Sketch Book Swoon

While I have always used sketch books as a way to chronicle my collages and work through compositions, I've recently fallen in love with the idea of the sketch book as a concept book.

One of the (many!) things I have learned being back in school is the importance of the concept book to the creator and designer. On the first day of one of my classes, the instructor mentioned how we should all be using concept books to sketch our ideas and document our creative process.

At first I was skeptical, but then I discovered a new passion for this type of creative process. It allows me to see my ideas and then execute them - a much easier way to create then straight from my head!

Since then, I have used my sketch book to design a poster, a visual story book, a single frame story and mini-book.

• Start your own sketch book today!

Five {5} Creative Questions with Linda Naiman

I have long been a fan of Linda Naiman's work. So much so that I asked a mutual contact to introduce us last year. Linda and I have stayed in contact since then, and I am delighted  that she agreed to answer my questions on creativity this month.

Linda Naiman is a creativity and innovation consultant, coach, and speaker. She is founder of CreativityatWork.com and co-author of Orchestrating Collaboration at Work. She has been featured in the Globe and Mail, Vancouver Sun, and Canadian Business Magazine.

Linda has spoken about art, design and transformational leadership at US Navy Leadership Symposiums, The MIT Club Singapore, The Banff Centre, and at international business conferences. Organizations who have sought out Linda for her expertise include American Express, AstraZeneca, and Intel.

To find out more about coaching for creativity and innovation: visit Creativity at Work, follow Linda on Twitter @lindanaiman and @alchemize, and join the CreativityatWork fan page on Facebook.

1. What does creativity mean to you?
I define creativity as the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing. If you have ideas, but don't act on them, you are imaginative but not creative.

Everyday Creative: Love

Last month found me delving into all that is love. Ok, well not all of the ideas covered in the "Be Love" chapter of The Creativity Book, but most of them anyway.

Love is such a strong emotion and one that I feel should be part of the creative process. I mean if you are creating something that you don't love then, really why bother. With that said, these last couple of months in design school, I have embraced how much I love creating.

Because I already realized this, I bypassed the first section on renewing your vows with your art and the act of creating, since I think I've pretty well lived this for the last several months. Everyday it seems when I start a new project or complete one, I am renewing the vow to create.

The next exercise to love logic AND intuition was one of my favorites. So often, we (me included) get caught up in being too logical or too intuitive when creating. This exercise asked you to love and embrace both of them, because creativity is about whole-brained thinking and equally relying on both of those skills. To create a balance, Maisel suggests the following :

Spend about a half an hour completing the sentence, "I love logic because...." and then the sentence "I love intuition because..."