Creativity and Its Role in Your Business

How important would you say creativity is when it comes to developing your business? Would you say it is the most important aspect of all, the tool that enables you to stand out among the crowd of competitors who are jostling you at every opportunity? Or would you say it doesn’t really have much bearing on what you do from day to day?

In truth, creativity is very important. Without it your business will eventually become stagnant. Just imagine what many websites would look like if they were still using the same design they started out with. In the case of some of the oldest online properties, they’d look very antiquated indeed.

Hence there is a real need to move ahead and be creative with every single day that passes. Think about creativity in all its forms and consider whether you are applying it to your own business. How long have you had that same old business card? Does your business look as if it is stuck in the past? Is your website due for an overhaul to make it look better, more modern and more dynamic?

Creativity doesn’t just keep your business looking and feeling fresh. It can spark a whole new direction to go in. Many of the businesses that go under and disappear completely are those that fail to move with the times. This can be avoidable in many cases, which is another reason why you should embrace creativity as much as you can.

Of course you don’t need to do all this on your own. Sometimes you might feel you need assistance from experts in the field to get the job done. You don’t need to be able to create a new website from scratch. Providing you have an idea of where you want to go with it, you can hire someone else to do it on your behalf. Sometimes it is a combination of ideas from you and skills from someone else that get the best results, so don’t be afraid to seek out help and advice from elsewhere.

What You Can Learn from Apple

Of all the breakout companies in the technology/innovation economy of the last 30 years, Apple stands alone and small business owners and non-profits can learn a great deal from Apple’s success story:

• Don’t overlook small details. The iPad2 has been deemed less impressive than the awesome SmartCover designed for it.
• Keep things simple. Apple’s most successful products (iPod, iPhone and the iPad) are all very minimal. Look around your workplace, at processes and products at what you can eliminate vs. add.
• Develop a cult-like community. Apple’s customers don’t just feel like customers. They feel like they belong to something larger. Kiva is a great example of a non-profit whose international online community of contributers interact heavily in forums.
• It isn’t necessary to play nice with everyone. iTunes doesn’t mesh with all other tech providers, Apple has refused Adobe Flash for iPads/iPhones. Apple is notorious for not creating partnerships with other companies (unlike Google). Or perhaps it is better to say they are incredibly picky in those partnerships-and that is the takeaway and part of what creates that insulated sense of community.
• Design matters. Of course, we at Ratio7 believe that strongly, but the world of design is getting increasing notice and there is little doubt that Apple’s clean, distinctive product designs, and logo, have lead that wave of attention.

What’s Important to Ratio7

In speaking with a potential client about what she is looking for in a graphic design/web development firm, she said “it’s important to know what’s important to that firm, what they are doing and working on”. I thought this was a great idea for a post. Here are some thoughts on what makes Ratio7′s team tick and thrive:

First, and foremost, we are driven by our Christian values and beliefs. This is what fuels us to deliver our very best, in an ethical, honest fashion. This also motivates our commitment to giving back through the Ratio Foundation.

We love supporting companies who give back as well like this great organisation, and this one. And we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE being part of your success!

We know that creativity requires curiosity and learning and staying on top of technology trends. We read a lot, we interact with other designers and tech-y professionals, and we pay deep attention to our clients’ needs (including budget and timelines).

Flexibility is important to us, so we employ a broad variety of creatives, both on-staff and freelancers, so we can meet specific needs nimbly.

Of course, in addition to faith, humour, family, friendship and COFFEE are important to keeping us happy, alive and fueled! What’s important to YOU?

Best iPhone/iPad Creativity Apps

Applications (apps) are changing the world. In fact, a recent article says that the smartphone is actually more a personal computer than the PC actually ever was. By the end of 2011, the majority of cell phone users will be using smartphones. And now that iPads and it’s competitors are so popular, there are apps for everything! 300,000 options at last count. Here are some of our favorite creativity apps:

• Sketchbook Mobile/Sketchbook Pro: Made by Autodesk, the creator/owner of AutoCAD, this app offers professional grade painting and drawing on the iPhone/iPad. TONS of features for on-the-go creating at a professional level
• Draw: Pretty basic with colored pencils and an eraser, it still allows for instant creativity AND allows you to Tweet or email your creations
• Brushes: Brushes is a painting app designed specifically for iPhone/iPad with a variety of brushes and a nifty color picker
• Hipstamatic: This photography app has spawned flickr groups and contests. Offers a variety of lenses to allow you to take photos that have a unique vintage feel. The corresponding website is brilliant as well!
• ShakeItPhoto: Allows you to turn any iPhone photo into a Polaroid image by shaking your phone. Way cool!
• CameraBag: Offers a variety of lenses to change your iPhone photos into different tones like black and white, sepia, silver, plastic camera, and even different years like 1962 and 1974 photo styles! A whole lotta fun!

Honestly, we could really keep going for a long time sharing fun and creative apps, but we’d rather hear from you! What are your favorites? What are we missing?

Branding: It’s All About Emotion

Branding is a funny little term that means so much. Your company’s culture, its image, what it wants to convey, how it wants to entice is all part part of “branding”. But the most important part of branding is the emotion it wants to evoke in the viewer and potential customer.

A great film for all business owners about to work with an advertising or branding company like Ratio7 is Art & Copy. The film is advertising 101 in a sense and helps businesses understand what emotions their design firm is trying to pull from them and work with them to convey in their audience. Great brand strategies like Nike’s Just Do It and the original Apple MacIntosh 1984-style commercial are all covered. What do they have in common? Emotion.

When working with you on branding, logo and web design, video production or print, Ratio7 knows that you need to get your message across and will encourage you to consider the various emotions that will stir your audience: intrigue, connection, laughter, curiosity, contentment, confidence, reassurance, enlightenment, security. All of these are common feelings that companies try to inspire in their customers and we understand how emotionally compelling storytelling helps you do that.

When meeting with your graphic designer for the first time, consider what you want your potential customers and audience to feel. When you stir an emotion or solve a problem, you build brand loyalty. We understand this and will help you find the answers that suit your company best!

Make a Creativity Date with Yourself

Sometimes those creativity batteries need to be recharged and a creativity (or artist) date is a fun way to do just that. Originally coined by Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, many people working in a variety of creative endeavors use these dates to fertilize pending ideas and to generate new ones. Sometimes they are helpful just to get a break from the daily grind as well.

A creative or artist date is a commitment to yourself (Cameron recommends weekly, but do what you can) to spend time alone exploring. Whether these are new parts of your city that have intrigued you, new activities (if you work on a computer all day, a better date is spent working with your hands), listening to new types of music, seeing an odd movie, anything that is outside the “norm” for you.

An excellent idea is to give yourself an assignment with a camera. You can commit to as many photographs of the color red, the letter J, rusty cars or graffiti as you can get in a set period of time. Or grab an old stack of magazines and commit to three collages around a theme (or just in general).

Sometimes just silence is enough to get those juices flowing again. When you are a graphic designer, you tend to be on the computer and phone constantly (actually, if you work anywhere that’s likely the case). Getting into a park and experiencing a bit of silence and nature (maybe with a good old fashioned sketchbook) can be tremendously uplifting.

Regardless how you spend it, do schedule these routine appointments with yourself. You, and your clients, deserve it.

Design Buzz

“Design” is a term that has crossed boundaries, from the creative to the practical. You can thank Apple for bringing public awareness to good design and that awareness has now spread to the common consumer. Tim Brown, CEO of branding giant, IDEO has written Change by Design which examines how the creative process and design methods are helpful in all areas of business.

At its core, design isn’t just about being pretty but about a great customer experience, a concern that any type of business has. How do designers answer those questions? First and foremost, from talking to customers, finding out what their current pain points are, what would encourage them to use a product or to try a different brand. The book gives a great example about new bicycle design at Trek, Raleigh and Giant and how actually designing the bikes was one of the last step, after figuring out why novice bikers are intimidated at bike retailers, building a new brand identity and creating campaigns with local government and business. The people involved moved from designers to design thinkers. See more of Tim’s ideas here:

Pump Up Your Creativity!

Creativity isn’t important just for artists, musicians, graphic designers and writers. These days everyone in business is tasked with being more innovative. So how do you get those juices flowing when you don’t feel like you are a creative person?

Let’s dispel this myth: Only certain people are creative. Not true! Whether it is writing a business proposal, developing a new product, solving a human resources problem-they are all examples of creativity. To help keep your brain flexible and to generate new ideas, try some of these things:

1. Do things differently. Take a different route to work, try new restaurants, buy a piece of jewelry you wouldn’t normally wear. Anything you do that is outside your normal routine or style stimulates new areas in your brain. Even sleeping on the other side of the bed than you usually do causes your brain to say “hey! what’s this about?” and starts the neurons firing.

2. Read new material. If you usually read the paper and Inc. magazine, head over to the music, art or lifestyle section and grab a new magazine. Wired is a great magazine that blends business, technology, entertainment and is loaded with innovative design. Absorb information from a whole different world than yours.

3. Learn something. Always had a hidden hankering to learn to play the drums or to write a screenplay or bake bread? Take a class or two and get engaged in something you’ve always dreamed of doing.

4. Check out some creativity blogs: Creativity-Online, Creativity-Portal, and Fuel Your Creativity are all great choices with prompts and ideas to help you see things in new and different ways.

5. Finally, don’t take it all so seriously. Lighten up. Watch a comedy. Play with your kids. Get out in the snow or for a walk in the park. Roll on the ground with your dog. Unplug your computer, cell phone and tv for awhile and just listen to some music-or be quiet.

Boost Your Creativity!

Creativity is not just for graphic and Web designers, writers and artists. On the business landscape, creativity is getting a lot of press. Innovation, ideas, thinking “outside the box” are all extensively taught and recruited for in business. Problem-solving is a creative process. There are some great resources online that will teach you how to be more creative and inspire you at the same time.

Brainzooming. This blog is all about teaching you techniques and giving you tools to amp up your creativity. This post, in one line, gives you one of the best pieces of advice for getting noticed by customers or your employer.

Quixoting. This blog, billed as a “quest for new ideas” has an awesome selection of posts on innovation and creativity, including in the use of social media.

IDEO. IDEO is the leading branding and design firm in the world. Their site is packed with both visual and mental stimulation from leaders in cutting-edge design. Harvard Business Review has a brilliant article on “design thinking” that features IDEO designers.

Creativity Portal. Wow! This site is jam packed and full of ideas for all disciplines: writers, musicians, artists. However, even if you are a CFO, taking a break to doodle can free up your mind to relieve stress and increase productivity.

One of the best overall business and personal creativity books is How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genuis Every Day. It has an accompanying workbook and loads of exercises and is useful for anyone in business or the arts. Stretching new muscles in your brain through creativity leads to business breakthroughs.

Ratio7 is a team of talented designers and writers, all available to represent your business in the most creative and eye-catching way possible! Call or email for a consultation.