Creativity, for us normal people, is like water in the desert. Sometimes its here when it rains, and sometimes it dries up. You can never expect its presence but to hope and pray for it to come. Yet this god-gifted talent is extremely useful for industries like fashion, design, product research development, marketing and the list goes on. But all hope is not lost because creativity is something that we can try to nurture and well since art is subjective, we can all learn to be as creative as possible with the help of these books.
Remember those great Volkswagen ads? by Alfredo Marcantonio, David Abbott, John O’Driscoll
We cannot forget to mention the industry highly dependent on creativity here. Remember those great Volkswagen ads? is the comprehensive compilation and review of the revolutionary Volkswagen advertising campaign in the1960s and 70s (when Facebook has not appeared) and advertisements were about print ads in newspapers and magazines.
The campaign by this world-renowned automobile brand is universally acknowledged to be the greatest and most influential campaign recognised by Advertising Age and Times. The book covers advertisements on the classic VW Beetle, the Van, Bus and Camper, capturing the golden age of advertising and the classic use of creativity, which still plays an important role in business creativity.
Reading duration: 5hrs 9mins
Get Remember those great Volkswagen ads? from Amazon at $46.28
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Millions of people worship Steve Jobs, the icon of design and innovation. What is so successful with Steve Jobs? And how did he created the empire of Apple Inc.?
The biography of the genius is compiled with three years of interviews with Steve Jobs, portraying Jobs success, Apple, his family members and key colleagues from Apple and its competitors. No one needs one persuasive reason to read this book if you are already holding the world-changing device created and inspired by this technology giant.
Reading duration: 9hrs 17mins
Get Steve Jobs from Amazon at $11.83
Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All by Tom Kelley, David Kelley
As a child, you’re told to “go and have fun”, to explore, to fail, to try again, and again and again. The bumps and bruises aren’t a bad thing, they’re your badge of honour: you’ve tried, you’ve persevered. And then you hit a certain more adult age and you’re told: “to be careful, to study/work hard and to do your best”.
The Kelly brothers believed there is always a creative inner me within us, which is only hidden by the way we were brought up. Failing at certain tasks can provoke our creative soul, and inspire alternative thinking. The book suggests creativity does not end in art or design, it is also about education, problem-solving, and innovation.
Reading duration: 4hrs 18mins
Get Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All from Amazon at $19.00
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon
Austin Kleon told the truth about creativity, that few artists can admit to, that nothing is completely original, and all creative work builds on what came before. Every new idea is a remix or mash-up of one or two previous ideas.
The book Steal like an Artist introduce principles to creativity such as “don’t wait until you know who you are to get started”, “go away so you can come back”, definitely not the normal principles but sentences that reflects and inspires readers to re-think about their choices they make. “Nobody is born with a style or a voice. We don’t come out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes. We learn by copying.”
Reading duration: 2hrs 16mins
Get Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative from Amazon at $9.89
Where good ideas come from the natural history of innovation by Steven Johnson
The printing press, the pencil, the flush toilet, these are all great ideas. But where do they come from? Steven Johnson’s identifies the seven key patterns of innovation and creativity, including 1. the adjacent possible, 2. liquid networks, 3. the slow hunch, 4. serendipity, 5. error, 6. exaptation, 7. platforms.
Johnson addressed one of the reasons why big cities are so much more innovative than small towns is that you have more diversity, more “spillover” of ideas, and more chance for the ideas to mingle around together, mainly because ideas take time to form and cultivate.
Reading duration: 4hrs 52mins
Get Where good ideas come from the natural history of innovation from Amazon at $13.83
