today marks the end to a year of creative columns. to celebrate this occasion i will reflect on my earlier columns, the process and on things to come. so sit back, relax and enjoy the music [unfortunately this column and blog do not yet support full audio playback, so you are required to fill this in yourself].

it all started during one of my usual time-killing days at my current faculty of industrial design, about a year ago. i had a chat with the founders of Studio469. they read one of my earlier columns posted in our faculty’s magazine and enjoyed my style of writing. since their blog was growing and open to creative input we came upon the agreement i was going to write a monthly column about design, creativity and life. this column-topic was later on revised into “my contribution in the shape of creative spamming, manifesting itself in somewhat distorted views and theories of the world around me”, a fable creative attempt to spice things up a bit. now click the link below to read the rest of this exciting piece of history.

during my first year, there were highs and lows. i celebrated, alienated in my little room with the dim light shining from my laptop screen, when i received my first comment. unfortunately it was spam, and i had to postpone my festivities. after the marching band and their cake spelling out “happy first comment” left my room i returned to my screen and obsessively kept pressing the refresh button. eventually readers started commenting and the celebrations took off once more. an added bonus was the eased process of constantly refreshing with the coming of a new spam-bot; akismet. which i believe is russian for “he-who-denies-access-to-unwanted-visitors-by-deleting-their-existence”.

the process of writing creative columns is a natural process to me. i just flick this switch at the back end of me head resulting in an automated course of near-perpetual movement of fingers and buttons. locating this switch can sometimes be as easy as moving your hand across your skull, or as hard as reaching 20cm inside your nose. nonetheless the result is usually pleasing and creative enough for it to be posted on this wonderful blog. let us just briefly look back on the first 11 creative columns.

Creative Column #1: Designers’ Block

the first column. this topic was chosen by Guus and Brian, since it was something they wanted to write about anyway. it deals with the horrible happening of losing your creativity and an easy-to-use 3-step guide of identifying and regaining your creative flow.

Creative Column #2: It’s All Relative

one of my more brilliant theories, if i may say so myself. i tackled the fact that we humans are relative, impossible in generating something non-existent, always relating to the things around us. also the comments show a sparkling discussion among the readers.

Creative Column #3: Beam Me Up, Scotty!

a creative sequel to a new development in the field of teleportation. this column shows the wonderful world of teleportation sans the complex world of quantum mechanics. it lists some creative potential which is again fueled by more comments.

Creative Column #4: User-Thingy-Contraption

a story about the user-part of design and some creative spam around it. it shows some flaws in current user-centered design approaches, at least to my opinion, and some possible workarounds.

Creative Column #5: InsomniaPhobiOsis

it deals with the exciting event of sleeping, and the even more appealing thing called dreaming. all of the information is then linked to some creativity and design, and how you may harvest this power of dreams into some fruitful results.

Creative Column #6: Creative Overflow

another creative problem: creative overflow. it shows the cause and effects of having too much creativity and how you may find a way around this breathtaking issue. a small addition to this story is the first use of graphics for my columns, a temporary fix until a satisfying visual style is found.

Creative Column #7: Copycat 101

a very unusual lesson in creativity: how to be a copycat. this first lesson deals with examples of the now cultural movement called “copycatism” and how amateurs and pro’s live with it. concluding the lesson is a final piece on why we are all copycats by nature.

Creative Column #8: The Choice to be Happy

happiness. it’s not just an event, it’s something you can control. especially in design it is important to make people happy. it’s about he choice, not the money, though money does fit into the equation. here i also propose a solution to finding happiness in all the choices you make, whatever the outcome of your decision.

Creative Column #9: WARNING: Fragile!

an ever-growing annoyance of mine is the fact that a lot of products are fragile. and this time i channeled my anger into one of my columns, discussing things such as product durability, product suicide and more interesting things about fragility.

Creative Column #10: Why?

one of my favorite questions, opening doors to new possibilities, shining light on situations unknown and creating room for creativity. it’s the shortest creative column, relying totally in the input of the reader. it holds one simple task: confront me with a why-question so i can give you a creative and satisfactory answer.

Creative Column #11: Eindhoven, Design Capital?

the second to last creative column of this first year deals with my design roots: eindhoven. it tells the story of what the city of eindhoven might look like in the future, when it would hold and maintain the title of design capital. it’s a great creative read and act of wishful thinking.

after all of this there’s still plenty to write about. i would estimate i have enough material to last for another 10 years. there might also be some upcoming changes. i’m still experimenting with a universal visual style for my columns and some layout ideas. but you’ll notice these things as soon as they change.

on a personal note i would like to thank anyone who read, commented and kept returning to my columns. i hope you stay with me for the time to come, not only at the creative columns, but at all the great content here at Studio469.

thanks, and see you in a month or so!

jan van der asdonk is a contributor to studio469 in the shape of his creative spamming, manifesting itself in his somewhat distorted views and theories of the world around him. feedback, topic requests and fan mail are all very welcome at jan@studio469.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 0:40 and is filed under Column. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.