Fresh Takes on Innovation

In a short but very funny video, David Ngo tells us about his thoughts on how to achieve true innovation in design. The keyword is process. Instead of waiting for a flash of brilliance, the design process applies several steps like needfinding, brainstorming, prototyping, formgiving and critiquing in order to come up with something that is new, functional and nice to look at.

These steps are pretty close to what BrainStore has been doing for almost 18 years: collecting inspirations, compressing them into ideas and selecting the ones worth going on with.

Via Swissmiss

In Germany, Linda Kowsky has established a web site that shows childrens inventions. You can find a letter in which you can ship water, shoes that look like clowds for soft walking, a tickling machine and many more funny and crazy ideas from kids. It is worthwile to look a the charming little database and to learn from the youngest inventors, whose contribution are both good-hearted and inventive and show how a “naive” approach sometimes unearthes better ideas than a mind that has already seen and experienced everything. Children are welcome to send in their contributions.

When searching for inspirations and ideas, don’t stick to words: You should also sketch and paint and don’t forget to go 3D! BrainShaping is a creative tool we use in almost every creative team. Using play dough to shape your imaginations is great fun. It’s a change for the mind and an exercise that loosens the atmoshpere among the participants. And hey: when do managers and CEOs have the chance to build whicked and colorful figures without restraints?

A BrainShaping of 20 minutes results in an exposition of quaint and funny figures and prototypes. People are asked to annotate their thoughts and concepts on little flags and to place this flag on their object for better recognition. The 3D material is part of the inspiration material, that is used in later steps of the ideation process, and each single word taken from the flags is entered to our inspiration database of the project.

When BrainStore holds a creative team, we invite not only the necessary participants (clients, targets and lateral thinkers) but also a bunch of specialized freelancers who are trained for key functions during our specially designed idea finding process.

Louis de la Taille is a Paris based illustrator who was recently involved in a CreativeTeam we organized in Belgium. The talented designer has put his BrainStore experience into a brilliant comic for his blog.

Enjoy his genuine view on the event. And thank you, Louis, for letting us publish this.

Source: atravers.blogspot.com

Are you interested to know who invented and created all the things that make our lives easier? From Aluminum Foil to the Zeppelin? www.about.com has a nice contribution from A-Z with details about each invention. This way you can learn that the scissors have been invented a long time ago in Egypt, that the Sandwich was an invention by John Montague

John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718 -1792) was the originator of the name sandwich. John Montagu loved to eat beef between slices of toast. Eating his “sandwich” allowed the Earl to have one hand free for card playing.
According to Infoplease Encyclopedia, John Montagu was a British politician who served as secretary of state and first lord of the admiralty, and earned great unpopularity for his charges of obscenity against John Wilkes. He presided at the admiralty during the British defeats of the American Revolution. The Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands were named after him by Capt. James Cook.

Go, learn!

This little flash tool lets you make a nice flower and share it with others. Trust me, it beats an hour with your psychotherapist.

Here your pictures come alive: Search for a picture online, klick on “montage” and watch a new picture unfold that is made up of all the pictures that come up for your search. Under Advanced Options you can have more influence on the outcome. Enjoy! Montage-a-google.

Forbes.com asked 95 CEOs to name the one device they wish somebody would invent. The answers ranged from feasible technologies far out into utopia: Computer chips that plug directly into your brain, a time machine, the youth fountain, the ultimate all-in-one-gadget… Check out the Fifteen Things We Wish Someone Would Invent.

Nice little card trick? Watch carefully

What humanity was still missing: Diet water. From Japan. Incredible, but true.