An interesting article, ‘On Creativity‘ by Andy Rutledge, was just posted on A List Apart.

I’m at odds with the word “creative” being used to describe what I do. In fact, ‘Creative Designer’ is my current job title. At best, the creativity is bridled by company wishes, company branding, and other limitations.

In good design, form follows function. Creativity is bridled from the outset, as visual output is dictated by utility. In web design in particular, there are many conventions for what a good looking website looks like; and the code itself is dictated by standards and conventions.

Graphic design is ruled by convention, not creativity. This is especially true for typography and book design — people like to read words set in a typeface which doesn’t distract from the text, because the eye is accustomed to reading from certain letter and word shapes. The most readable text is set in a typeface that is familiar to us, in a line-length familiar to us, in a point size familiar to us.

Perhaps there is a less obvious sort of creativity at work in the design industry. A process of idea generation, and a process of exploring solutions. Real creativity in anything is a challenge, but I think a small variation on an established model can make a huge and meaningful difference.

What about this blog…?
I like to think about the design of everything, including blog posts. I’m still thinking about how I should approach writing here. I started this blog in November 2007, and now it is March 2008. That’s not bad going, but you’d think I’d have made my mind up by now. I’m still undecided on how to approach posting here: whether I should post highly-polished essays and articles, or to use it as a notebook, or to somehow use it for both. I suppose I’ll see how my needs and interests dictate it. But I know I should write consistently so anyone who wants to follow my blog knows exactly what to expect. That’s what I like when I subscribe to a blog, anyway. Consistency. Oh, and genuine value.

Whether or not I’m in a university, I’m an eternal student. So this blog is a great platform for me to write my thoughts and ideas up, even if their nature — shooting from the hip — is rather flawed, disconnected, or dead wrong. I’ll do my best not to be any of that, especially not wrong, because I hate being wrong. But I don’t want anything I write to be too polished: I aim for a relaxed, self-effacing tone that acknowledges and forgives errors, because this blog is iterative, like the design process itself.

Using this blog as a research tool…
I’m not interested in re-reporting current affairs, or regurgitating and commenting on recent news (unless I have something unique to say). I think I’m interested in the bigger picture, regarding trends. It’s more likely that I’d want to dig up articles and websites and ideas from years ago and comment on them.

Images and words are at the core of everything I’m interested in. Recently, I’m reading a lot about business — simply because it falls in with the implementation of design and technology. Numbers don’t interest me much, but strategy, systems, and design and implementation of systems, I find fascinating.

I’m interested in social informatics and anthropology of communication. Social aspects of technology have always been an interest, but now I have two clever-sounding terms to label them. Social aspects of communication/technology fits in perfectly with mobile related themes, and I am beginning to read around and into the topic.

Blog and book recommendations on this topic, or related topics described in this post, are encouraged and very, very welcome.