Hot-Wiring Your Creative Process: Strategies for print and new media designers (VOICES)

Design philosophies can be useful, but inspiration, creative strategies, and efficient work habits are what really get the job done. Designer, instructor, and author Curt Cloninger provides a multitude of strategies, tools, and practices that readers can use to inject a big dose of creativity into just about any design project. With illustrations drawn from 20th-century French philosophy, medieval manuscripts, punkrock posters, and more, Curt’s innovative text introduces readers to his personal toolkit for hot-wiring the creative process. You’ll learn strategies to: • Recognize and believe in your creative powers • Develop effective methods for evaluating your own work • Draw inspiration from the past • Use standard software in experimental ways, and find nonstandard applications to create new effects • Maintain a personal design playground • Mine your subconscious with the Oblique Strategies Cards, developed by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt • Un-stick your imagination by “blitz-designing” mock-ups Curt Cloninger is an artist, designer, author, and instructor in Multimedia Arts & Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. His book Fresh Styles for Web Designers: Eye Candy from the U nderg round (New Riders, 2002) is an industry standard on creative Web design solutions. Curt’s art and design work has been featured in I.D. Magazine , HOW Magazine , The New York Times , Desktop Magazine , and at digital arts festivals from Korea to Brazil. He regularly speaks at international events such as HOW Design, South by Southwest, Web Design World, and FILE. His pirate signal broadcasts from lab404.com to facilitate lively dialog Design philosophies can be useful, but inspiration, creative strategies, and efficient work habits are what really get the job done. Designer, instructor, and author Curt Cloninger provides a multitude of strategies, tools, and practices that readers can use to inject a big dose of creativity into just about any design project. With illustrations drawn from 20th-century French philosophy, medieval manuscripts, punkrock posters, and more, Curt’s innovative text introduces readers to his personal toolkit for hot-wiring the creative process. You’ll learn strategies to: • Recognize and believe in your creative powers • Develop effective methods for evaluating your own work • Draw inspiration from the past • Use standard software in experimental ways, and find nonstandard applications to create new effects • Maintain a personal design playground • Mine your subconscious with the Oblique Strategies Cards, developed by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt • Un-stick your imagination by “blitz-designing” mock-ups Curt Cloninger is an artist, designer, author, and instructor in Multimedia Arts & Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. His book __Fresh Styles for Web Designers: Eye Candy from the U__ ____nderg__round__ (New Riders, 2002) is an industry standard on creative Web design solutions. Curt’s art and design work has been featured in __I.D. Magazine__, __HOW Magazine__, __The New York Times__, __Desktop Magazine__, and at digital arts festivals from Korea to Brazil. He regularly speaks at international events such as HOW Design, South by Southwest, Web Design World, and FILE. His pirate signal broadcasts from lab404.com to facilitate lively dialog When clients are screaming, deadlines are approaching, and you're stuck in your own process, this is the place to get unstuck and get the creative juices flowing again! By focusing on the strategies, tools, habits, and paradigms behind the creative process, veteran author Curt Cloninger shows you how you can inject a big dose of creativity into just about every step of any design project. Filled with beautiful full-color examples and interviews with artists and designers, Hot-Wiring Your Creative Process provides a plethora of strategies, tools, templates, and practices that you can apply to your own work. As you make your way through the book's four major sections, you'll be given a grab bag of tricks to get your creative juices flowing. From using the creativity-enhancing Oblique Strategies cards created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt to creating blitz mock-ups, drawing inspiration from the past, maintaining a personal design playground, using standard software in experimental ways, accessing nonstandard applications to create new effects, and more, this gorgeously illustrated guide gives you the goods to hot-wire your creative process! Creative processes are a dime a dozen; it's the strategies, tools, habits, and paradigms behind them that get the job done. By focusing on these elements, veteran author Curt Cloninger shows readers how they can inject a big dose of creativity into just about every step of any design project. Filled with beautiful full-color examples, the book provides a plethora of strategies, tools, templates, and practices that readers can apply to their own work. As readers make their way through the book's four major sections, they're given a grab bag of tricks to get their creative juices flowing