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These days, you're urged to "follow your passions" and "lean in"—but what if you’re not sure where your particular passion lies? What if you don’t know which way to lean?
The following is the second in a three-part series of postsadapted from Warren Berger’s new book, A More Beautiful Question(Bloomsbury), for which he spoke with top designers, tech innovators, entrepreneurs, and leading creative thinkers to explore the art (and innovative potential) of asking the right questions.
This can be an issue not only for those starting out in a career, but also for some who are established, even highly-successful, yet unfulfilled. It’s easy to find oneself on a path determined by others, or by circumstance (i.e., the job offer or project that comes along unexpectedly and is too good to turn down, then becomes a career).
Whether you’re starting out or considering a possible change in direction, asking yourself the right questions is critical. The following eight—shared by a noteworthy lineup of entrepreneurs, innovators, consultants, and creative thinkers—can help you figure out where your heart lies and what you really ought to be doing....
Each year, the list of branded social media accomplishments grows longer, and the Shorty Awards are never far behind in recognizing them.
This year's roster of finalists, being announced today, includes nominees in categories ranging from "Best Brand on Vine" to the delightfully meta "Best Use of Social Media by One Brand Responding to Another Brand."
"New platforms continue to emerge and evolve at an unrelenting pace. While most struggle to keep up, Shorty Awards finalists are thriving in this environment," Greg Galant, executive producer and cofounder of the Shorty Awards tells Adweek. "We'll be celebrating their creations on every form of social media."
Check out the full list of finalists below....
The author of horror classics like The Shining and its 2013 sequel Doctor Sleep says the best writers hook their readers with voice, not just action....
Stephen King: There are all sorts of theories and ideas about what constitutes a good opening line. It's tricky thing, and tough to talk about because I don't think conceptually while I work on a first draft -- I just write. To get scientific about it is a little like trying to catch moonbeams in a jar.
But there's one thing I'm sure about. An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.
How can a writer extend an appealing invitation -- one that's difficult, even, to refuse?We've all heard the advice writing teachers give: Open a book in the middle of a dramatic or compelling situation, because right away you engage the reader's interest. This is what we call a "hook," and it's true, to a point. This sentence from James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice certainly plunges you into a specific time and place, just as something is happening:
"They threw me off the hay truck about noon."...
I’m working on the followup to Steal Like An Artist, my book about how to be more creative in the digital age. It’s been a real pain in the ass. Here are five things that have helped: 1. Shut up and write the book.
Creating compelling visual imagery for your social media profiles has never been more important for your brand. ... graphic design plays an important role, not only in building brand awareness and recognition, but also attracting the user’s attention. Because of this, marketers and social media managers should have a basic understanding of graphic design, especially design that works where your social audience spends most of their time: online and on mobile devices. When graphics are used consistently over various platforms, customers may view it several times over, in turn generating more brand recognition. Social media imagery is essential to getting people to follow you, so here we will provide you with a few tips on how to create the best imagery for your posts....
In 1953, writers George Plimpton, Harold L. Humes, and Peter Matthiessen banded together to found The Paris Review, the famed magazine that gave voice to literary giants like Ernest Hemingway and Jack Kerouac. Today the formidable institution is celebrating an impressive 60 years in operation....
The color scheme of a site creates its atmosphere. It should be fitting, good looking, and attractive. At the same time, it should not impede visitors to use the website and easily find all necessary information. No matter what kind of business you have, don’t be afraid to use bold color schemes for your website. Here I have showcased 50 fantastic websites with extremely bright color palette for inspiration. All of them are great examples of beauty and creativity in web design....
Anyone who’s tried their hand at designing a typeface will know that it’s a wildly difficult process, and to actually come out at the end with something beautiful takes an extreme amount of skill, taste and patience.
Type design isn’t for everyone, but typography is, and nearly every designer works with it every day. This is exactly why Type Release creator Sean Mitchell is here to share with you a list of 38 beautiful typefaces, all of which were released this winter. These are his findings...
A few weeks ago, at the Fast Company offices, we convened an all-star panel of designers and design leaders to talk about the problems that they found most vexing in the past year, and what they were trying to do to solve them.... And as for the 2010s? "This decade is about using the Internet to enable real-world interactions," he said. It’s leveraging this digital life to make our analog lives more connected. It’s not using Facebook to spy on an old friend, but to meet them in person. It’s not using Spotify to discover new music, but to create a dance party. The technology that will make it all possible is mobile. "Mobile and local are so important here because they’re both about using tech to solve your real-life problems," Stewart said, nodding. Gebbia agreed, adding, "Mobile is the bridge into your real life." [Inspiring look at how the future of design is enabling real-world engagement. ~ Jeff]
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...If you happen to be on a road trip this August, driving down a highway through the middle of nowhere in North Dakota or New Mexico, you may suddenly see a giant modern painting at the side of the road in between fast food ads. In suburban malls, classic photographs will replace posters advertising movies or mobile phones. In cities, art will sprawled across buses and subway posters. All around the country, 50,000 billboards that normally try to sell something will be transformed into art.
Art Everywhere US is the American version of a project that began last summer in the U.K., where 22,000 billboards and poster sites were covered with British art. The event this year will be the largest outdoor art show that has ever happened....
There are two kinds of advertisements: ads that blend in, and ads that captivate our attention. I’ll be taking this opportunity to focus on the latter category.
These are the head-turners that leave us with an unexpected smile. They’re the ads we don’t see every day, and the ones we applaud for their raw creativity and clever execution.
So take a gander at some of the best advertising methods I’ve come across, and add your thoughts at the end if I’ve missed anything noteworthy....
In his brilliant pitch for Kodak's slide machine, Mad Men's Don Draper teaches you an important lesson about how to speak about your product, cause or idea.
This is probably the most exciting feet photo you've ever seen on Instagram. It was taken by National Geographic photographer Joe McNally from the top of the world's tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai....
As I walked around SXSW and listened to the different presentations, I thought about how important it is to disengage from deadlines and commitments for a little while and consider new ideas and different perspectives. ... To escape gravity’s hold, we have to do more than just interact with what’s conveniently presented to us. We have to make concerted efforts to interact with the unknown, to follow connections and to explicitly indulge our curiosity. Less Facebook; more Wikipedia. For example, in a few minutes, and without even leaving Wikipedia, you can travel from the Tasmanian Devil to Tasmanian devils to Tasmanian tigers to thylacines to convergent evolution. And now you’ve just crossed the threshold from things to ideas, from the concrete noun “thylacine” to the idea of “convergent evolution.” That’s an important moment because now you can start to use that idea to think about other things: your business, your customers, your competitors, whatever. But, you can reach this moment only if you indulge your curiosity—interact with the unknown....
...I used to think: oh, hope, big deal. It couldn’t have been an invisibility cloak or the ability to teleport or a genie who looks like Keanu Reeves?
I have a new slant on that myth after reading Srinivasen S. Pillay’s remarkable book LIFE UNLOCKED, in which he draws from neuroscience to present strategies in overcoming fear. Some of the best life advice I ever got was this: Whenever you make a decision out of fear, you will regret it.I’ve applied that to writing, to relationships (and the end of relationships), to life. I’ve learned to separate my fears from my intuition and, at times, to follow my intuition through the fear.
From time to time we like to show you different sources of inspiration. From logos to icons, from print tobranding, we always like to show you that you can find inspiration in a lot of different designs, including package design. Packages are amazing for a group of reasons, but I believe that most important task of a package is to represent a product while catching the client’s attention. In package design we can find great examples of typography, textures, proportions, colors and much more. Remember to click on the images to read more about each design....
Does Sting have a creative secret for writing a hit new song? Is there a trick Neil Simon uses to get ideas for plays?
Semantic intuition is responsible for any number of creative works--including much of Sting's repertoire, the movie "The Princess Bride," and "The Odd Couple." Use this brainstorming technique to improve your creativity and power innovation....
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Warren Berger, author of A More Beautiful Question, collected the provocative questions top designers, tech innovators, and entrepreneurs ask.