Creativity: Unconventional Wisdom from 20 Accomplished Minds

237 Pages·2007·5.4 MB·English

by  Herbert M. Meyers

Creativity
Unconventional Wisdom from 20
Accomplished Minds
Edward Albee, Chris Bangle, Dale Chihuly,
Chuck Close, Milton Glaser, Steven Holl,
David Halberstam, James Rosenquist,
Steve Wozniak, Ilana Goor, Nandan Nilekani,
Daniel Libeskind, Erica Jong, Roland Heiler,
Spike Lee, Marvin Hamlisch, Karim Rashid,
Julie Taymor, Ken Heyman and Paul Thompson
Edited by
Herb Meyers and Richard Gerstman
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Creativity
Unconventional
Wisdom
from 20
Accomplished
Minds
EDWARD ALBEE CHRIS BANGLE DALE CHIHULY
CHUCK CLOSE MILTON GLASER STEVEN HOLL
DAVID HALBERSTAM JAMES ROSENQUIST
STEVE WOZNIAK ILANA GOOR NANDANNILEKANI
DANIELLIBESKIND ERICA JONG ROLAND HEILER
SPIKE LEE MARVIN HAMLISCH KARIM RASHID
JULIE TAYMOR KEN HEYMAN PAUL THOMPSON
Herb Richard
Meyers Gerstman
Edited by
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Also by the authors:
Branding @ the digital age (eds),Palgrave Macmillan
The Visionary Package,Palgrave Macmillan
Also by Herbert Meyers:
The Marketer’s Guide to Successful Package Design
(co-author Murray J.Lubliner,McGraw-Hill)
In memory of David Halberstam,journalist and
author,who graciously provided the first interview
for this book.His unconventional wisdom and
reporting of the truth when covering the Vietnam
War created a new kind of journalism.
Quotation opposite used by permission of The Society of Authors,on behalf of The Bernard Shaw Estate.
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You see things;and you say “why”
but I dream things that never were;and I say “why not.”
George Bernard Shaw
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© Selection and editorial matter Herbert Meyers and Richard Gerstman
2007.Individual chapters © contributors 2007
All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988,or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90
Tottenham Court Road,London W1T 4LP.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this
work in accordance with the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2007 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS and
175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010
Companies and representatives throughout the world
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
Macmillan division of St.Martin’s Press,LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.
Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States,United Kingdom
and other countries.Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European
Union and other countries.
ISBN-13:978–0–230–00134–3
ISBN-10:0–230–00134–3
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources.Logging,pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
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16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07
Printed and bound in China
Editors’ Note
The chapters in the book reflect the viewpoints of the individuals.They were
not written by the individuals but we used their own words from our verbal
interviews.
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5
CONTENTS
About the authors 7
Introduction 9
David Halberstam
Opening a window on the society 12
Edward Albee
Collecting ideas from the unconscious mind 24
Dale Chihuly
Exploiting controlled accidents 34
Daniel Libeskind
Creating reality with architecture 44
Nandan Nilekani
Visualizing the future of global business 56
Erica Jong
Seducing her own demons 64
Julie Taymor
Moving,touching,entertaining and inspiring people 74
James Rosenquist
Making an illusion on two-dimensional surfaces 84
Steve Wozniak
Inventing to simplify things 98
Roland Heiler
Overruling the tendency to compromise 108
Milton Glaser
Being a design generalist 120
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6 CONTENTS
Chuck Close
Decoding the mysterious process of art 130
Spike Lee
Changing the filmmaking landscape 146
Chris Bangle
Creating the personification of BMW Group design 156
Paul Warwick Thompson
Looking for enduring significance 170
Marvin Hamlisch
Composing and collaboration 180
Steven Holl
Breaking the rules 186
Ilana Goor
My best things are my mistakes 200
Ken Heyman
Seeing more than others see 212
Karim Rashid
Changing the aesthetics of product design 224
Acknowledgments 236
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7
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Herbert Meyers and Richard Gerstman are the retired founding partners of
Gerstman+Meyers (now Interbrand),a global design consultancy.Their passion
for creativity stems from guiding their company for 35 years during which the
firm won over 300 design awards.
Herb Meyers was born in Germany and came to the United States in 1939.
After serving as an interpreter in the United States Army Air Corps during
World War II,he studied design at Pratt Institute from where he gained a Bach-
elor of Fine Arts.
Richard Gerstman graduated as an industrial designer from the University
of Cincinnati,then worked in both Norway and Sweden,countries that were in
the forefront of design at the time,before returning to the United States where
he opened his own design studio.
In 1970, Herb Meyers and Richard Gerstman met and founded
Gerstman+Meyers.Both realized early in their careers that design is an influ-
ential component of doing business and marketing goods.Starting as a small
group,they initially did everything from designing to supervising,client contact,
writing proposals and new business development.
As the business grew in reputation and number of clients, their firm
pioneered unique design solutions based on market conditions and aesthetics.
Together with their staff,they provided services in brand identity and package
design,corporate identity,and environmental interiors for major corporations
in the United States,Canada,South America,Europe and East Asia.
Actively pursuing their passion for creativity, Herb and Richard never
relaxed their focus on building a reputation of professional excellence and reli-
ability, while servicing a virtual who’s who list of corporate clients such as
Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, AT&T, Heinz, Kellogg’s, Exxon,
Ralston-Purina,General Motors,Pepsi-Cola and Omni Hotels.
To service their overseas clients, Global Design Network (GDN), a
Gerstman+Meyers subsidiary in Canada, Europe and South America, was
formed.Clients included BASF,Bayer AG,Boehringer Mannheim,Deutsche
Telecom,Ciba,JTI (Japan),and Brahma (Brazil).
In 1996,Gerstman+Meyers became part of the Interbrand Group,one of the
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8 ABOUT THE AUTHORS
world’s leading brand consultancies,from where Richard Gerstman retired in
2004 as chairman emeritus Interbrand US.
Both authors have been frequent writers and lecturers on subjects relating
to creativity and design and recently co-authored the books Branding @ the
digital age(2002) and The Visionary Package(2005),both published by Palgrave
Macmillan.Herb Meyers also co-authored The Marketer’s Guide to Successful
Package Design(McGraw-Hill).
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9
INTRODUCTION
“The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Most of us grew up watching movies, reading books and, in some instances,
enjoyed museums, concerts, art galleries, theater and dance, along with an
appreciation of paintings,sculpture,architecture and product design.When we
think of all the creative ventures that delight our senses, we often take for
granted why they entertain.
These creative ventures did not just happen.They were conceived and they
happened because someone created them so that other people would enjoy
them.They wanted to express their ideas and stimulate their audience by a
venture,and thereby create a movie,a play,a book,a car,a building or a service
that they hoped would delight and be useful to their audience.
Hearing from creative people
There are books written about creations that have delighted us.Many books
have been written about the creators themselves – describing their lives and
their accomplishments.
For this book, we wanted to look at creativity from a different angle.We
wanted to hear from creative people themselves and find out how they dream
up their ideas and thoughts that others had never before envisaged.We wanted
them to be the subjects of this book.We wanted their responses and their
personal viewpoints,so that the readers of this book could understand how the
creative people have been motivated,and how they have succeeded in influ-
encing, and sometimes substantially changing, lifestyles and conditions that
surround us on a daily basis.
With thousands of people around the world wanting to enter and excel in
their creative fields,a relatively small percentage is successful in terms of fame.
The creative people we interviewed for this book are all successful in their
fields,and many are known around the world for their successful creative work.
Each chapter in the book represents a creative person expressing his or her
views on creativity, their thinking process and the steps they take to create