dissertation by Renata Westenberger

Mapping Creativity Renata Westenberger

Introduction According to Cambridge Dictionary, the word creative means “producing or using original and unusual ideas”. In my view, to explain creativity involves going further on the “causes and effects” of it. How do people become creative? Why some are and some are not? Why is it important to be creative today? Why do artists tend to be more creative than scientists? How can a graphic designer use what was learned in its course in other professions? I hope to answer and explain most of these questions in my dissertation. To attain this, I am going to investigate creativity in three different fields, each one will be a case study. The first one will be about the role of prime education on encouraging children’s creative thinking. For this case study I will mention an example of a school that does not give importance for arts subjects, which was the one that I attended as a child. The second one is about the creative environment. For this case study I will explain how did the graphic design agency Tátil created the 2016 Olympics logo. I will describe the individual and the group characteristics as well as the environment they were set in, and how did this motivated the creative process.

For the last case study I will explain the concept of Design Thinking by showing how it was implemented by IDEO at the Brazilian technology company Positivo. My intention is to show that what is learned during most graphic design courses can be used in many other professions and fields. The graphic designers need to be at many times multidisciplinary professionals. They need to understand and study the area that they are going to work on. In other words, if they are going to create a brand for an insurance company, for example, it is expected that the designers would know a lot about this area. So, designers are taught and conducted to understand all the universes that they will be working on. The essence of what is taught in most graphic design courses is the creative and innovative thinking and how to apply these abilities in various fields of work. The research that I have done for this dissertation was based on a variety of books and medias. I investigated magazine articles, a business man study, documentary films, lectures, exhibition catalogues and books. The research report was divided in three parts, each one refers to a case study. So, the first part is about Education, the second one is about Being Creative and third one about Design Thinking.

Research Report Education In 1995, the world was challenged with the term “Emotional Intelligence”, the EQ, when Time magazine published a main cover article saying that a high IQ was no longer a substantial attribute for professional accomplishments (Robinson, 2011). This thought was strengthened when in 2010, IBM’s CEO Samuel J. Palmisano published a study about the current demand for more creative - emotionally intelligent - leaders. Ken Robinson (2011) criticizes the educational system in the 21st century. He shows that we are not encouraged to be creative and innovative in pre-school and high-school. As a child we are purely creative, we are not afraid of failing in any matter. We lose it completely when we are shaped in our professional choices. Robinson reaffirms his ideas in his lectures at TED.com “Bring on the learning revolution!” and “Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity”. These worked for me as an “introduction” for understanding his book “Out of Our Minds”. In “Out of Our Minds”, Robinson (2011) cited Samuel J. Palmisano’s (2010) study “Capitalizing on Complexity”, which I also used as an evidence for my dissertation. In this study, Palmisano 5

(2010) talks about a current need for creative leaders, which is very important for the substance of the first case study. This document is a real example of what the market is expecting from employees in the 21st century, i.e., creativity. However, such attribute is usually not stimulated in schools. Even though it has been more then fifteen years since Emotional Intelligence became a general-public matter - with the publication of the “EQ Factor” article in Time magazine - many schools have not done anything about it yet. On the other hand, fifteen years is a rather short period of time comparing to how long it takes for a society to make actual changes in education; it took almost forty years, for example, to evolve from the Factory Act of 1833 to the Elementary Education Act of 1870 in England in connection to children’s education, according to the V&A Museum of Childhood of London. Robinson (2011) argues about the current educational system and its apathy towards arts subjects - such as dance, music, fine arts etc. The fact that most children do not use their emotional intelligence in school, reinforce that they will not use it in the future. Most kids are still being shaped to serve a reality that does not exist anymore; the world and its needs are moving forward, however the educational system is not making changes to suit new demands and to prepare children to deal with present and future issues. 7

Hugh Lytton (1971) describes two different types of schools, the formal and traditional ones, where the convergent thinking is emphasized and learning is authoritative, and the progressive schools, where the emphasis is on creative activities and self-initiative learning. On “Creativity and Education” he suggests that both methods are important in education as the students need to have knowledge in culture as well as being creative. According to Ellis Paul Torrance (1967) there is a need for favorable climate to be built by teachers in schools. He explains that in order to develop student’s creativity and abilities it is necessary to be respectful of the unusual ideas and questions that the children have, as well as to show them that their ideas have value. It is also important to provide opportunities for self-initiated learning and to support the students responses to it (Torrance, 1967). Being Creative According to Robinson (2011), “Creativity is a process more often than it is an event”. Basically, the process of having creative ideas is defined by Robinson by three words: process, original and value. He says an idea is creative when it is original and valuable; first of all, one needs to produce a thought, and the starting point can either be a sketch, or a given theme, or even a blank page. After generating the idea, it is 9

necessary to know how to judge it (Robinson, 2011). Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1996) says that a person needs to have a strong knowledge of a domain to be creative, and then it is necessary to apply this wisdom in a field. As well as Robinson (2011), Csikszentmihalyi (1996) numbered three important circumstances to be an original thinker. First of all it is highly important to have a vast amount of information on the chosen domain.

If the chosen domain is music, for example, one should know a lot about all kids of genres, techniques etc. The second important issue is a will to pull ideas about the domain. If one knows about the domain and is highly interested about it, it should have the motivation to have new and innovative ideas. The last circumstance, likewise to what Robinson (2011) said, is to know how to judge the ideas as good or bad. Csikszentmihalyi (1996) says that people cannot only think of good ideas, one can think of many ideas, good and bad ones, and be able to evaluate all of them and then discard the bad ones. David Bohm (1996), as well as Robinson (2011), consider being creative similar to being a child. Bohm (1996) compares the creative process with children starting to walk and talk, when they try new things without being afraid of failing, just to see what happens. However, when a child grows up, he or she learns only what it is needed to pass the exams, please their parents and teachers, and carry the same mentality as they grow up. When children become adults, they learn the basics for their professions, to earn money in the end of the month, to make a living. In most cases they do not feel accomplished by doing what they love. For that reason they lose all the ability that once they had in childhood of trying new things and being original. 11

Bohm (1996) and Robinson (2011) write about the fear of being wrong, and how this prevents the creative thinking to happen. From early childhood it is learned that we need to be perfect, and to commit a mistake means to be inferior to other people. Bohm (1996) says that the same mind energy, strength and concentration that a child applies when learning to walk or talk, is needed when an adult is willing to have a new and creative idea. Most creative thinkers admit that failing is part of having an innovative idea. Albert Einstein once said that if one has never made a mistake is because has never tried new things (Robinson, 2011). Linus Pauling also said that â&#x20AC;&#x153;if you want to have good ideas you must have many ideas. Most of them will be wrong, and what you have to learn is which ones to throw awayâ&#x20AC;? (Crick, 1995), which has a strong relation to Einsteinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s idea. The concept of not being afraid of failing is one of the most important characteristics to end up with a innovative idea; it is an attribute that all remarkable creative minds attain. A creative and innovative idea usually suffers a resistance to be accepted by the public, as people do not deal well with new ideas; the brilliance of these are often revealed years or decades later, because they are in many cases ahead of their time. Many artists like Paul Gauguin died miserably. He 12

was only acknowledged as a genius three years after his death, in a retrospective of his works at the Salon d’Automne (Thomson, 2010). Today, it is rare to find Gauguin’s paintings for sale; if found, their price will be no lower then several million dollars (Wyatt, 2008). Not only this resistance is seen on the arts field, but in areas like science and economics. In the mid 19th century, the physicist and chemist Michael Faraday presented for the first time his studies on electromagnetism. He was questioned about the use of it, and replied: “What use is a newborn baby?”. Today electricity is essential in almost every manner. It is not said that Faraday was any kind of prophet, but he created a need, so then he could develop his idea (Robinson, 2011). The process of having a creative idea is as important as the idea itself. In Gilles Deleuze’s words, “(...) it’s not beginnings and ends that count, but middles. Things and thoughts advance or grow out from the middle, and that’s where you have to get to work, that’s where everything unfolds.” (Deleuze, 1995). According to Pablo Picasso, it is a nonsense to finish a work, because to end a piece means to kill its soul. (Ashton, 1972). There is so much to be learned from a creative process that when it is considered done, it is because a deadline was achieved, or because one gave up on improving or even changing completely the idea. 13

The polish artist, Roman Opalka, has as his main project â&#x20AC;&#x153;1965/1 to infinityâ&#x20AC;?. He once painted a canvas in grey, then he took a fine brush and painted the number one on the left upper corner of the canvas and continued painting rows of numbers until he reached the bottom right of the canvas. He then took another canvas and added one percent of white paint to the grey paint, and covered the new canvas with the one percent lighter grey, and continued painting the numbers. He also recorded himself reading the sequence of numbers he was painting. By the end of the day, he took a black and white photograph of himself using the finished canvas as a background. His goal was to carry on doing this work until he died, until he became, as well as the painting white over white. (The Economist, 2011) Csikszentmihalyi (1996) writes about the creative personality. He says that creative individuals need to know how to adapt to almost any situation; there is a need to use whatever it is in their hands to reach their targets. Marina Willer (2011) once said that people in less favored areas of Brazil, for example, are circumstantially creative. They need to use what they have in their reach to produce things and to get on with their lives. Csikszentmihalyi (1996) also adds that a genetic predisposition for a domain can facilitate creativity, but it is not necessary.Another characteristic about individuals with creative personality is that even 17

working in different fields with different people and things, they all love what they do. Domenico De Masi (1989) and Csikszentmihalyi (1996) write about the creative environment. They say that in order to have creative ideas the individual should be inserted into a creative and inspiring environment, or, according to De Masi (1989), a creative group. De Masi (1989) described the individual factors and the group characteristics regarding creative groups. Strong motivation to idealize and accomplish new ideas even when one feels discouraged, professional discipline, sense of group, dedication, emotive involvement and will to take risks are amongst the attributes from the individual factors. As for the group characteristics, De Masi (1989) emphasizes the pacific relationship and affinity between the members of the group and the ability of each one to concentrate energy in a common goal. Furthermore, the most important aspect of the group characteristics is the prominence of a leader figure with charismatic and competent attributes, capable of instigating the group, by turning conflicts into motivation for the production of ideas. Design Thinking and the Multidisciplinary Designers The term Design Thinking was first used by a Stanford professor, David Kelley, who, every time 18

that wanted to explain what a designer do, caught himself using the word â&#x20AC;&#x153;thinkingâ&#x20AC;?. After that, many designers considered themselves supporters of the term. One of them was IDEOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s CEO Tim Brown (2009), according to whom Design Thinking is a skill that designers have learned and it means to recognize the human needs according to the technical resources available (Brown, 2009). Galvin Ambrose and Paul Harris (2010) explain that design is a process, a way of thinking, and that is why the term Design Thinking is used. They define the stages of thinking as problem finding, research, idea generation, prototyping, selecting, implementation and learning. First of all it is crucial to establish what the problem is. This is the first stage in any design process and it involves receiving a design brief. However, if the brief does not include anything that will allow the design team to initiate the work, it may need to be rewritten and revised with the client. It is very important to understand what the client is asking for, however, it is common when clients do not know how to explain what they want (Ambrose and Harris, 2010). Ambrose and Harris (2010) describe the initial aspects to consider before starting a research on a project. These aspects include the identification of the target audience, the design solution the client is thinking of, the project timescales - when 19

the design will be needed and for how long -, the location and media the design will be used and how will the solution be implemented. The next step will be the research, which embraces in collecting the target clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s background information. This research can be about the consumerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lifestyle such as their career, holiday destinations, musical taste, education etc. The idea generation establishes the conception of potential solutions; the designers utilize the research gathered and the issues established during the initial stages to begin to generate ideas. The methods that are used during this phase include brainstorming, sketching ideas, adapting a design that was already tried and tested before and so on. The prototyping stage consists in producing models based on the more promising solutions from the idea generation phase. The prototype generation is intended to test specific aspects of a design solution, and gives the design team and the client an opportunity to visualize and touch a design concept, and then select which one will be developed. To choose one idea to be developed means that some criterion needs to be fulfilled. These include checking if the solution meets the needs of the brief and the target audience and if it can be produced on time and budget.

The implementation stage intends to deliver the final idea to the design brief. During this stage, the designers would send the artwork and format specifications to whom will be providing the final product. The final phase is when the design team will receive the clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s feedback and will acquire knowledge from what has happened throughout the design process. Furthermore the designers will learn from this process and will be aware of the issues that can be improved in the future, Ambrose and Harris (2010). To unfold the term Design Thinking, I will give a straightforward example cited in Tim Brownâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Change by Design (2009). In 2004, Shimano, a well-known Japanese manufacturer and distributor of cycling equipment and accessories, invited IDEO to try some innovative ideas for their bicycle ranges. During the first stage of research, they found out that ninety percent of Americans do not ride bicycles, but the majority of them used to when they were kids and have happy memories of this phase. The reason why most of them did not keep cycling was the expensive cost of the bikes and their maintenance, the complexity of the bikes, and the danger of cycling on the main roads. Moreover, many of the interviewees have bikes on their houses that they do not use because they are broken or the tire is flat.

This is where Design Thinking applies, to solve problems like Shimanoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. Using the information obtained with the researches, the designers made a human-centered analysis, as opposed to the usual approach of considering pre-determined market tendencies. IDEO thought about a new category of cyclists, the ones that cycle for fun and to recall their experiences as children. They created uncomplicated bikes that did not require much maintenance and had more resistant tires. The problem-solving went further and the designers team got in touch with the local government and cycling organizations, and developed a brand and a website that helped the new cyclists to identify safe routes to ride and to enjoy themselves. To create the Shimanoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bike solutions the group of designers had to understand the aesthetic factors to create a well designed bike. Moreover, the team had to understand the clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s universe, they had to absorb the bike users language and become completely in tune with its culture and needs (Brown, 2009). The fact that the designer has to be fully engaged in and aware of the area he or she is working with is why I consider design such a multidisciplinary profession.

Case studies Education My first case study is about my educational experience in Colégio Teresiano (Teresiano School), a private school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. First of all I am going to describe and explain the three tuition stages in schools in Brazil before college. Children at the age of six attend what is called Ensino Primário (Primary School). Afterwards, from the age of ten they attend the Ensino Fundamental (Fundamental School). At the age of fifteen the teenagers go to Ensino Médio (Mid School), which is similar to High School in other countries, but it is only three years long. Ensino Fundamental is compulsory for kids between six and fourteen years old. At this stage of the basic education, students should develop the capacity of learning by managing to write, read and understand the basics of arithmetic. At the end of this stage, the pupil is expected to understand the social and natural environment, the political system, technology and the basic values of society and family. Ensino Médio is the final stage of the basic education in Brazil, and prepares the students to enter college. Both Ensino Fundamental and Médio are based on teaching subjects like Mathematics, 25

Biology, Geography, Chemistry, Physics, Literature, Portuguese, English, History and so on. This means that from the age of six until we go to college we learn a little bit of all the subjects. It is obvious that as we cannot choose to focus in one subject, we do not learn well any of them and it is even harder to find one that is more interesting to us. The three final years in Ensino MĂŠdio, specially the third year, are focused on getting prepared for one written test to define who is qualified to go college, this written exam is called Vestibular. When I was in school, my parents used to receive reports written by the teachers, saying that I was most of the time inattentive and disconnected from what was happening during the classes, and that this would be a problem in the future. On these reports, year after year, for all my High School period, it was said that I was a communicative person with my friends, but could never pay attention to what the teachers were saying and that I was absent-minded. However, they also used to say that I was particularly skilled in arts. We used to have arts classes until the end of Ensino Fundamental. By art classes I mean manipulating clay, papier-mĂ˘chĂŠ and drawing. These classes were never taken seriously by most of the students and also by the teacher that gave them. For me it was the time that I could do something that was not written on the books. 28

The fact that Teresiano did not take arts classes seriously made me doubt about my choice for Graphic Design, and I actually considered studying Engineering. It is not at random that only five people out of one hundred chose to do Arts subjects - Design, Fine Arts, Music etc - in college that year. Most of my classmates had in mind that they wanted to chose a profession in which they would earn a lot of money; I was often questioned about my choice for Design and heard a lot of advice about a need to choose a more â&#x20AC;&#x153;seriousâ&#x20AC;? profession. When I applied for college in Brazil - the application happens during the last year of Ensino MĂŠdio - I had to take the written exam. Normally when you choose the university and course that you want to apply for, you take the written test given by the chosen college. The first part of test is the same for everyone applying for that university, so, a Graphic Design applicant takes the same exam as the Law, or the Engineering one. The second part of the test is focused on the course that one is applying for. There were three different kinds of tests, the math and science (for Engineering, Chemistry, Math, Physics etc.), humanities (for Law, Architecture, Journalism, Design, Psychology etc.) and humanities and math (Economics and Business). I applied for Graphic Design, so I was going to take the humanities test and had to focus my studies in History and 29

Geography, even though I still have had all the math and science classes in school to be able to accomplish the first part of the test. This means that if one is applying for Fine Arts or Design it is not required to know nothing about drawing and History of Arts or Design. Most schools in Brazil prepare the students for the Vestibular during the Ensino MĂŠdio. The fact that the exam is only based on humanities, math and science forces many schools to focus on these subjects, and leave arts out of the curriculum. Most students want to be accepted to college in the first place; if the Vestibular is what it takes to get them to it, they will agree not to waste their times learning arts subjects and will only focus on what is needed for the exam. They narrow their learning experience to the knowledge that is needed for one test. If the Educational Ministry in Brazil changed

the requirements for the Vestibular, it would be more likely that the schools would change their curriculums and would provide a wider educational experience for the students. Being Creative Tátil Design is a design and branding agency in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They are known for countless award winning projects on sustainable design and in 2010 they became worldwide known for designing the 2016 Olympics logo. Tátil joined the process of designing the logo competing with one hundred and thirty nine other agencies. After various stages of qualification, there were only eight design agencies left on the competition, including Tátil. These remaining agencies were evaluated by a group of twelve multidisciplinary professionals who chose Tátil Design’s logo and visual project to represent the 2016 Olympics that will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The briefing given by the Olympic Games Committee embraced the necessity of reflecting the local culture to the world, in line with the Olympic values, avoiding stereotypes. It was also required to be innovative and to inspire a diversified public from all over the world. The Olympic games event is seen by millions of people from all around the globe. It was indispensable to put the city and the country’s image in synergy with the Olympic spirit. 31

The process of the creation of the logo began in July 2010, on the exact month that I started to work there as an intern. Luckily I could witness the creative process and an impressive team work from the first stages. On the first day of my internship, around fifteen designers that work at Tátil were divided into groups. Each group worked on a theme related to the culture in Rio de Janeiro, such as music, trends, colors and art. Based on each theme, they made posters with collages, collected images, wrote articles and words, but everything at that stage was made in a raw and ludic way. After being divided into groups for the initial ideas, and discussing about different views of the culture in Rio de Janeiro, “Passion and Transformation” were the key words that the groups have chosen to work on in order to start actually developing the logo. For the next stage, a multidisciplinary creative team with more then forty people - from inside and outside Tátil - came into action, including an anthropologist specialized in Rio de Janeiro’s culture. There was a massive research on the Olympic brand and its previous versions, as well as on the brands of other international events and competitions. At this stage it was found a significant necessity to create a 3D logo. Frederico Gelli, Tátil’s CEO, reinforced the fact that the logo should not be timeless, in order to be current in 2016. With the rapidly development 34

on three dimensional technology, it is likely that a large range of televisions will screen 3D images by 2016. Hence, it would be highly appropriate to design a three dimensional brand. For this reason the logo was designed around the philosophy of “a sculptural brand for a sculptural city”. Every week the team would meet in a common room to discuss all the designs that were created on that week. Each one could give feedback, and if there was a promising logo made by an individual, all the designers could make changes on this one. It was literally a teamwork. At this stage more then fifty logos were created and from these only one was chosen and edited several times by various professionals until they came with the final version. The environment there was auspicious and the hard work was always balanced with moments of relaxation to motivate creativity. The friendly atmosphere at Tátil was stimulated by weekly lunches, usually on fridays. All the staff would go to a restaurant and it was a way to informally discuss about the projects that they were working on, as well as their self-initiated ones. It was not mandatory, of course, and everyone always enjoyed to go as friends more then as co-workers. Not less important was the presence of a cat wandering around the office, between keyboards and computers, and a firemen pole to be used as 36

an alternative and fun exit; both worked as instant stress-repellers and creativity stimulators. When the logo was officially unveiled to the public on the 31st of December of 2011 it received countless positive feedbacks from designers and other professionals from all over the world. All the stages of the creative process that Tátil went through were indeed important for the final result. Design Thinking and the Multidisciplinary Designers My third case study is the Brazilian technology company Positivo, which is today the biggest computer manufacturer in Brazil. For three years the concept of Design Thinking is being applied in many innovative Brazilian companies, helping to services and products. In 2008 Tim Brown’s IDEO partnered with Positivo to develop four projects using Design Thinking. Positivo wanted to produce their own lowcost computer products designed specifically for Brazilians. The target market was the low socio-economic level citizens. Both companies IDEO and Positivo - started a research about the company’s consumers. They visited many different homes on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. During this process they found out that in most visited homes, the computer was placed in the living room, which makes it part of the 37

decoration. In the majority of houses the computer was shared by the family members, friends and even neighbors. IDEO and Positivo studied the desktop PC owners in their homes to discern the needs and desires of computer users in their personal spaces. They also analyzed Brazilian culture and identity - the food, music, art and fashion - to understand its influence on everyday objects. Using collages, cognitive mapping, and prototypes they have defined the demands of Positivoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s consumers. In this case, there was the desire for a less showy design. It was noticed that in Brazil the computer serves as a social center in the house. The parents see a need for technology as an investment for their family. Another issue perceived by the design company was that most of the Positivo clients did not have a car. This meant that, in case of any repair needed, the consumer would have strong difficulties to carry the equipment. Moreover, Brazilians like to customize their surroundings. These insights made IDEO notice a need for an aesthetically, affordable, mobile, sturdy design that could be used by a single person as well as a host of family members and friends. Based on these facts, Positivo created together with the design agency the range Faces, which presented a group of computers with a handle and an acrylic front that could be personalized with different images. 40

This fact enabled Positivo to differentiate its products from their competitors’ on store shelves using different artwork each season. “We needed to create a product with detailed design that could represent the needs of thelocal market aesthetically and functionally,” said Adriana Flores, marketing/ new products manager of Positivo. “IDEO looked to the consumers and their needs and built an effective design. We learned so much with this project.” (IDEO website, 2008) The result was a huge success; during the first two weeks of sales in October 2008, Faces sold more then twelve thousand units. Positivo was named by The newspaper Folha de São Paulo one of the most known computer brands for the third consecutive year, and it was also considered by TNS Interscience the company that consumers most respected in the electronics and IT segment. (IDEO, 2008)

Analysis Education Today, according to Samuel J. Palmisano, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of IBM Corporation and more than fifteen thousand chief executive officers worldwide, the single and most important skill that they look for when to hire a professional leader is creativity. Palmisano wrote on his study (Capitalizing on Complexity, 2010) that the post crisis period is complicated, and more prepared leaders - more creative, thoughtful and self-confident leaders - are needed for the private and public sectors to deal with this complexity in the global environment. This means that leading people need who will drive transformation need to cease using the same models, like everyone else is doing, and create other solutions from scratch. They have to innovate. The Canadian mathematician and author David John Orrell said at his lecture - organized by Central Saint Martins in 2010 - that one of the reasons for the financial crisis, which began in 2007, was that people kept making market predictions using inadequate models, which entailed the credit crunch. Connecting this fact with Palmisianoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (2010) idea, in this case there was a demand for creative professionals to figure that the models were deficient for forecasting the 42

market and then reach creative solutions. What Robinson (2010) said, and I experienced in school, was that children entered pre-school very confident with their creativity, but most of them left school no longer feeling creative at all. Education is the fundament for people to know how to act in their professions and in their life, and this should be stimulated in schools, as opposed to my experience in Teresiano school. According to Robinson (2010), there is an analogy between schools and factories, in a sense that students are separated in age groups; the educational system is based upon the fact that the most important relation between them is their age, while in factories products are separated according to their manufacture date. The day in schools is organized

in units of time, from room to room, marked by a buzzer between classes and so on. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was more acceptable to learn subjects more related to science and technology; if a person had a degree, it was almost certain that he or she would be employed. Doing well at school and at university was, therefore, enough to have a safe job. Nevertheless, the times have changed. Today, it is not sure that a person will have a job if he or she holds a degree, as this person needs to be differentiated. However, one will learn how to be innovative either by their own or under the influence of their family or social life, since being creative is not taught in school. The supposition that there is a direct line between education and employment forces the schools to prioritize the subjects that are related to economy and science, while the ones related to arts are diminished, like I experienced in Brazil, and it also happens in most of the developed countries. And this standard of education is exactly what needs to be changed so that schools begin to educate creative people, who will be the ones to fill the gap of creative professionals. This new approach could ultimately even help in the solution of serious socio-economic issues in our society, such as the exemplified 2007 crisis.

Ken Robinson declared that creativity and innovation are essential to transform the educational system in the twenty first century. Cultural, individual and economic aspects are the three main norths for education systems, and they need to be linked to each other and to be promoted in an equal manner. Students must build their own emotional perception, have affluence in culture and history and be economically prolific, having the ability to earn money by working. When Lytton (1971) described two different types of schools, the progressive and formal ones, I identified Teresiano as a more formal one, and agree when he suggested that both methods 45

are important in education as the students need to have knowledge in culture as well as being creative. (Lytton, 1971) According to Torrance (1967) there is a need for favorable climate to be built by teachers in schools. He explains that in order to develop studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creativity and abilities it is necessary to be respectful of the unusual ideas and questions that the children have, as well as to show them that their ideas have value. It is also important to provide opportunities for self-initiated learning and to support the students responses to it. (Torrance, 1967) Being Creative TĂĄtil Design have used what they have had in their hands at that time to create the initial ideas, which would be an example of what Marina Willer (2011) said and Csikszentmihalyi (1996) wrote about the creative personality; there was no fear of being wrong or doing something ugly or useless, it was the time to have as many ideas as possible. According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1996), a person needs to have a strong knowledge of a domain to be creative, and then it is necessary to apply this wisdom in a field. He numbered some important circumstances to be an original thinker, which included the importance to have a 46

vast amount of information on a domain. He also said that it is crucial to have a will to pull ideas about a subject, and to know how to judge ideas. Csikszentmihalyi (1996) says that people cannot only think of good ideas, one can think of many ideas, good and bad ones, and be able to evaluate all of them and then discard the bad ones. And, this was an example of what happened in Tรกtil; without this knowledge they would not have been able to reach such successful outcome. According to De Masi (1989), the pacific relationship and affinity between the members of a group is vital for being creative, and so is the individual ability to concentrate energy in a common goal; and this was exactly what was experienced in Tรกtil. Even though all the employees were very different from each other they worked in different areas and had different ways of working in the same subject - they were all able to concentrate energy in a common goal, which, in this case, was the 2016 Olympics logo. Design Thinking and the Multidisciplinary Designers Tim Brown (2009) stated that Design Thinking is a skill that designers have learned and it means to recognize the human needs according to the technical resources available. Positivo in partnership with IDEO identified what would 47

be the differential for the computer company in the Brazilian market. Customerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s requirements were identified after an in-depth research. The companies that were working together generated ideas and prototypes for their target public. After defining the specific needs of the clients - a handle to carry the computer, a nicely designed machine to be kept in the living room etc - they created the Faces products. Galvin Ambrose and Paul Harris (2010) defined the stages of thinking as problem finding, research, idea generation, prototyping, selecting, implementation and learning. This was exactly what happened in Positivo. The designers team had to understand a good deal about computer technology and its users needs when applying the concept of Design Thinking to create the products. They needed to know what could be used in terms of materials and technology to create the design solutions for the computer company. The design team had to understand the Positivo consumerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s universe, they had to absorb the computer userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s language. The fact that the designer has to fully understand the area he or she is working with is why they can be considered such a multidisciplinary professionals.

Conclusion People can become creative depending on the environment that they are set on. If one is encouraged by their parents to enjoy arts and music, for example, it is more likely to become sensible and creative in the future. On the other hand, if parents or teachers state that the child should follow a specific career or have defined behaviors, for example, probably this will grow up to always be shaped to somebody elseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s likes. This personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creative ability will not be incited. According to Picasso (1972), people do not become creative, they are born creative, but as they grow up are shaped in a way that lose the creativity. Some people are creative and some are not basically because the creative ones have their emotional intelligence more stimulated then others, specially during childhood. Robinson (2011) says that in school we learn by repetition, by wanting to please other people, and we forget to please ourselves. When schools ban the art subjects they are keeping the students of practicing creativity and developing their emotional intelligence. It has been more then fifteen years since the term emotional intelligence was brought out to the main public, by Time magazine (1995). At that time, most employers 50

used to judge if a professional was apt for a job by the IQ level, yet it is more likely that the smartest child in class will not end up as the most successful one in its career. Today, to be hired in renowned companies, it is needed to overtake tests based on emotional intelligence. These are not based on how high is ones IQ level, but how optimistic the candidate is. Artists tend to be more creative than scientists because they use more their right-brain functions. It is said by Time magazine (1995) that artists have a higher “emotional quotient”, the EQ. This means that they are more likely to work by intuition and dealing with wholeness rather than focusing on its parts. Conversely, scientists think more analytically and logically, which are characteristics from left-brain functions - known as higher “intelligence quotient”, the IQ. Creativity is an essential quality to stand out from the public today. It is a mixture of improvisation with taking risks, and it is not written on the books. Creativity is a skill to be used together with theory and knowledge in order to achieve innovative ideas. Design Thinking is a skill that designers should learn and it means to recognize the human needs according to the technical resources available. The concept of Design Thinking can be applied 51

in many fields of production of ideas or products, from computer to insurance companies, as it was seen on the third case study. Designers need to understand deeply the area they will be working on. This could be reached through the application of the Design Thinking, which is a concept based on practical steps that helps applying creativity into the search for solutions. Approaching the subject in a multidisciplinary perspective, more important than the practical stages of Design Thinking is the philosophy behind it, which is the pursuit of creative solutions. This should be aimed by every professional today, but will only be possible with the engagement of schools in the education of creative people. Since being creative depends on how one is educated, the change in the method used in most schools is crucial, but this will depend on how creative educators are. In this case, the philosophy behind Design Thinking could be applied to all the spheres of education institutions, from students to teachers. Education leads to being creative, and creativity can be applied using Design Thinking.

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