The Knot Collective

I am very honored to have been allowed to contribute to the very excellent Knot Collective. As ever, it's best to let the Knot Collective website itself explain what it is, and what it stands for:

"The Knot Collective is a thought leadership forum for anyone in the business of creativity. We believe that cross-disciplinary collaboration is the future of innovation and design and this is a place where critical thinkers can tap into a broad range of knowledge, participate in lively discussions and spawn new insights and ideas. We hope for it to serve as a valuable resource for those eager to shape the future of all creative industries."

Having labored through 25 drafts, 10 ideas, and an entire bank holiday I've written and posted my first post: Read This Quick! It's Distracting you From Work. In it I discuss how the distractions of digital media is effecting how we work, and the steps I've taken to defeat them. I'll be posting twice a month on a range of (hopefully) interesting topics. Each post will have it's own illustration, which should kick those drawing muscles from art college back to life. There are a lot of great posts up there already from the other contributors, all of which are a great read.

I'm excited and optimistic about taking part in the collective, meeting some nice new people from around the world, and hopefully adding a valuable contribution to something I believe in: great ideas.

A Cure for Creative Block?

It's Friday and a surprisingly beautiful day in Dublin. Whilst warming up to another day of creative thinking, which as we all know is particularly difficult on a summer Friday, I came across this article in my Reader.

Posted on the 99% website it describes how leaving your desk, going for a walk, traveling and living in another country helps boost creative thinking.

I've sent this to my CD as an explanation to why I will be sitting in sunshine in the local park for the rest of the day.

The Lizard Brain

Fed up with the crap on TV I sat down with a beer and watched loads of great videos on the 99%. (The 99% Percent conferences are part of the Behance network I mentioned in an earlier post.)

Seth Godin's presentation above on "the lizard brain" is quite brilliant. The lizard brain refers to the Amygdala, a primitive section of our brain that controls our survival instincts. It's the little voice that tell us to stop before we embarrass ourselves; to refrain from challenging the status quo. Godin argues that being creative is easy, "shipping" or quieting the lizard brain long enough to actually produce an end product is the true genius of creativity.


His presentation is timed to the burning out of a candle, so it won't take to much time out of your day.