Season's Greetings from The Creativity Hub

Thanks to everyone who has supported The Creativity Hub this past year. I hope you enjoy the holidays. See in 2009!

Rory

Click the image to view it full size.

Getting into the Chritsmas Spirit - 12 Days of Christmas

Here's a very entertaining (and religiously inclusive) interpretation of the song, 12 Days of Christmas, by Straight - No Chaser, a men's capella group. This guys have obviously rehearsed pretty hard. Enjoy.

Straight No Chaser - 12 Days - Click here for more amazing videos

Laugh Out Loud Animation - Paintballing

I used to be a big fan of Studio AKA back in my animation days. This hilarious animation using pixelated graphics, is one of a series called LoveSportLove, produced for MTV and Qoob.tv.

I found this animation while reading how local illustrator, Oliver Jeffers' book - Lost & Found - has been made into an animated short for Christmas by Studio AKA. For more details on that, go here.

The Second Coming - Rory's Story Cubes are back in stock

Well, it is with some relief I can finally announce that Rory's Story Cubes are back in stock! They are available to order online from The Creativity Hub at just STG12.99 (approximately EU14.99 or USD18.99) they make a great stocking filler for all ages.

This latest version has received an upgrade - the dice are now molded, providing clearer images and greater durability. They still come in the elegant little black box, that fits snuggly in your bag or purse.

If you'd like a set for Christmas, you'll need to hurry though, the last posting dates are looming!

• Last guaranteed posting date for  the US is December 10th.



• Last guaranteed posting date for Europe is December 12th.



• Last guaranteed posting date for the UK & Channel Islands is December 20th

And, just to remind you what Rory's Story Cubes are all about, here is Niamh (my daughter) explaining how they work.

Compare and Contrast - Two very different predictions from Microsoft & IBM

Here are two very different videos that outline Microsoft and IBM's vision for the future of digital technology. Watching Microsoft's is both exciting and inspiring. In contrast watching IBM's had me asking "Is this a joke?"

The bigger implication is the impact this kind of vision will have on staff during these challenging times. Microsoft's video inspires a "Yeah, I'd like to make that happen!" response in those who watch it. On the other hand, I can only imagine how staff at IBM must feel after watching this view of the future. To me, it's eminently practical, but not very inspiring. It's conservative, and a repetition of what we already know is possible.

Anyhow, take a look, but I warn you, watching IBM's will leave you thinking - "How will I get back those minutes, I've just wasted?" You've been warned.

Mindmeister - Online Collaborative Mind Mapping™ tool

Online Mind Mapping - MindMeister

Validation - A short 'feel good' film

Here's a great short film that won the 2007 Vision Award for Best Short Film. It highlights for me some basic needs that we all have, that quite often go unmet - needs to be seen, for appreciation, acceptance of who we are, and hope that things can change.

Have a look now, and ask yourself "Are these needs being met for me?" and,"How might I contribute to helping others meet these needs?"

By the way, you're incredible!

Consól - Social Games Night

Consól is the first Social Console Games Night in Belfast hosted by Scoil An Droichead, an Irish-medium school in Belfast. Organised to promote social gaming among adults and children in the local community, this night is for all you closet gamers out there, wanting to test-drive the latest consoles.

If you would like to attend or volunteer your gear, please email rory(at)thecreativityhub.com, or visit the Consól Facebook Event Page

At £2 for 3 hours of fun, this is a night (before Christmas) not to be missed!!

Game On!

2nd Solopreneur's "We Survived Another Year" Christmas Party

Hello fellow Entrepreneurs, Soloprenuers, and Micropreneurs.

It's that time of year again when everyone else has a company-organised Christmas Party to attend, and we end up twiddling our thumbs, acting like Johnny no-mates!

[If you already have a Christmas party to go to, please stop reading now!]

Well No More!

I'm organising the 2nd Soloprenuers "I Survived Another Year" Christmas Party for Belfast. This time it will be held in Soul Food on the Ormeau Road. There are 20 places available. Ticket Price includes a scrumptious 3 course meal with BYOB and no corkage fee.

If you know a fellow Solopreneur or Micropreneur who would like to attend this Christmas Party, please tell them about this event.

Happy Christmas,

Rory

The Creativity Hub awarded 3rd place in InvestNI Big Idea Awards 2008

Well, the results are in! The Creativity Hub, and in particular my proposal to develop Rory's Verb Cubes, won third place in the 2008 Big Idea Competition sponsored by Invest NI, in association with Advantage NI and UnLtd NI. This event was organised in conjunction with Global Entrepreneurship Week 2008.

The event was held yesterday and hosted by Myleene Klass. It was presented EuroVision-style with young people from various cities (Brussels, Mumbai, Singapore, Boston and Belfast) all voting on the various ideas. I had entered the Social Entrepreneur category at the urging of Carmel Heaney of UnLtd NI.

The voting was close right up to the end, with the three leaders pretty much neck and neck. Mumbai awarded Rory's Verb Cubes 9/10 points, but my hopes for victory came crashing down when Boston awarded Rory's Verb Cubes just 5/10. In the end Music Theatre 4 Youth took first place, with SOS Bus NI coming second. Netherlea, Blick Studios and the boys from Positive Percussions were the remaining finalists. in the Social Entrepreneurship category.

While I am admittedly a little disappointed to have missed the top spot, I am grateful for the both recognition and money prize that I will be able to invest in developing a prototype of this new version. Watch this space!

The Creativity Hub is a finalist in the Big Idea (NI) Social Entreprenuer Awards

Wow! I'm celebrating that I have been nominated as a finalist for the Big Idea (NI) Award (held in association with Invest NI, Advantage NI and UnLtd). The event is organised as part of Global Enterprise & Entrepreneurship Week that runs from Nov 17-23rd. If I win the Social Entrepreneur category, I will receive funding towards developing the next version of Rory's Story Cubes. This new set is designed to support language development. Winners will be announced at an event in the Culloden Hotel, Holywood on November 18th. Wish me luck!

Below you can view the 12-slide presentation I submitted to accompany the online application.

Roc 081024 Bigidea Presentation

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: story cubes)

The Next Revolution in Desktop Printing - Objects

I've been following the development of 3D printers for a while now. Why? Well, because I imagine a day when the Rory's Story Cubes community will be able to design, upload and share their own icons, and them print their own sets of Rory's Story Cubes using a 3D Printer. Desktop Factory have recently launched a 3D printer selling for about $5000 - a similar price to the first Apple LaserWriter. The LaserWriter is often touted as kick-starting the desktop publishing revolution. Say goodbye to limited choice, and high prices, say hello to the next wave user-generated creativity!

[via PSFK, Treehugger and Ponoko]

Mankind is no Island - the need for creativity and empathy

This video “Mankind Is No Island” was winner of the NY Tropfest 2008. I find this a beautiful piece of video, shot using only a mobile phone camera and found images. While a video about humankind may not appear to have a connection with creativity and innovation, to me it is totally connected. Personally, I cannot live me life, thinking "I'm so creative", if at the same time people close to me are homeless, starving, or go through life, never experiencing empathy or human contact. The Creativity Hub is not just about ideas, it's about people. It's about humankind.

[via PSFK]

Optical Illusions Video #01

What leads to Success? Richard St. John explains using 8 Words in 3 minutes

I love this presentation, especially how Richard St. John has distilled 500 interviews into 8 key words. And, he uses visuals and humour to aid memorability! My thanks to Beverly Addis over at Axis Recruitment for passing this on.

An animation that explains CERN's Large Hadron Collider

Having an amateur interest in quantum physics, and more than passing interest in discovering the meaning of life, I have been following CERN's progress with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) over the past few years with interest. A video entitled "The Bottle to Bang" by Chris Mann (6 min) posted on the CERN website (and sourced via a recent EnlightenNext newsletter) has been really helpful for me in making sense of what the heck is going on there.

The power of words: Making Mistakes - Making Learnings?

I've been thinking about how I sometimes avoid doing things because I'm worried about making a mistake. I wonder how things might be different if instead of calling them mistakes, I realise that each mistake has the potential to contain a learning? What if, at the end of the day, we could say "Wow! I had 10 new learnings today" rather than think that I've made a mistake. This would open up the possibility of risk-taking, as an avebue to greater creativity and innovation in our lives, our workplaces and our society.

spoken through SpinVox

How to use a Flip Chart for Fun

I disovcered this on Viv McWaters blog while researching information on Open Space Technology, after my week long training last week. I'm glad I stopped to look.

Guilt & Shame concept sketch

Here's another concept sketch for the new website. This time, Guilt and Shame harass a poor unfortunate. What do you think of the style? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

The Needs - Strategy Iceberg

Here's another illustration I used in a recent GoFlow session to explain the difference between strategies and needs.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

We tend to get hung up on the strategies (the surface behaviours) that people employ. We say that they are doing 'this' or 'that' on purpose, as if their intention was to purposefully inflict harm. This may be the case on occasion, but more often than not, the person - be it an adult of child - is using the best strategy they believe is going to help them to get a certain need met. The strategy is what we experience - the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. What we miss is the underlying need that is driving the strategy.

And what are needs? They are universal drives that we all share. We can have a need for security, creativity, understanding, respect, play, meaning and purpose, food, rest, sexual expression, and so on. When we connect with these needs, we can say "Yeah, I get how you might want to meet that need...but man, that strategy you are using isn't meeting my need for X." Try it now. Re-read the list of needs, and consider whether you would have any problem with someone wanting to meet one of those needs? Chances are you wont, because you recognise them as universal drives.

The problem is that we tend to focus on the strategies employed by people / organisations / cultures, and do not make the time to connect with the needs - either our own, or those of others.

The next time you find yourself ready to criticise, blame or evaluate another person's behaviour (or your own), pause, and ask...

"What need was he/she/I trying to meet by that strategy?

You may find your perspective shifting ever so slightly to a place of greater empathy, understanding and compassion.

Concept sketch for 3 chAgents

Recently, I've been developing a brand idea for the Creativity Hub with the help of my Rory's Story Cubes. Here is some concept copy that was inspired by using the dice.

The Story so far...

The forces of Change are gathering momentum. Uncertainty, Apathy and Fear continue to grow in strength. They are taking control of our lives, workplaces, schools, universities, communities and governments.

In the face of this seemingly overwhelming force, how can someone like you be expected to navigate the challenges of your daily life, let alone have any kind of impact in today's world? Wouldn't it be easier to just ignore it all and go back to surfing the 'net, retail therapy or drowning your worries in your substance of choice? Do you seek out the latest Guru promising to sort out your life in 5 easy steps? Or maybe you are waiting for a hero more powerful than you can imagine, to rescue you from this mess we call Life?

Well, that hero lies dormant in you, waiting to be awoken. And the world is waiting...

Welcome to the Creativity Hub, powering-up ordinary folk like you, to become Agents of Change, in this great Age of Change. If you want to restore balance to your life, unstick what is stuck in your business, and learn to ride the waves of change in the world, you will need to become adaept at three key skills - to ability to Solve, to Resolve and to Create.

I see the Creativity Hub as a Dojo or base for people who wanting to develop the ability to Solve-Resolve-Evolve. I call these people chAgents (Change Agents).

Visualising the characters

After writing that text, I wanted to visualise the characters. Below you can see a sketch for the 3 heroes - Solver, Resolver and Evolver.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

And here are some concept sketches that visualise the abstract challenges we face in our lives and workplace - apathy, fear, guilt and shame.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

The Boy Who Slept His Life Away - a Rory's Story Cubes tale

"Ok. I'm gonna try and tell a quick story using my Rory's Story Cubes via SpinVox.com's blog message service.

Once upon a time there was a boy who was sound asleep. He was unhappy with his lot in life and decided to sleep as long as he could, waiting for the day that he would die and hopefully have a better experience. But during his sleep he was struck by a bolt of lightening which woke him up, and he realised that if he was gonna learn anything about himself and life he'd have to get up and get out into the world.

When he went out into the world he met a sheep who told him that all life hangs in the balance. And so, while he was sleeping there was somebody else out experiencing the fullness of life, and does he not want to do the same himself? So this set the boy's heart on fire and his passions alive and he set out into the world ready to fully experience it as much as he could before he died. The end."

spoken through SpinVox

Here is the photo of the dice roll that sparked the story.

Test Message from SpinVox.com

"I've been experimenting with a great tool for getting your voicemail message into text and into your blog. It's called SpinVox and you can find out more about it by visiting www.spinvox.com"

spoken through SpinVox

The Lonely Frog - a Rory's Story Cubes tale

I was doodling in Skitch the other day with my Wacom Bamboo drawing pad, and found myself sketching the 9 images below. They are arranged in a manner similar to my first prototype for Rory's Story Cubes which was based on a Rubik's Cube. For the fun of it, I decided to make up a story. You can read the result below.

Once upon a time...there was a lonely frog. He didn't like being alone, but was alone nonetheless. One day he signed up as a lab frog for a space flight. "I'm bound to meet interesting frogs now" he thought. However, he soon learned that nobody wanted to talk to him. No one except the astronaut that he was travelling with. And he just talked and talked. He never asked the frog how HE was feeling. Distraught and depressed, the frog decided to make his escape. He put on his space helmet, and leapt from the rocket when no one was looking. It took him a long time to fall back to earth, and into the sea. It is here that he now spends much of his time, living on a sleepy little island in the middle of the pacific ocean. The End.

Now, what story can you make up, based on the nine images shown?

To learn more about Rory's Story Cubes, visit TheCreativityHub.com

What's your Frequency, Kenneth?

I was facilitating a GoFlow one-to-one session with a client last week, and the conversation came around to "finding your purpose in life." As we talked, I used this image below to explain how i think about it.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

The way I look at is this...everything is energy, vibrating as either particles of waves. And waves vibrate at different frequencies. if you have any doubts about this, read The Field, by Lynn McTaggart. Especially the experiment about the Adrenaline and the Pig's Heart!

Similar frequencies resonate with, and amplify each other. Think of the tuning fork and the glass, that starts to vibrate in sync with the fork.

So this got me to thinking about the frequency I am choosing (consciously or subconsciously) to resonate at? If I can send out a clear signal, in my actions, behaviours, branding, it will resonate with, and appeal to others of a like mind (or frequency). At the same time, it will have the opposite effect on those on a different frequency. They may simply ignore it, or repel those who are not in the same 'place' of thinking. And that's fine too, as we probably would not work well together.

How do you find your frequency? There are a variety of tools you can employ from creative problem solving, to visioning and energy psychology to help resolve limiting believes that result in a confused signal. If this sounds like something your would like to explore, you may want to book a GoFlow session, designed to unstick what is stuck, and get things 'flowing' again.

The question for today is:

What frequency are you choosing to resonate? And are you choosing it consciously or subconsciously?

Great example of how systems are everywhere!!

This video of Royskopp's song - Remind Me, is a great visual example of how systems and subsystems are everywhere.

Hats off to Sam Carpenter, author of Work the System for flagging up this link.

Are you part of the problem...or solution?

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

I've always loved this quote by Einstein, and I use it a lot in my creativity and conflict resolution workshops and training .

The quote has taken on an added dimension during Spiral Dynamics training I undertook in New York last year. Here is my new take on Einstein's quote...

"While you cannot solve today's problems from the same level of conciousness that created them...you DO need to present the solution in a form that can be grasped by (have the buy-in of) the level of conciousness that created it. Otherwise it won't stick."

This was a real personal 'Aha!' moment. I'm wondering how you make sense of it?

The Continuing Adventures of...Innovation Agent!

I tend to use doodles to visual ideas and concepts. So at the prompting of Anita, my partner, I will be uploading some of my conceptual doodles to this blog.

Here's the first one. This was doodled as a result of the recent talk in my BNI chapter about credit-crunches and downturns.

If you would like to see more, please let me know...the encouragement will keep me going.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Satirical Animation jabs fun at US election

I'm being drawn back to animation more and more as a powerful medium to communicate a point effectively. In this case, music and and animation are used to parody the US election candidates.

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

Where is Matt?

I find this video to be truly inspiring. Watching it reminds me how, on a most basic level, we are all the same. I find it helpful to remember this once in a while. And ok...I confess, I found myself getting a teensy weensy bit emotional watching it.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo

Video: Wiki's in Plain English

I just discovered these funny and informative videos produced by the team at Common Craft. Each video explains a topic using no-bull language and visuals. In fact the visuals are a combination of hand-drawn images, cut-outs, live motion and pixelation.

Having worked in multimedia, and animation for 10 years, I am really impressed by their ability to distill technical concepts into an easily digestible and funny form. I doff my cap to you.





I chose this particular clip, as I am just exploring how I can leverage Wiki's as part of my Innovation Hub training programme for organisations. This is an internal training program for organisations wanting to develop creative catalysts (or what I call Innovation Agents) in their organisation. These teams then spread the Innovation Agent Mindset, virally throughout the organisation, by forming their own Innovation Hubs.

More information about the Innovation Hub, and the Innovation Agent Toolkit will be available on the new Creativity Hub website, coming soon(ish).

Technorati Tags: animation, communication, creativity, visual thinking

Animation: Simon's Cat 'Let Me In!'

I watched this hilarious cartoon, and realised that I have not been honouring my background in animation, puppetry and multimedia. Even though I now share tools and techniques for creative thinking and personal development, my love of animation informs everything I do - from the illustrations I use, to the stories I tell with my latest game-tool Rory's Story Cubes.



The thing with animation and cartoons is that they often provide us with a new way of looking at things. This is why we laugh - our brain is tripped up while processing seemingly incongruent information - hence the laugh.

Laughter also has many beneficial effects. It reduces stress for one. And this is key to developing your creativity. Trying to generate ideas is not all that effective while stressed.

What does this all add up to? Well, from this day forth, I will start posting animation clips I discover that I consider to be different in some way - either funny "ha-ha", or funny "odd". Most importantly, I will choose ones that I think will help you to a more creative/flexible thinker.

Workshop - BEYOND COACHING (Creative Tools To Empower Your Clients)

BEYOND COACHING

Creative Tools To Empower Your Clients

Date: Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Time: 9:30 am - 4:30 pm

Location: Avoca Suite, Stillorgan Park Hotel, Stillorgan Road, Dublin, Ireland

Standard Pricing: €200 (includes Rory's Story Cubes & Inner Vision Deck™ and Workbook)

Discounted Price: €150 (applies if you already own Rory's Story Cubes & Inner Vision Deck™)

Online Booking:  http://beyondcoaching080311.eventbrite.com/

Have you ever had the experience where a client you are meant to be helping, becomes stuck, and is reluctant to talk about an issue? They want your help, but can't put it into words.

Have you ever wished you had someone to help you sort out a challenge, but thought - "I should be able to do it myself"? While you are busy helping others, your own issues lie ignored in the background. You think that, because your job is to help others, you ought to be able to sort it out yourself.

Do you want to bring some play and laughter into your sessions, to help your clients relax and open-up more? The beginning of a session is usually quite awkward. Learn how you can quickly break the ice with people of all ages and background.

Workshop Overview

This workshop is presented by Rory O'Connor inventor of Rory's Story Cubes™ and the Inner Vision Deck™. In this  one day workshop you will gain the experience to confidently use these simple, playful yet powerful tools to reach a level of insight and trust with your clients, not normally experienced through ordinary dialogue.

By learning how to use these two creative tools in your sessions you will empower your clients to better help themselves. By teaching your own clients how to use Rory's Story Cubes and the Inner Vision Deck, you will discover that your clients will be more willing to do 'homework', knowing that they have the tools to help themselves.

As a result of the workshop and using these tools, you will find that...

• Your sessions become easier on you, as your client does more of the work;


• You clients will have more buy-in to the solutions they discover for themselves;


• Your listening skills will improve, as you no longer have to listen & solve at the same time;


• Your level of self-awareness will increase with each use of the tools;


• Your client relationships will move to a deeper level as your clients become more willing to reveal themselves;

Target Audience

This workshop is geared towards full-time, part-time and trainee Therapists, Counsellors, Psychologists, Personal Development Trainers, Teachers, Mentors & Life Coaches. Anyone who works with (or wants to work with) people in order to help them remove blocks and find solutions that facilitate personal growth, success and well-being through greater self-awareness.

Content

The workshop is designed as a hands-on experience to ensure you walk away with the confidence and knowledge to use these tools expertly with your own clients. The workshop will cover the following:

• Creative Problem Solving and the Socratic Method


• A simple way to identify and frame challenges to address


• Translating challenges into effective Questions


• Creative Problem Solving with The Inner Vision Deck


• Facilitating others with The Inner Vision Deck


• Story as a doorway to greater self-awareness


• Problem Solving with Rory's Story Cubes


• Facilitating others with with Rory's Story Cubes


• Using Rory's Story Cubes in a Group


• Questions & Answers

As part of the workshop you will receive guide notes and worksheets for both Rory's Story Cubes, and the Inner Vision Deck.

What People Are Saying

The Inner Vision Deck was awarded Five Stars by InnovationTools.com

"The guy is a genius. If I could have [Rory's] brain, that would be my 1st success!!"

- Anonymous response to Workshop Survey conducted by University of Ulster

"As a person reliant on my 'Inner Knowing' I find the Inner Vision Deck™ a useful link-in to my intuitions. The card selection helps me to bring focus to what is up for me and to gain clarification or confirmation on the way forward. The deck can be used as a quick reference tool or alternatively...it can be used as a more methodical 'search engine' type tool that allows me to connect with insights on issues or questions for which I am seeking answers. The Inner Vision Deck is a big bang for your buck!" - Tom K

"I am getting so much from [your workshops] both on a personal and a business level. I'm gaining tools to work with both in my coaching and in my personal life. The group interaction is great and the workshops are thought provoking and supportive. I feel this course is both an eye opener and an asset to my creativity. Your passion for working in this way certainly comes across very strongly and I, as a participant, reap the benefits. Learning through play and experience is the best way for me." - Mary Power, Empower Coaching

"What stands out for me now is how excited I felt about finding two locally-produced tools...which can help circumvent blocks in the coaching process.  Coming to that pass, i.e. the client being over-rational or controlling or inclined to disable the helper (even one that 's costing money) is a major challenge in our line of work, I think." -Emer McDermott, ReNua Coaching

About the Presenter

Rory O'Connor is founder of The Creativity Hub, a Belfast based company that is committed to helping people, teams and organisations become more creative. Rory has worked behind the scenes to help organisations big and small empower their staff to build their vision, creativity, relationships and profit. He works with individual entrepreneurs, and charities, right through to Fortune 50 companies.

Rory’s Story Cubes and Inner Vision Deck are just a few of the innovative products that he has invented to aid us to think more creatively about our business, our brand and our lives. All of Rory’s products and inspirational work is implemented in a way that encourages individuals to optimise their creative ability. He has a wide range of experience, skills and education.

BOOKING & REGISTRATION

Visit http://beyondcoaching080311.eventbrite.com/ to secure your place now. If you have any questions about the booking process, please email rory(@)thecreativityhub.com.

How can you sell something that is already Free?

Kevin Kelly has an blog post titled: Better Than Free



In it he talks about the impact of the Internet's ability to easily replicate digital information in such a way that makes it inherently free. We can see this being experienced by the music industry. Digitized music is easy to copy and redistribute over the internet. Kelly goes so far as to call the internet a "a copy machine.

At its most foundational level, it copies every action, every character, every thought we make while we ride upon it. In order to send a message from one corner of the internet to another, the protocols of communication demand that the whole message be copied along the way several times. IT companies make a lot of money selling equipment that facilitates this ceaseless copying. Every bit of data ever produced on any computer is copied somewhere. The digital economy is thus run on a river of copies. Unlike the mass-produced reproductions of the machine age, these copies are not just cheap, they are free.

Our digital communication network has been engineered so that copies flow with as little friction as possible. Indeed, copies flow so freely we could think of the internet as a super-distribution system, where once a copy is introduced it will continue to flow through the network forever, much like electricity in a superconductive wire. We see evidence of this in real life. Once anything that can be copied is brought into contact with internet, it will be copied, and those copies never leave. Even a dog knows you can't erase something once its flowed on the internet.

But the rules are changing, as once precious copies are now becoming essentially free to anyone who decides to go and look for them.

When copies are super abundant, they become worthless.

When copies are super abundant, stuff which can't be copied becomes scarce and valuable.

It may be time to let go of charging for our digital goods, and focusing on charging for that which cannot be copied. Kelly calls these the 8 Generatives:

• Immediacy


• Personalization


• Interpretation


• Authenticity


• Accessibility


• Embodiment


• Patronage


• Findability

To find out more, read the full article Better Than Free.

But before you go, you might ask why am I posting about this? Well, I have been working on the Innovation Agent Handbook that I plan to distribute via the Internet over the coming months.  Reading Kelly's article, I realised that I always knew that you cannot really protect copyright of digital goods on the internet. It's as if you have to accept a number of 'spoils' or 'pirated' copies. Having read Kelly's article though, I am now interested in applying creative problem solving to explore how can this ability to freely copy be turned into a benefit rather than a limitation? I am always fascinated how seeming negatives can be turned into positives.



Hopefully you'll see the fruits of my labour when I release the Innovation Agent Handbook later this year.

Brian Gallagher provides walkthrough of Rory's Story Cubes inspired Illustration

My best-buddy Bren B, and guardian to one of my children (ulp!) has rounded up a number of Irish illustrators who have been busy putting Rory's Story Cubes to the test. They are exploring how the dice can be used to inspire new ideas for illustrations. One of the illustrators, Brian Gallagher, has kindly put together a walkthough of the process he used to create his illustration (Thanks Brian). This has been posted by Bren B over at www.scamp.ie



Over to you Bren...

A friend of mine has developed an excellent creativity tool called Rory’s Story Cubes. Rory’s Story Cubes is a dice game/tool that helps people of all ages to develop their imagination and creativity through improvisational storytelling. It is comprised of set of 9 6-sided dice with a total of 54 unique images/symbols.



I asked some of my talented and generous illustrator friends to test them out to see how/if they can be useful tool. Brian Gallagher was one such illustrator. He has also agreed to show us the process he used to create the above image.



Over to you Brian…

Read Brian's walkthrough of how he created the above illustration here.

You can order Rory's Story Cubes at www.thecreativityhub.com

Technorati Tags: creativity, dice, improv, Rory's Story Cubes

Late Late Late - Steve Simpson creates Rory's Story Cubes inspired illustration

Late, Late, Late is a new illustration by Irish Illustrator, Steve Simpson . This is the first of 6 illustrations created by Irish Illustrators. Each illustrator was given a brief to create an image inspired by a roll of Rory's Story Cubes.

For Steve's illustration, he was given the image above as his starting point*. Can you spot the connections in his illustration.

Steve had the following to say...

If, like me, you sometimes prefer to work to a brief when developing your own work these are a a great idea. Would be great for comic strips as well as children's books.

*The dice in this image are from an earlier protoype, and do not reflect the outstanding quality of the dice used Rory's Story Cubes!

To buy or find out more about Rory's Cubes visit www.thecreativityhub.com