Brain Bank (8/30)

I read a blog entry today that was all about showcasing examples of creative and unique resumes. Most of the people using these resumes work in one creative field or another so these resumes are a perfect way to showcase their creativity and imagination while still getting all of the normal resume stuff out there to employers. This particular image is from a foldable resume printed on cardboard. I think these are amazing ways to get your name out there and stick in people's minds.

Chapter 28: Dreamscape

This thinkertoy exercise has me doing something that I've been telling myself to do for a long time, and that is to start a dream journal. The thinkertoy wants us to use the dream to relate to a problem, so I'll use it to relate to my problem of creating a children's book for my nephew. So this morning when I woke up, I wrote down everything that I could remember about the last dream I had. Here is my first entry in my new dream journal:
In my dream, I saw a stereotypical laboratory. There were tables holding beakers, bunsen burners, chalk boards, etc. And there was a scientist with brown hair, glasses and a long white lab coat. I was not in my dream, I'm merely an observer. The scientist is holding a cattle prod and I could tell that he's using the electric shock as a motivator to train a chimpanzee. What was he training the chimpanzee to do? I couldn't tell right away. As the dream went on I could see him punishing the monkey's errors with a shock. After a while, I realized that this monkey was also holding a cattle prod and that he was using THAT cattle prod as a motivator to train a mouse to run through a maze. And this scientist is training the monkey to be a smaller scientist.
Here are my answers to certain questions about my dream:
How were the people, places, and events in the dream related to my problem?
This doesn't really have that much to do with my problem other than the fact that they both contain animals. The scientist in my dream also had a problem to solve and that is the basis for my story.
Who were the key players in the dream?
The scientist, the monkey, and the mouse.
Does the dream change the nature of the question?
No it doesn't. It helps me to think that maybe I don't always necessarily have to solve my own problems, maybe I can train others to solve them for me and this would work as a collaboration.

I enjoyed this thinkertoy because it forced me to do something that I wanted to do for a very long time. I've always wanted to record my dreams because I know that that is a great untapped source of imagination and creativity. I did the first part of my dream in my bed as I woke up this morning, writing down my dream on a piece of paper as fast as I could before I forgot it. I did the rest of my thinkertoy after work on my dining room table.

Chapter 19: Hall of Fame

For this exercise, I was supposed to choose three business movers and shakers that I admire and learn more about them. I chose Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, and Richard Branson. Disney was a brilliant animator and was the main driving force in ushering in a new age of animation and bringing it to a mass audience, his passion and his drive are his best attributes. Jobs has obviously been instrumental to the development of home computing since home computing began over thirty years ago; his creativity and fearless nature in designing new products and ways to compute are inspiring. Branson is what I think of when I think of an eccentric billionaire, he's earned all of his money and fame and he started at such a young age; he is not afraid to expand business into a new or unsettling field. I have printed out photographs of these three individuals and placed them around my desk where I do most of my work and I have spent a good amount of time today gathering information and reading their biographies and I now have a folder on my computer with a lot of information about these men.

This exercise was a real eye opener for me. I really enjoyed learning about how certain people have come to be as successful as they are and I hope to really look to these individuals for inspiration in the future. I did this exercise in my bedroom on my desk, the lighting was low because I only used one halogen lamp and had my shades drawn this afternoon. I used no distractions such as TV or radio.

Brain Bank (8/29)

I found this image on a blog post about this artist who makes amazing portrait carvings into discarded phonebooks. This particular image is Jimmy Carter and I think they are all amazing and awe inspiring. I love finding alternative and unique media in which people practice their art and creativity and this one is one of my favorites. The artist found such an awesome material in which to carve these images and they work perfectly.

Brain Bank (8/28)

I found this image from a website that is full of customized toys. The person who makes these customized toys created a set of Victorian Era Marvel super hero action figures and this particular action figure is of a Victorian Era Captain America. As I've posted about before, I'm very much into re-imagining stories, characters, settings, etc. in alternate genres or time periods and this is no exception. I love this minute man-esque Captain America; things like this always spark my imagination and just make me stare in awe.

Brain Bank (8/27)

This is an image of a modded xbox 360 that takes on the look of iron man. I love the way iron man looks and I think it transfers very well to the xbox facade. I love the color and the chrome look and I really love the blue glowing circle on the side of the xbox too.

Brain Bank (8/26)

This is an image of a new facade that someone built onto an original generation GameBoy. What I love about this is that it combines two of my favorite things, the genre of steampunk and game boy. I love all things steampunk and this is no exception. It makes everything look better because it's amazing to think of the possibility of such advanced technology being created using simple mechanical structures.

Brain bank (8/25)

This is an image that I found on a blog post featuring photo manipulation art. All of the images came from a particular artist who works primarily in photo manipulation. This is an image of a landscape and trees that has been manipulated and digitally enhanced to be very stylistic. To me it resembles starry night by Van Gogh.

Brain Bank (8/24)

This is the image that I found on an article featuring a new television being developed that features both 3D stereoscopic images and a touch screen interface. What I really find inspiring about this television is that it represents the future of home entertainment. We are moving toward a time when everything becomes completely interactive in every way and is connected to everything else and even if this particular television doesn't catch on, it still represents the direction we are heading.

Homework (revised, ignore last post)

The top three themes that I have throughout my brainbanks are design, color, and composition. These three themes can be further broken down into traits such as pattern, depth of field, repetition (design); theory, contrast, brightness, shadows (color); placement, flow, depth of field (composition). These are some great things to think about while working on my final project because these are things that I am definitely going to be looking toward while creating a children's book.

Homework

		The top three themes that I have throughout my brainbanks are design, color, and composition. These three themes can be further broken down into traits such as pattern, depth of field, repetition (design); theory, contrast, brightness, shadows (color); placement, flow, depth of field (composition). These are some great things to think about while working on my final project because these are things that I am definitely going to be looking toward while creating a children's book. color
		pattern/design
		color/composition
		design
		design
		biology
		composition
		composition
		humor
		color/design
		design
		ingenuity
		design
		color
		ingenuity
		nostalgia
		structure
		design
		structure
		nostalgia
		ingenuity
		music
		pattern/design
		design
		composition
		ingenuity
		biology
		ingenuity/humor
		ingenuity/design
		nostalgia
		creative
		design
		nostalgia
		composition
		ingenuity
		design
		composition
		composition/color
		composition/color
		concept
		design
		composition
		composition
		concept
		concept
		concept/color/design
		color
		concept/design
		color/composition
		concept
		color/design
		concept/color
		composition
		color/design
		structure
		color/design
		concept
		concept/design
		color/design
		composition/color
		concept
		irony
		15
		2
		20
		13
		2
		1
		7
		4
		3
		1
		1
		10
		1

Chapter 17: Brutethink

Problem: I need to increase my referrals at my job at the bank.
Random Word: Eyeliner.
A series of things associated with Eyeliner: It's a makeup, it comes in many colors, it's used by many women, it fits in your hand, it comes in pencil form, it can be sharpened, it can be pointy, it can be purchased at many drug stores, it makes things look better.
Forced Connections: The referrals need to look good, use words and phrases that make them look better to customers. Our products come in many varieties, make this a focal point of my referrals. Just like makeup is primarily used by women stress certain products to certain people.

This thinkertoy was done in my prime environment. It was done in my living room at night while the TV was on and my family was around. These distractions definitely help me with my ability to focus and think about a certain product.

Brain Bank (8/23)

http://yourmindblown.com/post/988135623/after-making-1-4-billion-crayons-crayolas-senior

This brain bank is not based on any sort of image or video, this one is based on an article I read tonight about Crayola. It turns out that Emerson Moser, Crayola's senior crayon maker for over 37 years is colorblind. I love hearing stories about these extreme cases of irony, it inspires me to read something like this.

Chapter 27: True And False

Problem: My hockey team does rather mediocre in the standings each season, we need to improve our chances of winning a championship.
Paradox: Despite trying several different strategies to improve our team, we seem to do best when we play without a specific strategy.
Essence: Turing this into a book title: The NonStrategic Strategy.
Analogy: A great analogy is the concept of beginner's luck and that sometimes people tend to pull off difficult maneuvers once, then cannot do it after practicing.
Unique Feature: The unique feature is beginner's luck.
Equivalent: Athletes who show a lot of promise at a young age and don't fulfill those hopes.
New Idea: We will not create a new strategy out of nowhere we will film the way we play without a strategy and refine that into a strategy that will work with our team.

I did this thinkertoy while sitting on my front porch earlier today. The sky was gray and it was very rainy. I live on a busy highway so there is constant flow of 4 lanes of traffic going at any given time. The sound of the traffic was really soothing to me and helped keep my mind focused on the task at hand.

Brain Bank (8/22)

http://www.ufunk.net/en/humour/star-wars-en-version-vieux-film-muet/
This is a link that I found tonight to a clip someone made turning a scene from The Empire Strikes Back into a silent film. It's been converted to a black and white film reel style with the light saber duels sped up and all dialogue written in text between actions. I love the combination of genres and the remediation that goes on here. It's really inspiring to see these two such different elements melded together.

Brain Bank (8/21)

This is a digital illustration that I found on a blog featuring art by Jeremiah Humphreys. I think his illustrations are amazing and so inspiring. What I find really inspiring about this picture is the mood it evokes in the viewer. It makes me think of adventure and the beginning of a long journey.

Brain Bank (8/20)

This is a "digital graffiti" image that I found on another blog tonight. I'm a huge fan of actual graffiti written on public places, like walls, billboards, buildings, etc. I love the combination of classic graffiti art with three dimensional modeling. That combination is really inspiring and amazing... it makes for some really stunning visuals.

Brain Bank (8/19)

This is an image that I found while working on a project for another class. This is a poster that was made for Amnesty International's letter writing campaign calling for the release of political prisoners. The ink of the pen is replaced by political prisoners who are seemingly trapped inside the pen as ink and as the pen writes and ink is freed, so are the prisoners. I love the concept; I find it really inspiring because it is such a perfect representation of what the campaign is trying to get across to the people.

Brain Bank (8/18)

This is from a story that I've read a few times over the past several years. It's a story about these sonar detectors located deep in the ocean at a few different places. During the summer of 1997, these detectors detected a really loud, low frequency sound several times that is much louder than any known animal on earth can produce. Scientists speculate that the animal that can make such a loud noise must live in the deepest parts of the oceans and be much larger than a blue whale. I find this story really inspiring because it just makes my imagination go wild with possibilities of the things that could be creating this sound.

Brain Bank (8/17)

I found this image on a blog featuring minimalist posters representing different super heroes. As with the minimalist celebrity posters I talked about a few days ago, I really find these posters amazing. The most inspiring thing about these posters is the fact that just a few shapes and colors can capture the essence of a super hero and make it completely recognizable.