happened. Soon after I was able to press my fingers on the face of my smart phone, the box was empty. After reading through the Engadget posts and a pool of disgruntled iPhone customers, the voices were synonymous. Everyone's boxes were empty.

So let's get this straight. Everything in moderation right? Well, apparently for Apple's servers, it was assumed that they would be able to take the hits. Lesson learned, plan accordingly. I now hold what some call, an iBrick, gasp!