Are you paying attention?
Houda Boulahbel
Crash Course in Creativity November 2012
Hello! Welcome to my second CCC assignment. I was a little naughty and did not follow the instructions to the letter. I am a commuting Londoner, always rushing from one place to another with my nose in a book or a magazine, and definitely NOT paying attention! So instead of going into different stores, I decided to pay more attention to the places that I pass daily. I invite you to join me on a short journey to see what I discovered...
7.45 AM I leave home for work. On my way to the underground station, I notice the little old man that hands me a copy of the metro every morning. He takes the bus for just one stop to the underground station. That’s less than 100m! And then I notice how much of an effort he makes to stand at the door of the station and hand out the newspapers, with a very wide smile! Note to self: stop being so cranky in the morning!
8.45 AM Paddington underground station‌The worst part of my commute IS not having to stand in a crowded train, or having to change route because of some delay. It is trying to go out of Paddington. Every day, I have to stand in a massive queue to get out of the station.
Today, I Paid attention and I reAliSed why! It’s eaSier if I draw it..
Now imagine what would happen if they nver ed the gates: i
t
If they switched the gates, I would be able to have an extra 15 mins in bed!!! Anyway, I’d better get gOing, I still need to get to work‌
9.00 AM At work‌ I work in a healthcare advertising agency, and we share the building with a design firm. I walk around the building, and I come across this:
In fact, our neighbours have a big doodle wall, and plenty other interesting things that they have invited us to contribute to.
It turns out their creative wall is a brilliant conversation starter! I made new friends today! some of them will even checking out the CCC course ď Š
I then noticed that we have a similar space, except that our wall is empty!
1.00 PM I really need to pop out to the bank. I have been postponing it for days, just because it would take a while to walk there, or even take the tube. But since it’s not raining today (for a change!), I make the effort. I laughed my head off when I left the office, because just outside:
I walk past these every day! And I never noticed them before! At this point, I feel a little ashamed of my lack of observation. But the trip to the bank takes no time at all!!!!
6.00 PM On the tube again. This time at Kennington station. It’s very ugly
Most of the tube stations are covered in adverts. This one was bare, neglected, it felt very grim and a little depressing. I thought about the adverts and then thought some art would be quite nice. May be they can get some new budding artists to decorate the station.
What if they got them to audition, like they do with the buskers? By the way, London buskers have an audience of about 3.5 million… What if, in the same way buskers change continuously, the artists would change too? So every now and again, you would see something completely different. You might get inspired. You might start to pay more attention! The question is: Have YOU paid attention? If you have, then you would have found Einstein’s quote on creativity inside this very assignment… If you haven’t, here’s a hint: It’s good to be bold, to think LARGE and small and to appreciate colour! Thank you for your attention