Posts Tagged ‘creativity’
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
While browsing the web I came across this useful guideline for selecting and evaluating business ideas made by the Board of Innovation.
Very useful for when you have several solutions to solve a problem or create a new business and you want to avoid innovative ideas from falling to the cracks.
A hint for scoring cards: here at crowdSPRING we usually use prime numbers up to 11 to score the complexity of implementing a solution. It is fancier than plain Low, Medium, High but avoids most of the confusions of trying to micro evaluate a card while giving you a better sense of complexity and time it would consume to pursue that option.
What about you? How do you score, select and evaluate ideas?
Tags: creativity, ideas, innovation, inspiration
Posted in business, design, How To, inspiration, start-up tips | No Comments »
Thursday, January 26th, 2012
In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdSPRING community. For these interviews, we pick people who add value to our community – in the blog, in the forums, in the projects. Plainly – activities that make crowdSPRING a better community. Be professional, treat others with respect, help us build something very special, and we’ll take notice.
We’re very proud to feature Vinay and Asha (crowdSPRING username: Knifeonbutter) today. Vinay and Asha live and work in Goa, India.
1. Please tell us about yourselves.
We have traveled around the world, working in places as far and diverse as Fiji Islands and Dubai, not to mention all the cities across India. We now reside in Goa, dream beaches, sun,sand, coco feni, and like to pretend to work hard. Ideas fortunately , winning ideas save the day for us on sites such as yours. We just love crowdSPRING.
2. How did you become interested in writing?
We are both writers from the day we left college, and have worked with top 10 ad agency networks. It all started in school, when the teachers noticed we had a flair for writing, however, the idea lightbulbs started glowing, later on, after 3 years of hard, rigorous college education in disciplines as strange as physics and home sciences.
3. Who/what are some of the biggest influences on your writing?
David Ogilvy for sure. He was the greatest at one time. We never studied literature, so
we can’t quote Shakespeare. We are more fascinated with Adworld writers, Paul Hegarty, and creators like the Saatchi brothers.
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Tags: 12 questions, ads, advertising, branding, community, copywriting, creative, creativity, crowdsourcing, crowdspring, inspiration, interview, Knifeonbutter, marketing, social media, Vinay and Asha, weekly glance of awesomeness, writing
Posted in Awesomeness, community, crowdsourcing, inspiration, Interviews, marketing, social media, writing | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
As I was taking my daily dose of online inspiration, I found a simple and inspiring video made by to-fu.tv listing 29 ways to stay creative.
Some people will find this inspiring, some will find this repetitive, some will agree with a few ways and others will agree with all of them, but one thing I’m pretty sure is that you’ve got your own way to stay creative and we’re eager to hear from you in the comments bellow!
Tags: creativity, inspiration
Posted in inspiration | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdSPRING community. For these interviews, we pick people who add value to our community – in the blog, in the forums, in the projects. Plainly – activities that make crowdSPRING a better community. Be professional, treat others with respect, help us build something very special, and we’ll take notice.
We’re very proud to feature Roman (crowdSPRING username: Romasuave ) today. Roman lives and work in Northridge, California.
1. Please tell us about yourself.
My name is Roman Faiman, I am 37, husband to a wonderful woman and father to 2 amazing children, Ben who is 7 and Olivia, 4. We reside in Northridge, a suburb of Los Angeles and I do all of my designing from the comforts of my home studio/Kids play room.
I have a full time job, an Art Department Manager for a printing company, I handle all of the work that comes in and I prep it for printing, which is at times an arduous task since many so called graphic design gurus don’t really know how to set up their files for proper printing. On top of that I also spend a good 30-40% of my day creating designs for our clients. Our biggest account that I am involved in designing is The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, for whom I have designed anything from brochures to presentation folders to event books.
After my work day is over it’s time to work for my company, 4-8 Designs, my main focus at the moment is photo retouching, with print design, including logos, stationary secondary. My website is www.4-8designs.com
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Tags: 12 questions, blog, community, creative, creativity, crowdsourcing, crowdspring, design, designer, graphic design, graphics design, graphics designer, inspiration, interview, logo, logo design, logos, Roman Faiman, Romasuave, weekly glance of awesomeness
Posted in Awesomeness, community, crowdsourcing, design, inspiration, Interviews, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Monday, November 28th, 2011
Distractions abound. Every day we start work and spend a great part of the day battling the noise that surrounds any small business owner or entrepreneur. The email, the Facebook, the Twitter, the cell phone, the landline, the snail mail, the deliveries, the lunch orders, the radio,the text messages, the television, the newspapers, the YouTube videos – all conspire to dilute our focus, stifle our creativity, and distract from what is really important: growing our business in a productive, efficient environment. Finding ways to tune it out is important; sometimes a lack of noise helps you to think creatively, focus on what you need to accomplish, and reflect on what is working with your business and what is not. Great ideas can come in ways that surprise you, but rarely come amid the hubbub of everyday distraction. So… here are 5 ideas of practical steps you can take to reduce the noise.
1. Turn off the apps. Try to limit your time with email, twitter, Facebook and the rest to specific times of the day. The constant ding-ding of alerts can greatly diminish your ability to get other work done. I find that if I can ignore the incoming messages (whatever source the come from) I can think more clearly about what I am working on, accomplish goals in a shorter time, and complete my other tasks more efficiently and effectively. Productivity is only measured by what you actually accomplish, not by how many emails you read, tweets you send, or blogs you read, so my recommendation is that you literally turn off those programs and feeds at certain times of the day and only turn them back on when you are ready to focus on them.
2. Work from home. The office can be a dark, bubbling tar-pit of conversations, jokes, music, and a multitude of other interruptions, all conspiring to keep you from your work and to hamper your ideas. Working from home allows you to pro-actively tune out the distractions and the commotion that come with working around a larger group of people.
3. Unsubscribe. I suspect that I have subscriptions to 80 or 100 different blogs, newsletters, and email lists. These tend to pile up over time, many going unread and many others providing time-killing content, much of which I could do without. Purge, purge, purge – take the time to unsubscribe and cut these lists down to the ones that provide you real value and information that you actually use.
4. Make a list. Keep there clamor down by tuning it out with lists of the important things you are trying to accomplish on any given day, week, or month. I am a huge believer in using checklists to manage time, but they also serve to quiet the din that accompanies you everyday work.
5. Schedule yourself. A schedule can also help to reduce the interruptions that come with work. Scheduled meetings can cut down on the impromptu conversations, emails, and IM’s that accompany any project-in-progress by formalizing the conversation and questions that necessarily accompany a team effort. Scheduled phone calls will help to offhand calls that people make just because the “need to ask one quick question.” By scheduling time that is specifically devoted to a project or effort, you can reduce the number of unplanned, spontaneous interruptions that often dominate our days.
Photo: underminingme
Tags: creativity, distractions, efficiency, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, noise, productivity, small biz, small business, start-up, startup, startups, Strategy
Posted in business, How To, start-up tips, Strategy | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011
In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdSPRING community. For these interviews, we pick people who add value to our community – in the blog, in the forums, in the projects. Plainly – activities that make crowdSPRING a better community. Be professional, treat others with respect, help us build something very special, and we’ll take notice.
We’re very proud to feature Svetlana (crowdSPRING username: Allmond) today. Svetlana lives and work in Sofia Bulgaria.
1. Please tell us about yourself.
To be honest I don’t have the slightest idea (how I happened to be in the spotlight) why I am in the spotlight. It’s nice to meet you. My name (translates into) means “light”. There are scattered letters in my left hand, and northern wind in my hairs. I imagine the light, I spend my time playing the space clockwise and back, searching for the meanings, 
reaching for horizons, wondering why do we alibi only for what we’ve done, and not for what we never dare to do.
I live in Sofia | Bulgaria | (Southeastern) Europe.
2. How did you become interested in design?
Do you remember the magic of the dark room, the way the images appear on the white paper…?
I was in love with photography since I was13. As I graduated MA in Fine Art Photography, I was flying for a private air company, and working as a TV presenter for a photography edition. A teacher of mine used to say that living on a peninsula we’re (torned) torn between the water and the land. My heart was torn in few directions and neither of them was enough for itself. I think that the design gives the best opportunity to (see in your mind’s eye) envision in the most creative way ideas, visions and traveling … of brain mind, a perfect (symbiosis among) connection between water, land and air.
3. Which of your designs are your favorites and why?
First of all I have 2 favourite design projects – my daughter Ema (8) and my son Dimiter (almost 6). They never stop inspiring me, teaching me, (ushering me into the land of creativity) showing me how to be more creative. It’s amazing how we can discover the world through the eyes of the children. About my graphic design projects – certainly I try to give my best for every single design, and I feel happy and satisfied when my works are appreciated. I always say to my clients that they have to be 100% happy and comfortable with the result, so this is what matters to me – when a good idea finds the right way to show off. Not everything I like is what the client likes, so what is important is that we meet in between.
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Tags: 12 questions, Allmond, community, creative, creativity, crowdsourcing, crowdspring, design, designer, graphic design, graphics design, graphics designer, inspiration, package design, packaging design, print design, weekly glance of awesomeness
Posted in Awesomeness, community, crowdsourcing, design, inspiration, Interviews, Uncategorized | 9 Comments »
Monday, October 31st, 2011
Many small businesses are handed down from generation to generation, with each succeeding operator leaving their own stamp on the family business. Some do better and others do worse, but every so often an heir comes along who profoundly changes the way that business is operated and leaves a meaningful legacy for the family to build upon further.
Dario Cecchini inherited his family’s 250 year-old butcher shop in Panzano, Italy 30 years ago and has turned a small shop into a mecca for foodies, built a brand which is now recognized internationally, extended the business into other areas, with restaurants and branded packaged products, and become a star of the international media and in the restaurant world. He has been featured dozens of times in the international media, with outlets from the New York Times, to Atlantic Magazine, to the New Yorker singing his praises and waxing lyrical about his butcher shop, his restaurants and his philosophy. A quick YouTube search turns up more than 175 videos, including this great episode from Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations on the Travel Channel.
Dario is a philosopher as well as a chef and a butcher, but more than anything he is an entrepreneur who has taken a passion for traditional methods of butchering and food preparation and turned these into a thriving small business in the heart of Tuscany. The Cecchini brand stands for humanity, quality, and tradition and these values have resonated across the world of restaurants, business, the locavore movement, and the internet.
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Tags: branding, creativity, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, facebook, inspiration, leadership, marketing, pr, public relations, small biz, small business, smallbiz, social media, start-up, startup, startups, Strategy
Posted in business, How To, inspiration, marketing, social media, start-up tips, Strategy | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011
In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdSPRING community. For these interviews, we pick people who add value to our community – in the blog, in the forums, in the projects. Plainly – activities that make crowdSPRING a better community. Be professional, treat others with respect, help us build something very special, and we’ll take notice.
We’re very proud to feature Debs & Johnny (crowdSPRING username: UsBeingUs ) today. Debs & Johnny live and work in the countryside of central Portugal.
1. Please tell us about yourselves.
Well firstly what a lovely surprise to be asked to do this, we are touched and honoured – thank you – you will certainly get to see some of the diversity within your crowd 
Well here goes, our story……I think it could be long, so I’ll leave our previous professional background to our own website if anyone wants to know it. But UsBeingUs started really with us finding us – Johnny & I had both previously been married and when we met we were literally start again teenagers in our mid thirties – we were living in England at the time and had very normal busy lives, however we were on an uphill climb as we were start again financially too – we were often ‘stressed out’ and to be honest not necessarily the nicest of people, we had
become snappy, irritable, with little time to relax and enjoy what’s real – thankfully we recognised who we were becoming and felt it was time to try things a different way to see if we could get a bit more balance in our lives – I have traveled quite a bit previously and whilst I love my homeland, I also love the warmth and slower, more relaxed lifestyle that some other countries manage to lead – to be honest we didn’t really know what we were looking for we just knew that we wanted to experience something different, try life a different way – so we took the plunge to experience a more rural lifestyle and moved to Brittany in France in 2003. We were lucky enough to find a beautiful former farm, which we renovated together. A busy time for us as we had a big mortgage and bills to pay – but being in the countryside with space around us did give us the opportunity to experience a different way of life – we chose not have a television, which was one of the best decisions we ever made, everyone always asks us what you do???
Well we got in touch with our surroundings to begin with and we talked, we read, we surfed the net & we opened our minds to new ideas – we began finding out who we really were and discovering what felt right for us – we became vegans, our furry friends started to find us. We also took the time to teach ourselves new skills, the main ones for us, our art and graphic design, passions that have grown and grown
We decided to continue to follow our love of a more natural life & our creative passions – so we gave up the house, the heating, the running water, the dishwasher, the luxuries, the mortgage and the bills and have opted for living in a yurt here in stunning countryside of central Portugal – We have a lovely riverside plot of land and are surrounded by nothing other than nature. We live with our furry family of animals, all of whom have found their way to us one way or another, we have 14 gorgeous dogs and a cat – not planned, just fate
We are lucky enough to have had the love and patience of our family and friends, who may not quite understand what on earth we are doing, but nonetheless give us their support both with their love and their finances at times – thank you so much – you are all here with us in our hearts x
We have just had our third anniversary of living here in Portugal and so far so good, there are certainly challenges and certainly some we were not expecting, having so many dogs was one of those So it took a while with many ups and downs, but this last year, we have been finding our rhythm and so far so good – We love our ‘off grid’ lifestyle here and in time we hope to become as self sufficient as possible with a forest food garden & permaculture system – we are also just starting the process of building our own handmade ecological home to accommodate us all – That should be fun
We have now become I guess what could be described in today’s terms as an alternative couple, with a wide range of interests and ‘cookey ideas’ but in fact as you can possibly see from our art we are probably more traditional than most…
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Tags: 12 questions, blog, community, creative, creativity, crowdsourcing, crowdspring, Debs & Johnny, design, designer, graphic design, graphics design, graphics designer, illustration, inspiration, interview, logo, logo design, logos, UsBeingUs, weekly glance of awesomeness, writing
Posted in Awesomeness, community, crowdsourcing, design, inspiration, Interviews, Uncategorized, writing | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdSPRING community. For these interviews, we pick people who add value to our community – in the blog, in the forums, in the projects. Plainly – activities that make crowdSPRING a better community. Be professional, treat others with respect, help us build something very special, and we’ll take notice.
We’re very proud to feature Kate Casey (crowdSPRING username: katecasey ) today. Kate lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
1. Please tell us about yourself – A lady never reveals her age, so we’ll skip that part. I am a native Floridian transplanted to Minnesota. “How did THAT work,” you say?! My husband tricked me. That’s 
how. For now I work in the mortgage industry; I’m an administrative assistant. One day, I would love to be able to parlay my love of writing into a career. But for now I must just bring home the bacon; or the cheddar. Whichever euphemism you’d like to use.
2. How did you become interested in writing? – I have always had a love of words and telling a great story. It’s a funny thing to admit, but I could stand around telling stories for hours to anyone willing to listen. The art of weaving a story is like a drug for me. It works the same with writing, creating something on paper that someone else might find interesting is so much fun for me. It’s not at all like work. I am most certainly a frustrated artist.
3. Who/what are some of the biggest influences on your writing? – I don’t know that I have any one, particular influence – Maybe Stephen King. I love his books and I’ve read them all; some of them more than twice. That’s a strange juxtaposition for someone who loves comedy as much as I do. I love observational humor. I watch things happen and how people react. I love to incorporate that into my writing. The best things always come from real life.
4. Please tell us about your favorite projects. – As far as cS goes, I like the web content projects. They really give you a lot creative freedom. I really LOVE taglines. They are like telling an interesting story in very short form. My favorite projects to work on are the ones where the buyer really gets involved and gives feedback. So many projects you get no feedback at all. That’s a bit frustrating, because I know that when I get feedback it inspires me to really put my thinking cap on. I appreciate it so much when I get those comments, good or bad from the buyer. It steers me in the direction that I need to go and from there new ideas blossom. It helps so much. I wish I could stress that fact to each and every person that has a job on cS – give feedback; you’ll get great results in return.
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Tags: 12 questions, blog, community, copywriting, creative, creativity, crowdsourcing, crowdspring, inspiration, interview, Kate Casey, katecasey, weekly glance of awesomeness, writing
Posted in Awesomeness, community, crowdsourcing, inspiration, Interviews, Uncategorized, writing | 2 Comments »
Monday, September 26th, 2011
Just about everybody has one. Your desk has probably is littered with little piles of them. I would be willing to bet good money, that right now you have a few of your own in your wallet or purse. In the past year you have probably handed out and received literally hundreds of these tiny leaflets – an ongoing marketing effort that we don’t often think of as marketing.
Small businesses can spend tens of thousands of dollars with direct marketing efforts that might include mailers, trade show handouts, brochures, door-hangers, coupons, product spec sheets and more. But what we don’t do is treat that little 2″x3.5″ slip of paper with our name and contact info as what it is: the best opportunity you have to market yourself or your business to a truly targeted and captive audience: the person to whom you hand it.
It is time to think of your business card as not just a handy way to share your email address, but as a selling opportunity. Approach the design and content of your business card differently – stop right now to consider what other messaging, information, or purpose your card might include. Here are seven ways you can leverage those tiny slips of paper to spread the word, stand out from the crowd, and make the most of each and every opportunity to market your company.
1. Multitask.
Your business card can serve purposes other than just sharing your info. Creative business people are using their’s to offer discounts, include coupons, serve as event tickets, note cards, or appointment cards. Clever and fun uses like scratch cards or stickers can be memorable and can encourage the recipient to hold onto that card and jog their memory about you at an opportune moment. Oh, I know – make your card a bookmark so that they will see a remind of you every time they put down their Jacqueline Susann!
2. Drill-down.
Your card can include your own QR code or SKU and can encourage the other person to come have a look at your site. This way potential leads can view additional information or even receive discounts or other incentives. This is also a great way to track the efficacy of the card – you will know that every user who comes to the URL via that code was someone whom you met at a given event. Not a bad way to measure conversions of a very different sort.
3. Testify.
Another great marketing strategy is to show a potential customer how others like them have benefitted by using your product or service. We do this in other marketing materials, why not use the back of your business card for a short testimonial from a happy customer? Quotes, photos, and links can help to illustrate how others have used your business successfully and can provide the confirmation that a potential customer needs.
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Tags: advertising, creativity, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, graphic design, inspiration, leadership, marketing, pr, public relations, small biz, small business, smallbiz, start-up, startup, startups, Strategy
Posted in business, How To, inspiration, marketing, start-up tips, Strategy | 4 Comments »
