my creative model

My creative model- F6

Fathom- at this first stage, I am supposed to understand what I am supposed to do or where I am heading. This gives me a clearer view in my thinking process. This is effective because I know my aim and goal from the start.

Fantasize- before creating this creative mind map, I failed to realise that fantasizing is very important. I failed to let my imagination run. My thoughts & ideas was very restricted & I don’t dare to think out of the box, afraid of going off track, afraid of doing things wrongly and afraid of making mistakes. After identifying this problem, I added the “fantasize” stage into my creative journey. Through this method, I force myself to think out of the box, make free associations & not being afraid of imagining & fantasizing.

Fragment- this second stage is the hardest stage for me. I normally have a lot of ideas flying around and I am unable to organize and filter it. Therefore because of this, I am unable to decide and proceed on to my “focus” stage.

Focus- this is the stage where I put in more effort and focusing on my main idea. At this stage, I cannot just look at the surface of my ideas but keep continuing to explore, develop & experiment. I feel that many of my ideas lack further development resulting it not to be creative, special and shine above all other ideas.

"Being creative is seeing the same thing as everybody else but thinking of something different"

Functional- in this stage, I start to refer, reflect, reaffirm & reconstruct. I will refer back to see my design aim, reflect whether I want this design, seeking advices and reaffirmation from others and after everything reconstruct to improve.

Finalise- this is the stage when I finalise my idea & design and is satisfied with it ONLY if I have gone through all the stages.

4 stories of mine

Story 1

memorable youth days

The 5 years of my youth was spent in my cca, National Police Cadet Corps (NPCC) in secondary school. When I was in secondary 1, during the cca recruit, my good friend pulled me to put NPCC as first choice because her cousin was a senior in it & she feels comfortable joining a cca that there is a familiar person. However my initial choice of joining ST. JOHN AMBULANCE was placed as my second choice. I got into NPCC & my journey starts.
at the younger & tender age of 12, I was very shy, soft spoken & dare not voice out my opinion or express anything openly. However NPCC “forces” us to be enthusiastic. Many times we were expected to cheer loudly & command a squad of 40 people. It was through the years that I grew to be more open, noisy, daring, talkative & is able to convey my message in front of countless people. When I was 15 years old, I was selected to be in-charge of many committees in NPCC. I have learnt many survival skills, leadership skills as well as to be discipline. I have learnt the most important lesson in life- dare to be myself. Devoting 5 years of my life to NPCC has brought me closer to many good friends. Up till now, I can say that it was NPCC and the friends that I made there that mould my character & gave me so much wonderful memories that is worth reminiscing.

Story 2

Transformation of life

It was after knowing my Lord Jesus Christ that changed me into who I am today. In the past, I was an angry girl. I was easily angered, impatient, short tempered & I seldom smile. However after knowing whom Jesus is & accepting him in my life, my life was totally change. I start to realize how bad a person I am, my conscious kept prompting me whenever I treat others badly. One of the Ten Commandments in the bible was to love your neighbour as yourself and after knowing it, I strive to follow & obey this law that my God set. I came to a realization that my ways displeases God & I ought to repent & seek forgiveness.
Also, I felt the peace within me. This peace that my God gave surpasses all understanding. I felt the inner joy & happiness. Due to this, I became a happier person. I am no longer easily angered, impatient & short tempered. On the other hand, I became a very cheerful and happy girl. I seldom get angry with others & im often seen smiling. In contrary, I don’t even get angry whenever people poke fun, tease me or offended me.

Story 3

Broken family

Just when I was enjoying the time of my life, things took a change. I was from a very blissful family that stayed in Malaysia. I stayed in a three-storey terrace house with my parents & 2 other siblings. My parents own two cars and we own a dog, a cat & 2 hamsters. Our family travels around Malaysia visiting places like Sunway lagoon, strawberry park, port Dickson & genting twice a year! I was sent to many classes and learnt many skills. I attended gymnastic, ballet, taek kuan doo, organ class, badminton, abacus, art class & Chinese calligraphy class. Basically we had everything every child could wish for.
However, when I was at the age of eight years old, my mother discover that my dad was having a mistress outside. After that, my dad seldom come home & they quarrel whenever they meet. After a year of tolerance, my mum decided to bring all three of us back with her to Singapore & file for a divorce with my dad. The nightmare starts then. I mother single handedly raise all three of us, playing multiple roles- working, tutoring us & doing the housework. Though my father in the past do visit us on every festival & birthdays, we were still reluctant to stay with him. The torture came when my parents were fighting for the custody of us. At the end of the year, occasionally my dad wants us to spend time with him in Malaysia. Seeing my dad becoming a total change man, helping out in the housework & even making meals for us saddens me. I could remember 4years ago when we went over to Malaysia for holiday, we stayed with my dad, stepmother & step siblings. My sister & I was very upset & bitter that we cried every night in that 10 days. We could not understand why our dad had left our mum alone, not loving her and us as much as how he showers his love on my stepmother & step siblings. The worst thing is we were expected to have fun & play with “the one who stole our dad away”.

Story 4

inferiority

since young ive been feeling very inferior. my older brother & younger sister have always been very smart and i dont seem as intellecture as them. my characteristic have always been very different compared to my siblings and friends. i am a slow learner and teachers and parents tend to spend more time teaching and explaining to me. Being overweight, it made me very clumsy. many times i fall, trip, drop things, spill things and have never been doing things the right way as it should turn out. my childhood life does not contain much good memorise because of my physical features, many friends dislike being with me and therefore i didnt have much friends. thus i did not like growing up as i know that due to my many physical and character flaws, more people will despise me in the future. however while growing up, i realise that it is not the end of the world. things have changed for the better and i finally found a place where i belong. (:

hanger teabag

i was researching for a packaging design

for my vds assignment went i came across this.

what an awesome design :)

week9!

generating ideas!

hmmmm. i always find difficulty generating ideas

because nothing goes through my mind! :(

no inspiration.

however now i learn not to procrastinate

& just do it! :)

do not be afraid because there is no wrong

here's what ive got from LE MENU CHART

what do i love: God, cheering people up, family & friends, frisbee, food, drawing, photography, watching dramas, shopping, glorifying God

what i dislike: gaseous drinks, mint, gossipers, backstabbers, people keeping things from me, my health, my lousy brain, not being able to complete my work, myself for being lazy

myself for not being discipline

what i fear: playing badly for frisbee, death of love ones, rejection, not producing good work bad relationship with God, bad relationship with family & friends, sinning, not glorifying God, bad health, bad results

what i believe: relationships God's work/kingdom, mummy, love ones, gifts/talents, technology, people, studies, food, time

what i want: God, to play well for frisbee, t do well in studies, to be creative, to do work faster, to improve on my english, to learn thai, to run fast, to have more time, good relationships

people who made a difference in my life: Jesus, mummy, debbie, daddy, rachel, julia, cherie, jamie, jolyn, jiahui

discoveries that made a difference in my life: knowing God, being contended, friends, family, love, joy, designing/art, frisbee, technology, money

decisions that made a difference in my life: accepting God, admitting that im a sinner, going to my sec sch, coming to sp design, going to shalom bp church, joining npcc in sec sch, priotizing God first in my life, play frisbee, pursuing design, loving everyone

deep doodles

i was really troubled & i express it through this doodle

the thought that i had:

is it worth it?

what keeps me going in pursuing this passion?

why all words with no pictures?!

sorry, all my illustrations are all inside my mistake journal which i submitted.

mun ying, can you return us our mistake journal so that i can scan into the com & upload it?

sorry & THANK YOUUU! :D

belated week 2

TED - Don Norman on 3 ways good design makes you happy

After watching Don Norman's video, i learnt about his theory of emotions as related to Design & creativity

1. Think about the role of emotions/mindset in the creative process. Remember the example he cited. Recall any brainstorming sessions you conducted before (as well as the in-class exercise earlier) - were the sessions conducted effectively? Why/not?

He added a fun element into the product he was designing.

He also talked about the example of connecting the two strings together. the first group did not managed to solve it. However second group solved the task. He gave them a packed of sweets before telling them the task and after they ate them, they are happy and they manage to solve the task.

There was once i was told to teach a bunch of children lessons for an hour or two. I brought sweets into the class and gave it to them whenever they got the correct answer. They were so eager to eat the sweets that they immediately sat up and listen to what I have to say attentively. In another similar situation, I tried playing games before the lesson starts, and it engaged them.

The element of fun and being creative does not only apply into situations we are in but it also applies to whatever we are designing, such as the example of the table tennis with the ripples and fishes that Don Norman gave.

2. reflection about the interplay/interaction of the Visceral, Behavioural and Reflective layers in a designed object and how they evoke emotions.

Visceral:

1.	characterized by or proceeding from instinct rather than intellect: a visceral reaction.

2.	characterized by or dealing with coarse or base emotions; earthy; crude: a visceral literary style.

Emotion and behavior

l Cognition interprets and understands the world around you, while emotions allow you to make quick decisions about it.

l Usually, you react emotionally to a situation before you assess it cognitively, since survival is more important than understanding.

Positive emotions make a huge difference. Isen’s results show that when people are relaxed and happy, their thought processes expand, becoming more creative, more imaginative.

In the role of aesthetics in design proves that happy people are more effective in finding solutions and as a result are tolerant of minor difficulties.

Design complexity can be categories into 3 levels of processing, visceral, behavior and reflective. In some occasions, culture may also seem to be in the picture. One’s culture may not be appealing to another’s culture. An example is such that the teenage culture seems to do things in their own way, reason is because they do not like to follow the adult culture.

Imagination- One of the powers of the human mind is its ability to dream, to imagine, and to plan for the future. We humans have the unique ability to imagine things before they happen. In this creative soaring of the mind, thought and cognition unleash emotion, and are in turn changed themselves.

“If you want a golden rule that will fit everybody, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”—William Morris “The Beauty of Life,” 1880

REVERSAL METHOD: You use it by asking the exact opposite of the question you want answered, and then apply the results appropriately.

The Chain Reaction is a simple method using quick thought associations, leading to rapid insights, to help you generate new ideas to improve a service or modify a product.

Developed by Bob Eberle, the changes SCAMPER stands for are:

• S - Substitute - components, materials, people
• C - Combine - mix, combine with other assemblies or services, integrate
• A - Adapt - alter, change function, use part of another element
• M - Modify - increase or reduce in scale, change shape, modifyattributes (e.g. colour)
• P - Put to another use
• E - Eliminate - remove elements, simplify, reduce to core functionality
• R - Reverse - turn inside out or upside down, also use of Reversal.

break through

i have decided to think out of the box, break barriers, plan my schedule well & constantly update my creative thinking blog! :)

this is something that i did- i love floral designs!

i inspire to be

Creative individuals have a great deal of energy, but they are also often quiet and at rest.

Creative individuals tend to be smart, yet also naive at the same time.

Creative individuals have a combination of playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.

Creative individuals alternate between imagination and fantasy ant one end, and rooted sense of reality at the other.

Creative people seem to harbor opposite tendencies on the continuum between extroversion and introversion.

Creative individuals are also remarkable humble and proud at the same time.

Creative individuals to a certain extent escape rigid gender role stereotyping and have a tendency toward androgyny.

Creative people are thought to be rebellious and independent.

belated week 1

· What is Imagination/Creativity?

Creativity is the creation of new ideas, turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity involves thinking and then producing. If we have ideas in mind yet not producing or applying it out, then we will be imaginative but not creative. Creative thinkers study and analyze, but they have trained their perception mechanisms to notice things that others miss. Creative thinkers verify and judge, but they expect surprises and avoid judging prematurely.

· How do they relate to design?

Design requires us to have both creativity and imagination. Without these, we are unable to produce new ideas and these ideas will not stand out enough for others to notice. Art and design processes help people develop fresh thinking through aesthetic ways of knowing, imagination, intuition, re-framing and exploring different perspectives.

· Has your conception of creativity changed since coming into SD?

In the course of the common foundation (cf), we have learnt to come out with new ideas and apply them. Such examples are the character making in the brick boy, plushy and several others. In one of the assignments for brick boy, we are to show our character by either making it out using cubes, painting and other creative ways. While designing our own plushy, we not only have to create and make the look of the character we imagine, we also have to create a character for it. No, my concept of creativity have not changed since i enter into SD. However, I feel that through our cf, we are not fully taught or guided into putting these imagination into creativity. With the help of several new and interesting courses, especially Design Creativity and Cognition, I hope to be trained to be more creativity and putting an element of character into our design.

· Do you think you are creative? Why/Not?

I do not think I am as creative as compared to many others. Often a times, I do lack of imagination and ideas in creating my work in cf. I needed guidance from the teachers in order to move to greater heights.

iii) What were the last 3 creative things you did? Describe in some detail, and provide criteria why it was creative. If you have not done anything creative recently, please say more about why that is so.

1. Put my creativity into the designing of shoes. I enjoy drawing on shoes to express my creativity because im able to express freely without any restriction.

i started out designing my first shoe when i was 14 years old. At first i merely wanted to just design a shoe of my own to wear. Slowly, i realize i enjoy designing. So i proceed to designing for my love ones- sister, friends & after that even upsetting up a blogshop with my sister so that we can earn some income from doing something i enjoy during the school holidays. :)

this is my very first design :)

these are the rest done for others.

iv) Do you think Creativity can be taught/and learned? Why/Not?

I believe that God has made each one of us creative but whether we use this skill it’s a different thing. I feel that creativity can be taught and learned to use and apply it. Creativity is a skill that can be developed and a process that can be managed. I feel that learning to be creative is like learning a sport. It requires guidance and practice to develop the right muscles and a supportive environment in which the skill could be flourish. As long as the student is given the opportunity, guidance, training, motivation and practice. These students who feel that they are originally not creative will soon realize that their creativity could go further than they expect.

v) What is your general gameplan for improving your Creativity? Please explain some possible goals and directions you have in mind. How can this class help you specifically.

I hope to change my mentally in starting my work. Often a times, I procrastinate because I do not know how to start. Therefore, it gives me less time to further brainstorm and explore ideas.

Creativity is..

1. Ability to produce something new through imaginative skill

2. generally refers to a richness of ideas and originality of thinking

3. those who have strong interest in apparent disorder, contradiction, and imbalance, which seem to be perceived as challenges

4. possibilities that may be useful in solving problems

5. communicating with others, ideas and values

6. entertaining ourselves and others

7. view things in new ways or from a different perspective

8. more fundamental qualities of thinking, such as flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity or unpredictability, and the enjoyment of things heretofore unknown

9. expressive in ideas

10. "Being creative is seeing the same thing as everybody else but thinking of something different"