Project Statement

Background

The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), a leading global multimedia news and information company, includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, NYTimes.com , BostonGlobe.com , Boston. com , About.com and related properties. The Company’s core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.

It is a thriving forum of cultural opinion, particularly online. This project will related an editorial questioning ac- cepted cultural understandings of the creative process, it efficiency in a work-place context, and its relationship to different personalities.

Target Audience

Creative Professionals Business Owners - big and small, wherever producitivity effects cost Phsycologists - and other professionals interested in the relationship between creativity and personality, and how to better understand its cultural relevance

Objectives

After seeing this illustration paired with this editorial, readers should walk away with a fresh perspective toward their own creativity - they will go for a quiet walk alone, leave the conference room babble, lock themselves in their office away from all other influences - and start thinking. Business professionals and creatives alike should rethink how they approach brainstorming and ideas, seeking a better balance between collaboration and necessary alone time. This illustration will clearly highlight the frustrations, pitfalls, and wastefulness of an excessively collabora- tively focused creative process.

Obstacles

The phrase “creative collaboration” is overused and overlauded by artists across practice and profession as the standard in creative thinking, understanding, and pushing ideas to bigger, better places. Creative collaboration does have benefits. However, our current cultural understanding gives it too much credit is losing the value of creativity in individual thought and productivity in solitude. Americans in particular give introversion a negative spin, drawn in instead by charisma, energy, and a certain degree of groupthink. The goal of this editorial illustration is to call atten- tion to the foolishness of extremes and the need for a more balanced creative approach.

Key Benefit

Saving time and money, bychangind cultural perspectives.

Support Statement

Creativity drives innovation in art, business, technology, etc. It is beneficial to understand and use our creative potential to the fullest of its ability.

Increasing creative output is more cost-effective for businesses

Rethinking the relationship between creativity and personality will lead to a more positive cultural understand- ing of introversion and “artsy” individuals.

Social norms (and habits of thinking) are the most difficult cultural force to change. This illustration communi- cates the above mentioned benefits in a non-pushy, light-hearted way.

Tone

The illustration should be sarcastic, funny, and a touch uncomfortable. The type of illustration that makes you chuckle and cringe because you’ve been there and you know how ridiculous those meetings are - full of character exaggera- tion and familiar scenarios.

Media This project is for onling publication only via the New York Times website.

Creative Considerations The topic is largely geared to an American audience and a Western point of view. Therefore, the illustration should reflect the ethnic diversity of the United States, but remain clearly from a Western perspective. Although globally applicable, the editorial and its supporting research approach cultural beliefs and social behaviors from a largely Western understanding and experience.

while snowed it...

...I decided to draw a few things. Since I don't have a personal blog, I'll most likely be posting a few random things here. A couple things that I discovered:
...too much time with a Sharpie will give you a headache
...I like markers.

Sketches

12. Comic strip - woman meditating to escape chaotic workplace and find creative flow (this is labeled as the last)

1. Conference room shrine to "the lightbulb"
2. Fist pound creating really stupid art
3. Conference table of light switches turned off
4. Solitude balances Creativity

5. Solitude catapulted by collaborating creatives (although it looks more like something you'd see in Zombieland)
6. Personal work space (solitude) vs. Chaos of collaboration
7. Zombie-like creatives around ticking time table
8. "Brainstorming" but all wired to the same idea - only flickering lightbulb results

9. Empty box full of collaborative efforts, but the good ideas are outside the box. Cheesy, yep.
10. Solitude's cubicle separate from the clutter of the workplace
11. Someone's always watching - starring faces

Come Hell or High Water

Or Snow...

I found Interwebs! After a 2 mile trek around, through, over, and under this lovely Seattle-turned-Narnia winter world. Only a couple of hours late, but I can finally post the rest of my research and my sketches.

Definitions are a good place to start.

cre·a·tiv·i·ty

  [kree-ey-tiv-i-tee, kree-uh-] 

noun

1.

the state or quality of being creative.

2.

the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns,relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful newideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality,progressiveness, or imagination: the need for creativity inmodern industry; creativity in the performing arts.

3.

the process by which one utilizes creative  ability: Extensivereading stimulated his creativity.

extrovert or extravert  (ˈɛkstrəˌvɜːt)
— n
1.	a person concerned more with external reality than innerfeelings
— adj
2.	of or characterized by extroversion: extrovert tendencies

in·tro·vert

   [n., adj. in-truh-vurt; v. in-truh-vurt] Show IPA

noun

1.

a shy person.

2.

Psychology . a person characterized by concern primarilywith his or her own thoughts and feelings ( opposed to extrovert).

Before proceeding...I must take slight issue with Dictionary.com's definition of introvert. Introversion is equitable to shyness, they may frequently be associate but are not the same thing, which Susan Cain noted on her blog:

"Shyness and introversion are not the same thing. Shyness is the fear of negative judgement, and introversion is a preference for quiet, minimally stimulating environments."

The rest of my research (outside of the blogs in the previous post) looked at the psychologists Cain referenced, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist. From what I read, both their research and Cain's perspective explore how we understand the relationship between personality and creativity. 

In this particular article, The Rise of the New Groupthink, Cain is more specifically arguing a point about the relationship between personality and productive creativity in the 21st century, American workplace. 

The Power of Introverts

Susan Cain, the author of The Rise of the New Groupthink, has a blog: Quiet: The Power of Introverts. Evidently, her editorial is also the most email NYT article of the day and is being reposted in several places across the web, including Douglas Eby's blog, The Creative Mind. 

Is it ironic that I found this off-putting? Now I want to find something to illustrate that no one else has read. By myself. Thank you very much. 

Editorial Illustration: 3 ideas

How Art History Majors Power the U.S. Economy

This is the second article in a two-part series by Virginia Postrel, author of "The Future and Its Enemies" and "The Substance of Style." Both articles muddle through the swamplands of higher education in the U.S. I'm interested in this second one because of its unique perspective (and because of the viewpoint it intends to refute). Although the writing isn't as clear as I think it could be, it does beg its reader to understand the value of a liberal arts degree on two important levels: economic and inherent learning. I think this article has illustration potential, and of the three it is my favorite topic...but the scattered writing and wavering point discourage me.

Israelis Facing a Seismic Rift Over Role of Women

There are few things that inspire more than 21st century feminism and the cross-cultural debates therein. However, after getting quite excited about the topic at hand and its illustrative potential, I quickly realized its not, strictly-speaking, an editorial. Thus, I daresay it's out of the running.

I could replace it with a solid back-up: Newt Gingrich and the Art of Racial Politics. However, I'm not sure I could dedicate 3 weeks of my school career to drawing Newt. Gross.

So, naturally, the winner is this The Rise of the New Groupthink - to the point, accessible, and ripe for illustrating. Not to downplay the importance of working well with a team, but I think the point behind this article resonates with a lot of student artists and creative professionals alike. Many of us would frankly rather do it ourselves, and there is a reason for it. The research referenced here indicates, at the very least, an association between introversion/individual thought and original creativity.

(Disclaimer: I fully appreciate the value of artistic collaboration and the need for all creatives to learn with and from one another).

More research/sketches to follow...although 12 is going to be a stretch.

Cheers,

KJ