Stereotypes around campus . Let me give you a tour !
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Stereotypes around campus . Let me give you a tour !
Text : Valeria Solonari Illustrations : Alexei Patrascu
Innovation . Inspiration . Creativity . We toss these words around daily . Are they just fancy ways to say ‘ I ’ ve had an idea ?’ Those of us who are marketers , designers and engineers are often labeled as creative . But what do people mean by that ? There ’ s a widely-held and poorly-articulated imageof the stereotypical creative person floating about in our culture . Is it Daniel Libeskind ? Albert Einstein ? A fellow student who I sat next to yesterday ? After meeting and interacting with many creative types over the years , I ’ ve had to continually expand my definition of what creativity looks like .
Sure , sometimes it manifests itself in the traditional way : creating something out of nothing . That lightning bolt of inspiration , or ideas from out of the blue ! But other times , being creative is a slogging , noodling process that develops at a snail ’ s pace . This isn ’ t to denigrate the classical creative mold , or to lower the bar in defining what we see as creative . It just means that there are different types of creative people and methods out there , and that we don ’ t all fit into the same mold . To sow the seeds of discussion , I ’ ve identified , with the help of my awesome student friends and colleagues , eight unique types of creativity , knowing full well that these people exhibit multiple facets and bleed into different categories . But given the stereotypes our school departments custom , tell me , have you found yours yet ?