#11: Chapters

As most of my family and friends would know, I have this weird affinity towards books, the way it looks, the way it smells and of course the stories books contain. One of my favourite photographers on Flickr, Boy Wonder did this amazing photography set on books and I was mesmerized at the result of his conceptual theme revolving around books.

Tall Tales (by Boy_Wonder)

Bookworm (by Boy_Wonder)

A few of his photographs manage to just capture what I feel most of the time when I read which is the feeling of discovery and adventure, a feeling of a comforting solitude. Boy Wonder definitely lives up to his name as he pulls of amazing forms of conceptual photography and fine art. His creativity in coming up with new, interesting, fresh, unique and original concepts for his photographs daily shows me that creativity can be translated any way and any time we want it.

Yes, yes - but you would have to be half-mad to dream me up (by Boy_Wonder)

The Reader (by Boy_Wonder)

R is for Reading (by Boy_Wonder)

The beauty in most of his photographs comes from the fact that he seems creates these amazing photographs by recreating the scene exactly the way he sees it in his head. This can also be seen, not only within this particular set but through most of his photographs. He has this ability to somehow recreate scenes that only exist within our minds and transform it into photographs which just captures the essence of what we might imagine or feel but are unable to pen down or explain. Call it conceptual photography, call it fine art, call it both, Boy Wonder's creative photographs grabs the core of imagination and blows us away with it direct meaning.

F is for Finding Fiction in the Forest (by Boy_Wonder)

A Stack Of Books Is Meant To Be Read Out Loud (by Boy_Wonder)

What I learned just by browsing through his photographs is that we can be creative by just penning down exactly what we feel or to simply draw what we see in our minds. And although it might not come out how we might want it to, the results would be original, it would be unique and it would be your signature. Creativity is all about you and what you think is your reality.

"I don't paint dreams or nightmares; I paint my own reality." - Frida Kahlo

References:

Boy_Wonder. (n.d.) Chapters. Retrieved from  http://www.flickr.com/photos/joel_r/sets/72157630845745486/

#10: Le Petit Prince

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a French aristocrat writer and poet who wrote the highly acclaimed book entitled "The Little Prince". This book is the most read and translated book in French, thanks to the story and underlying message within the book which has captivated both children and adults alike. Although it is classified as a children's book, it incorporates profound and idealistic observations of life and human nature. 

In the beginning of the book, the narrator, which is The Pilot, begins his story by retelling his life as a young boy, describing how he showed a drawing of his to the adults. The following is an excerpt from the book itself.

My drawing No. 1 was like this:

I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups and asked them if my drawing frightened them.

They answered: "Why should anyone be frightened by a hat?" My drawing did not represent a hat. It was supposed to be a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. So I made another drawing of the inside of the boa constrictor to enable the grown-ups to understand. They always need explanations. My drawing No. 2 looked like this: 

The grown-ups then advised me to give up my drawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and to devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. Thus it was that I gave up a magnificent career as a painter at the age of six. I had been disappointed by the lack of success of my drawing No. 1 and my drawing No. 2. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves and it is rather tedious for children to have to explain things to them time and again.

The excerpt above is just one example of the abstract content within the book which depicted the profound observations of adults through the eyes of children and vice versa. Through this book, we come to see that sometimes we have to look at things in different ways and to see things in different perspectives. This book shows the creativity of a child in seeing what may not be as obvious as it seems to others.

"All grown-ups were children first. (But few remember it)." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

References: 

de Saint-Exupéry, A. (1995). Chapter One. In The Little Prince. (pp. 10-11). London, Great Britain: Wordsworth Classics.

#9: Connect Them Dots

I came across one particular video one day of an artist, Miguel Endara, who used 3.2 million, I repeat, MILLION, ink dots to draw a portrait of his father. The amount of time, patience and obviously, creative talent, that was involved when he came up with that astounding piece of art is highly inspiring.

Endara dubbed the video The Making of "Hero", and throughout that 2 minutes, we witness how a blank piece of paper is slowly filled out with ink dots to form a face of a person. At the start of the video, Endara merely draws a very simple outline of his father's face and then later proceeds to filling the outlines with millions and millions of ink dots. His attention to detail, particularly the spacing between the dots which produces different shades within the portrait to create the eyebrows, the wrinkles, even the stubble of his father's beard and moustache, accentuates the contours of a face just shows how much heart has gone into the making of that portrait. The final product is an extremely realistic portrait of his old man. This video has shown me that art takes time, dedication and passion.

Even the way the video was created also showed a form of simplistic creativity by the way of counting the number of dots as the portrait was being drawn and it highlighted the method the artist use to come up with different shades within the portrait itself.

The Making of "Hero" from Miguel Endara on Vimeo.

References : 

Miguel Endara. (2012). The Making of "Hero" on Vimeo. Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/33091687

#8: Being Crazy Isn't Enough

Some of us would know most of the catchy and memorable books written by Dr. Seuss and know by heart which quote belongs to which book and even which character said that particular quote. His published collection of children's books are often remembered thanks to its imaginative characters, subtle moralities and most importantly, the way the book is written in rhymes.

To name a few, Dr Seuss' bestselling children's books include Green Eggs and Ham, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Horton Hears A Who! and The Cat in the Hat.

All of these books consists of stories told in rhymes as well funny and imaginative characters, quotes and story line. What all of his books have in common in terms of illustrations is simplicity, be it the way the characters are drawn or the colours of the illustrations, simplicity is what also captures our attention.



Dr Seuss' books mostly consists of characters he dubbed the Whos' and he himself came up with the illustrations of how a Who looks like. Recurrent in books like Horton Hears A Who! and How The Grinch Stole Christmas, the Whos' just add to the what makes his books what it is.

What I find most creative about all of his books are the quotes one can find. The quotes incorporated within the rhyming sentences in Dr Seuss' books are like a summary of what the book is all about. These quotes have somehow managed to define what most of us feel inside, be it the weirdness in us and how we should be true to ourselves, that the people that matter don't mind and the people who mind don't matter, Dr Suess' play on words and the meaning these rhymes bring says out loud the moralities that we tend to overlook.

"You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax, all you need is a book." - Dr Seuss

#7: Creative Advertising

Nowadays, we are bombarded by companies advertising their various products or services and in order to "stay in the game", companies have to come up with creative ways of catching people's attention. I came across several advertisements through the net and, honestly, the humour injected into the advertisements were what caught my attention. These advertisements below prove that a little humour goes a long way and has a unique way of getting the message across.

Bergmann funeral service advertisement 

Australia Post: If you really want to touch someone, send them a letter

Glassex - For Good Magicians

These advertisements screams creativity and it shows us that sometimes, we have to take a step back and look at the humorous side of things.

"Humour is a great vehicle for getting a message across. If you get too serious, you could die of starch." - Cyndi Lauper

References:

70 Creative Advertisements That Make You Look Twice. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/70-creative-advertisements-that-makes-you-look-twice/

#6: Oh Bother!

Who could forget that little quote, made famous by a character called Winnie the Pooh, created by A.A. Milne.

While rearranging my bookshelves this week, I came across my collection of illustrated Winnie the Pooh books. As I flipped through each and every book, getting all nostalgic over the times when I used to read the books everyday, I couldn't help but be fascinated with the illustrations within the book. The illustrations in the Winnie the Pooh books reminded me of yet another book I had, illustrated by the same person who illustrated the Winnie the Pooh book, which was the Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. 

The illustrations done by E.H. Shepard brought to life Pooh Bear, Piglet, Tigger, Ratty, Mole, Mr Toad and all the other characters unique to the books with his illustrations. His illustrations were part of what made these books so memorable. His special talent in illustrating human-like animals made it easier for readers, young and old alike, to visualize just how the characters would look like.

What inspired me most about the illustrations was that its simplicity conveyed such beautiful imagery and one would just have to glance at one illustration and know for sure who the characters and the person who illustrated them were. Such creativity in coming up with the idea of a drawing and the actual artwork produced through a simple technique of line drawing highlights the personalities of the individual characters. E.H. Shepard's masterful, scratchy line drawings immortalized each and every character and his illustrations in Winnie the Pooh and The Wind in the Willows are his most notable work.

"I'm going to make an animal out of you, my boy!" - Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

References : 

The Wind in the Willows. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/bibliodyssey/sets/72157621161267554/with/3703646743/

The Original Winnie-the-Pooh Drawings. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/bibliodyssey/sets/72157610318114895/with/3065949751/

#5: Paper Engineering

So as a part of an assignment for one of my classes, my group mates and I had to come up with a children's storybook. After brainstorming for ideas for the storyline and concept for the book, we decided to use pop-ups in our book.

Yeah yeah it's so cliche for us to use pop-ups in a children's storybook but we've come across so many amazing works of art through children's storybooks. The illustrations used and the intricate details that goes into their pop-ups are what makes these children's books special.

I stumbled across some amazing videos that showcased several designs for pop-ups and it's amazing how something can look so simple to the point that we tend to overlook the amount of effort that goes into the creation of the designs and also the complexity of the execution of the pop-ups.

Johann Volkmer came up with several pop-up designs for his final year project and I was blown away at the intricateness of his designs. His creativity in coming up with what at a first glance may seem simple but is in fact a complicated form of paper engineering is simply astounding.



Repeating what I mentioned earlier, we have the tendency to overlook just how complicated some pop-ups really are and we also don't take into account how much time and effort has gone into the creation and execution of these pop-ups. The pictures below show the different dimensions and complexities of a few of Volkmer's works of art.

The video below shows just how much heart, time and work Volkmer has invested in coming up with just ONE design.

It isn't just pop-up, it's paper engineering.

References: 

Johann Volkmer. (2010). faltjahr 2010 on Vimeo. Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/4052334

Johann Volkmer. (2010). Faltjahr 2010 - Making of October. Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/44250649#

Photos retrieved from http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Faltjahr-2010/270727