Creativity vs. Invention

Anyone who works in a creative industry will often be challenged with the need to ‘invent’ things to prove their creative chops. Like a magician on stage, a creative will strive to produce results that will stun and amaze an audience. The act of performance as a self-imposed job description is a fairly common feeling, mainly generated by the ratio of working creatives in today’s industries; and the need to define your worth among them. As history reminds us, the inventors club is a small elite group of people while the common folk must live in the scrapbooking rank-and-file. As an artist, subjectivity plays a large role in the ability to determine value in a body of work; just the act of doing something can be considered ‘inventing’. But for designers, the role of solution provider creates a definable agenda with predictable outcomes, making the status of inventor increasingly unlikely.

What drives the need to perform for a client, boss or audience? The answers may live in the definition of creativity and invention and how society perceives them. The act of creativity is the application of imagination or originality, often generating favorable results. Invention is act of creating or designing something that has not existed before. While the act of making something from nothing is fairly straightforward, creativity has a much more nuanced purpose. The application of imagination or originality is the process of how ideas (hopefully good ones) are implemented; more specifically, anyone’s ideas. The designer/artist has the option of being a conduit for the creative ideas that came before, while inventors are tasked with specific goal of providing new. Through society’s lens, achieving progress or greatness against adversity is how we choose our role models and heroes. From an entertaining on-screen performance to a last-minute game winning touchdown, the satisfaction of experiencing something most of us will rarely achieve is extremely exhilarating. In comparison, the application of a creative idea that’s not your own may generally be perceived as just ‘using good judgment’, hardly the stuff of champions (some notable exceptions, taste-makers Martha Stewart and Terence Conran have generated successful careers by highlighting other peoples good ideas).

So why does the idea of invention often distract rather than assist creative thinkers? As a general test of ability, performance is society’s way of measuring accomplishment, weather in school, on the field or in the workplace. But, for a creative, the act of applying a series of small ideas can be harder to recognize in comparison to a few large ones. The confusion occurs when, in a moment of self diagnosis, he or she compares their original idea to all of the creative work ever done. The results are often sobering as there is rarely positive feedback in comparison to the amount of creative work all humans have generated over time. Like counting the stars at night, your own ideas can be difficult to appreciate from the static of other creativity around you. In this vulnerable state, invention can seem like the most effective tool in ascending the mountain of great ideas. By creating something never seen before, we believe we’re ensured immediate transport to the top of the pile.

Creativity is about the use of good ideas implemented with skill and consistency over time, producing results that are both intended and surprising, regardless of scale. Society has a general fixation with newness which serves to distract us from appreciating the beauty of process and method, especially in the subject of entertainment. But how does one reduce the habit of comparing ideas with ideas? Possibly, by treating the act of creativity as an extension of our health. If we practice creativity like we consume food or workout at the gym, it becomes a necessity in our lives and hopefully will reduce performance anxiety. Or put simply – 90% of being a Dad is showing up.