Introduction

You were born creative. Humans are, by nature, creative beings.

Maybe in third grade you thought your picture didn't look as good as the "talented" girl's. Maybe in the hgh school jazz combo you never got the hang of improvising a solo. Maybe in your office culture, offering an unusual suggestion is ridiculed. Maybe your job requires you to be creative every day, and after many years your well has run dry.

You can be more creative. Whether your creative flame is glowing, flickering, or has been doused with water long ago, it can be sparked anew. This book is written to be the spark. You can read it cover to cover, or open it to a random page any time.

I am trained as a visual artist and late in life became an amateur musician. I noticed while studying music that many of the principles are the same as those I learned as a graphic designer. Even some of the words are the same: contrast, texture, rhythm, emphasis. No great leap was required to realize that these basic design principles run through all forms of creative endeavors: architecture, landscaping, writing, business planning, carpentry, programming, interior decorating, and whatever it is you do all day.

The source of these principles is nature itself. That's why the book is illustrated with images of nature.

The first step is to know that you were born to create. Remember the curious and playful child you used to be. You could imagine almost any possibility, from monsters in the closet to traveling through space and time. In that frame of mind, you are ready to create.

Words from the Music Glossary

• accent
• allegro
• andante
• articulation
• backbeat
• crescendo
• decrescendo
• dissonance
• downbeat
• duet
• dynamics
• forte
• fortissimo
• groove
• interval
• lick
• percussion
• permutation
• piano
• pianissimo
• polyrhythm
• pulse
• rhythm
• ritard
• solo
• tempo
• triplet
• virtuoso
• a cappella
• accelerando
• atonal
• augmentation
• blue note
• brass
• cadence
• chord
• coda
• ensemble
• fugue
• glissando
• harmony
• interpretation
• improvisation
• inversion
• largo
• legato
• leitmotiv
• melody
• movement
• passacaglia
• pizzicato
• polyphonic
• presto
• resolution
• retrograde
• staccato
• syncopation
• texture
• theme
• timbre
• tonic
• transpose
• tremolo
• trill
• variation
• vibrato
• white noise

Inspirations

These are some of my creative inspirations, in no particular order:

• Legos
• Play-Doh
• Star Wars
  
• Steve Jobs
• Weird Al Yankovic
• The Ramones
• The Tao Te Ching
• Grand Canyon
• trees
• paint (watercolor, oil, acrylic, interior flat latex)
  
• Dune
• Steven Hawking
• the Alps
• MTV (first few years)
  
• The Art Institute of Chicago
• Vincent Van Gogh
• Marc Chagall
• Kaikoura, NZ
• Aunt Jackie (Jacqueline Ullrich)
• black and white photography
• Paris
• live music
• Allerton Park
• rivers and waterfalls
• CSS Zen Garden
• whales and sea turtles

Now make your own list!