Feel like playing...?

I just came across this web-site called Sodaplay on the Time Top 50 web-sites - just had a play around with some of the graphics myself, here's what Time had to say about it....

"If you like to play God, the British interactive design company Soda Creative Technologies Ltd. can help you work out your controlling--er, creative--urges. Its Sodaconstructor game gives you a wire-frame, jellyfish-like creature that marches jauntily back and forth across your computer screen; it's up to you to alter physique or physics (by turning gravity on or off, for example). Don't be surprised if you end up growing so proud of your new pet that you want to trot it out like a show poodle in the Sodazoo."

Try it here....

Creativity is...

If you got the bug from the previous post...

...here's a simple mind-mapping course!

Tony Buzan - In search of genius through mind-mapping

If you don't yet use mind-mapping to help you with creativity, lateral thinking, problem solving, planning and organising your life, take a look at this. Tony Buzan, the inventor of mind-mapping takes 6 difficult children in a problem school - see what happens at the end of 6 months....

Is it just a guitar? Use your creativity...what else could it be...

Everyone looks at things in a different way. Try this exercise and see what you (and perhaps your friends) come up with.
Print off this image and make it into something else.

I got this evercise from an interesting blog
before and after, if you want some inspiration before you start, take a look at what the guitar shape turned into!

If you want to send me your examples so that I can post them up, email me at sue.alouche@orange.fr

A short Creativity Exercise - What could you access from a cashpoint?

Image coutesey of www.legaljuice.com

What other things could you access from a cashpoint machine? We go there so many times to get money, couldn't we get other things too?

But be practical, consider size, security, practicality. I bet you'll have 10 ideas in 10 minutes!

Adapted from an exercise from Caffeine for the mind

Why not add your ideas as comments to this post...

The Starck Reality of the French President's office accessories..oh, and the Euro!.

"Behind the summits and meetings, France wants its European presidency to be all about style and impeccable good taste.

Appalled by the tacky plastic pens, badges and Velcro-fastening free shoulder-bags that are often synonymous with major events like this, the foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, has enlisted an artistic director: Philippe Starck, the French design guru famous for his style pieces, from chairs to juice-squeezers.

"There are lots of things that traditionally are given to journalists, ministers, delegates," Starck has explained to the news agency AFP. "For the first time in the history of the EU, everything produced will be of high quality."

Starck, famous for interiors that included the private apartments of former Socialist president François Mitterrand, will style select interiors and exteriors of buildings for some events.

He has also produced more than a dozen EU presidency items, including pens, notebooks and small bags which will be given out to delegates. The stylish goodie bags have already caused ructions when a Starck-designed European briefcase was sent to all French MPs, featuring stationery, a towel rail and a pale grey tie. Some of the women MPs, who all received the ties, denounced it as the height of male chauvinism.

But for ordinary EU citizens unable to blag a set of Starck freebies, he has designed a special two-euro coin - 20 million of which will go into circulation across Europe from today.

"Bernard Kouchner wants the French presidency to have a very interesting, very creative profile, " Starck said. The idea was to show "a very modern, very creative France of high technologies, not France wearing a beret, but an avant-garde France"."
The Guardian 1 July 2008

Starck has also just been commissioned by the BBC to head up a new series about the future of design. Why didn't they choose someone English, there's so many fab designers in the UK - why Starck! He needs to do one over here....the deco revolution has started in France, and soon we'll have "trés grande designs" "Brico SOS" and "Comment reviver votre longere"

Patrick Blanc's Vertical Gardens

Check out Patrick Blanc's beautiful vertical gardens currently on show at the International Design Centre in Melbourne.

This year's festival has the theme Strength in Numbers, and celebrates both collaboration and brilliant solutions to pressing contemporary issues. French artist and scientist Patrick Blanc's vertical garden, transforms a 47 square metre wall into a living and permanent installation.

"This garden needs no soil, and only a small amount of water. It has its own irrigation system. Cities are developing at such a fast rate, and we no longer have room for gardens. He's not just presenting an option, but a beautiful, practical option. The environmental message can be communicated in so many forms, and I think having statistics thrown at us is not the only way."

If you don't know MOO, you should!

It's a great place where you can print as many images as you want on the back of your business cards, as well as lots of other interesting personalised promotions....great for small businesses, or for personal cards or promotions. Take a look at MOO here....

Left Brained or Right Brained...?

Take this simple test here...

Write here, right now - great typography!

Take a look...don't try this at home....with a permanent marker!

What's in a name...

I was reading one of my favourite french blogs - Why Travel to France, and came across this today....two flavours of jam - 'Arse scratch' and 'Old boy' - mmmm wonder what's inside? France has a knack of producing products with interesting names...how about French Rabbit wine - sold in a tetrapak! Or Le Freak and Elephant on a Tightrope, developed for English speaking audiences to help flagging sales of French wine. What do you think of this strategy?

Has John McCain gone Branding Bonkers? He wants to literally 'brand' democrats!

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (CAP) - Republican presidential hopeful John McCain is refusing to back down from incendiary statements he recently made suggesting that registered Democrats be branded with a letter 'D' in order to tell them apart from "real Americans." He made the suggestion at a campaign stop in St. Paul.

"My friends, these Democrats - they walk among us, and we don't even know it," McCain said at a town hall meeting. "They wear our clothes. They eat our food. They pee in our toilets.

"And if there's anything that Vietnam has taught me, it's that you don't pee in another man's toilet," McCain added after a lengthy pause.

Under McCain's proposal, every voting precinct in the country would be assigned a Precinct Branding Officer, who would be equipped with a steak branding iron containing a 1 1/2" high letter 'D' on a 10" long handle. As voters declare their party affiliation at the polls this November, they would be branded as appropriate before being allowed to vote.

"It's really not as archaic as it sounds," said McCain spokesperson Sylvester McBean during a phone interview with CAP News. "I mean, they can pick where they want to be branded; it's not like we're gonna slap a 'D' on their forehead if they don't want. And we will have registered nurses on hand in case things don't go quite as planned.

God help us if he gets into power!

Fun Ice Breaker

Need to energise your meeting? Having a team building meeting? Need to add small snaps of creativite to a workshop?
This is just the exercise for you! This is more suitable for small groups of say 5 or 6 people

Icebreaker Game - If I were a...
A fun icebreaker game to encourage creativity, best for smaller groups.
Ask each person to say what they would be and why, if they were a...
• A piece of fruit
• An historical figure
• A household object
• A cartoon character
• Any other off the wall group you can think of!
I would be a pineapple as I am exotic, sweet and zingy.
I would be a whisk as I like to stir things up.
I would be Taz as I rush around like a crazy creature!
Time to allow for this activity 20 mins

IceBreaker Game...

This ice breaker game is best for 10 or so people.

Bring 5 random items to the meeting and place them in the centre of the group.

Each person is encouraged to come up with an alternative use for the item, or to
come up with a phrase associated with the item.

Item ideas; toy dog, cardboard box, chair, wooden spoon, picture, scarf or anything
else around the home or office.

Creative uses; e.g. use cardboard box as handbag,
Have a few ideas prepared to start the game off.