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The brain takes cues from the body.  As creators and communicators of ideas, part of our job is to activate the creative subroutine in our head, bring up our energy and snap ourselves into the appropriate state of mind to do our work. In the same way that the physical act of smiling triggers the chemistry in our brain associated with happiness, the on ramp is the cue for…

If you don’t write it down, it never happened. When I first heard this phrase, it had a profound effect on my creative process. It taught me to relieve my mind of the necessity of remembering. It taught me to stop trusting my memory and start managing my creative workflow intelligently. To train myself to become an informational virtuoso who’s fast, responsive, proactive, organized, and never lets a single…

I once read a fantastic book called Realizing The Impossible, an anthology of commentaries and images on the relationship between art and social movements. The book gathered contributions from around the globe, both from current artists and historical creators, curating a vibrant history and overview of political art. This interview with multidisciplinary artist Shaun Silfer said it best: “The best artists have shit on their shoes. They’re running around…

I met a travel photographer who had an interesting philosophy. He said natural lighting was the only way he worked. Not only because of the image quality, which was often stronger than staged lighting, but mainly because he didn’t want to schlep all his heavy equipment through foreign countries for weeks at a time. Imagine marching through a rainforest carrying flashes, umbrellas, light boxes, reflectors, backdrops, accessories, optical slaves,…

Writing always came naturally to me. It was the only thing I can’t remember not doing. But when it came time to switch gears from words to images, when teachers or parents asked me to start designing and illustrating and sketching, I froze like a bag of peas. My standard excuse was, I couldn’t draw a straight line if my life depended on it. At least, that was the story…

This article originally appeared on RainToday. Storytelling isn’t everything; it’s the only thing. And in the professional services industry, telling a good story is the strategy that gets buyers to pay attention and want to work with you. The question is what makes a good story? A good story is one that buyers enjoy believing. In this article we’ll explore five examples of brands, companies, and service organizations that…

I’ve been having this ongoing argument with friend of mine­­. She’s a talented comedy writer, but also a terrible scatterbrain. And despite her best intentions to boost productivity, she finally threw up her hands and said: “I just need a discipline transplant.” Which, ironically, is a pretty funny premise, and would make a great comedy bit, but I don’t think she has the discipline to write it. Oh well….

The other day I was listening to an interview with a successful cartoon voice actor. When asked about his work experience at a major television network, he said the best about his job was,they used every part of him like a buffalo. We should all be lucky enough to work that way. Firing on all cylinders, making use of everything we are, exploiting talents we didn’t know we had,…

We’ve already explored how to get your body of work onto the runway with the help of gravitational order.That’s one kind of momentum. We’ve also talked about treating your work as a daily practice and professionalizing your creative process through commitment. That’s another kind of momentum. Next, we’re going to approach momentum from a project based level, looking at strategies to make it a powerful driving force for your…

Food is life’s binding agent. It’s also an extremely difficult way to make a living. Manhattan, for example, has twenty four thousand restaurants. But despite profound competition, the city still receives almost five thousand new applicants each year. Meaning the annual turnover is close to twenty percent. Yikes. This topic is fresh in my mind because I recently attended a small business panel for food entrepreneurs. The speakers ranged…