Creativity as the Intersection of Skill Set and Inspiration: Shooting in the Dumpster

For this blog post, I’d like to talk about my own experience incorporating creativity into my corporate analyst day job by first becoming a fashion photographer.

Becoming a photographer

In my previous life (no, not in the Shirley MacLaine sense), I worked for WD-40 Company. I was based in our supply chain as an analyst. It was my job to watch costs and hunt for efficiency. I was good at it, but I quickly realized that I wanted more out of my career than just crunching numbers. I had been into film and video in high school and college and really felt like my professional life was missing a creative element.

During a trip to Japan a few years earlier, I had developed a love for photography. I purchased a good camera and began developing my skills. My photos were average, but I had fun and I soon reached a good level of comfort with my camera. I may have called what I was doing “creative” at the time, but it wasn’t until later, with true inspiration, that I feel I was truly on my creativity frontier.

It was on my honeymoon in Milan that I finally found out what I was meant to do with a camera. My wife and I got married in Italy and she had bought all new clothes for our wedding and honeymoon. I’m probably biased, but she is a fantastically good looking woman. As we walked the streets of the fashion capital of the world, I realized how much I liked taking pictures of her. I could have taken thousands of pictures of ancient buildings and tourist attractions, but instead, I had too much fun playing street fashion photographer with her as my muse.

I returned home more inspired than I ever had been before. I began studying great fashion and portrait photographers’ work and enrolled in tons of local workshops, practice shoots and pro photographer hangouts. Before I knew it, I had business cards, a website and actual paying customers. I was upgrading my equipment and really getting good. I soon started shooting for local models and designers as well as companies looking to improve their brand image.

My creative process

I learned a lot about inspiration and creativity while behind the camera. I learned very early on that call yourself a fashion photographer does not automatically make you produce creative and great work. I found that there were two key elements that needed to fall into place before I could really unleash my most creative work. 

1. Skill Set

Consistently good fashion photography requires a substantial skill set. You have to know your camera and lenses. You have to know your lights and how light works. You have to know how to work with people. You have to be able to instantly figure out what someone's best angle is. You have to know about clothing, hair, emotion and story. You have to have a critical eye as to how well a shot works. All of these skills roll up together into someone who can turn almost any situation into workable pictures. 

2. Inspiration

This is the much less predictable side of the creativity equation. Here, I define inspiration as anything that compelled me to break out of my mold in a new and exciting way. In Italy, it was my wife. Now as a pro photographer, inspiration came in many forms. It could be a beautiful model, an article of clothing, a new location, a song on my iPod, or even a competing photographer's work. Some of my best shoots were inspired by a combination of these. 

Pulling the two together

For me, combining a fluency in photography with the right combination of inspirations was really where my creativity took off. 

The shots on the left were from one of my most memorable and creative shoots. I was invited up to LA as part of a small group of pro photographers to shoot some model portfolios in a warehouse. I was the youngest and least experienced photographer there, but I was invited based on my reputation for having a unique perspective and style in my photos. When I arrived, I realized that all the other photographers there simply set up their own backdrops and recreated their own studios in the warehouse and were shooting very boring and predictable images. Boring has never inspired me. I've always liked to push boundaries and go against the grain with my images. So instead of joining them, I dragged my gear outside and found a big junk pile made of shipping containers and pallets. It was hot, dirty, abandoned and perfect for edgy, gritty shots. I used the unexpectedness of the location to my advantage and got the most acclaimed shots of the day. My images were so well received that I was invited back for a second shoot where I was asked to teach other pros my techniques. 

Had I lacked a substantial skill set or an inspiring location, the shots above wouldn't have been possible. I needed to know instantly what lens and settings I would use, where to position my lights and how to modify them, and how best to shoot the models' features and styling. I also needed that jolt of energy that comes from the realization that something new and unexpected is possible. These two aspects combined turned into real creativity, allowing me to out-shoot the much more seasoned photographers there. 

Bringing it back to my day job

As my photography career progressed in my evenings and weekends, I began to find ways to be more creative in my day job by using the same principle of skills intersecting with opportunities. Once I had built a meaningful skill set, I looked for opportunities to apply it in unexpected and inspiring ways. With my boss's encouragement, I branched out from my department and got involved in marketing, new product development, finance and a host of other projects across the company. Not only did these new experiences allow me to expand my skill set, I was genuinely being creative at work! I realized that I could quite literally create opportunities for creativity if given the option to metaphorically wander outside the warehouse and shoot in the dumpster. 

Deconstructing Design Driven Companies: Apple

For this post and for my final paper, I want to explore the effects of a company’s emphasis on design in its products and how that dictates things like organizational structure, values, success of its products, relationship to customers, and customer perception of the brand.

I was very lucky to land an internship at Apple for this coming summer and I have therefore been a student of their business for several weeks. As I studied the way they did business, it prompted some questions around their overarching emphasis on product design. It’s no secret that Apple’s design philosophy steers the entire company, but what does that really mean for their organization? What are the strategic implications? Does this yield any long term competitive advantages? What are the effects on competitors? How has it shaped customer experiences with their products and what does that do to their brand?

                I think that this topic goes deeper than just make pretty products – make money­. As Apple’s history shows, bold design doesn’t always pan out (LISA, Newton, etc.), but when it does, it can quite literally change the world (iPod, iPhone). Now, with their monstrous success, investors and consumers, like drug addicts, are looking for even bigger and bigger thrills to keep them satisfied. Apple just had one of the most profitable quarters in the history of business, but their stock has fallen hundreds of dollars. Is this the dark side of design fueled success? If you have a track record of blowing minds, then you miss a step, what does this do to your customer base? I want to explore the relationship between surprise-and-delight firms and their customers.

                As the first section of this paper, I’ll do a deep dive into Apple’s history of design. I’ll look at their inspirations and philosophy, and then examine their successes and failures. My investigation will cover the two most influential design influencers in the company; Steve Jobs and Johnny Ive, as well as the corporate structure they’ve created. I’ll dig into Apple’s relationship to their customers and how they anticipate needs in the market that might not necessarily exist yet. I also want to examine the relationship, including all the ups and downs, that loyal Apple customers experience with such a publicized yet secretive firm. 

                While I plan to focus on Apple as a broad test case, I will also compare and contrast several examples of design-driven companies and their successes and failures. I would like to cover several firms; talking about their strategy, relationship to their consumers, and cases of how bold and unique design either greatly helped or hurt their companies. Examples of companies and products in which I am interested are as follows:

·        BMW: German luxury and sports car manufacturer. BMW’s mission is to build “the ultimate driving machine” and has been very successful at it for the last 30 years. They have stuck to a basic formula of performance and refinement that has built their reputation as one of the world’s premier automotive marques.

o   Test Case: 7-series designed by Chris Bangle – BMW’s premier sedan was drastically redesigned and the company was criticized for abandoning their traditional design language.
Questions to discuss:

§  What are the implications, good or bad, of changing iconic designs?

§  How does a consumer who has specific images associated with a brand react to new designs?

§  How are design and identity tied together in a consumer’s mind?

o   Parallel to Apple:  iMac G4 (pivoting flat-screen)

·         Ducati: Italian high performance motorcycle manufacturer. Ducati is famous for some of the most extreme motorcycles on the road. They have a reputation for breaking the rules of motorcycle design with each new model and are considered one of the most innovative bike builders in the world.

o   Test Case: Ducati Multistrada – Ducati was in a tight financial position and needed a new kind of motorcycle that could appeal to a broad audience and boost sales. They set out to redefine the role and assumed constraints of a motorcycle with their newest model, combining aspects of other kinds of bikes in an all-in-one package. They developed completely new technologies and components to make one of the most advanced bikes on the road.
Questions to discuss:

§  What risks are associated with category-redefining products?

§  How can a firm create demand with new design?

o   Parallel to Apple: iPad

·        IBM/Lenovo: IBM’s hardware division (now run by Lenovo) was famous for making high quality business-oriented PC laptops. Some of their laptop designs have persisted for 20 years.

o   Test Case: ThinkPad laptop: Launched in 1992, the original, basic ThinkPad design persists to this day in Lenovo’s latest laptops. A 20+ year lifespan in something as fast-paced as the laptop market is nearly unheard of.
Questions to discuss:

§  What elements of the ThinkPad’s design have enabled its longevity?

§  How can fast-paced markets be transcended by great design?

o   Parallel to Apple: PowerBook G4 through current MacBook Pro

·         Samsung: Once known as one of the largest companies you’ve never heard of, Samsung has surged into consumer’s lives in the last 5 years. Their bold new phone and laptop designs are pointed squarely at Apple.

o   Test Case: Samsung Series 9 laptop. This new ultrabook launched by Samsung concurrently with Apple’s MacBook Pro is aimed at the market between the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro. Its design has sparked lots of debate and it has been called the most beautiful laptop available on the market – a title held by the MacBook Air for years. Now that Apple is undoubtedly successful in the laptop space, is this Samsung’s turn to pull a “1984”?
Questions to discuss:

§  How can Apple stay on top as the competition heats up?

§  What strategies might be effective for Samsung as it competes with Apple?

§  How does the launch of competing well designed products impact a customer’s perceptions of Apple?

Within my paper, I plan to discuss all of these products and companies in a fair amount of detail, all while focusing on the core design elements that made them successful or memorable. Then I plan to compare and contrast to what Apple did or is doing with their products and how it has impacted their customers. From this, I hope to gain an understanding of how design driven companies get to the top and stay there.

For sources, I plan to use plenty of news articles, journals, financials, and analyst reports. Some of my possible sources are as follows:

1.       http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/01/the-evolution-of-apple-design-between-1977-2008/

2.       http://www.siliconvalleyhistorical.org/home/apple_computer

3.       http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/online/jonathan-ive-on-apple/jonathan-ives-biography

4.       Isaacson, Walter. Steve Jobs. Kindle Edition. Simon and Schuster Publishers, 2011.

5.       http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/5/3451206/thinkpad-turns-20-ibm-lenovo-retrospective

6.       Mega Factories – Ducati. National Geographic Channel. Documentary. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDJ7mphGrAU

7.       http://www.businessweek.com/autos/autobeat/archives/2009/02/bmws_chris_bangle_designs_his_own_exit.html

Post Dos: Me as a Consumer of Media, Tech, and Inormation

The following images describe me as a consumer of media and tech products. Below each, I'll give a brief description of what each logo or picture represents and why it's important to me.

 What's Close to Me:
Delta Airlines: I'm a frequent traveler and their website is indispensable to me. I book flights and cars, and manage my frequent flier account.

Pandora: I'm a paid Pandora subscriber. I listen to Pandora almost exclusively - even above my 12,000 song iTunes collection. I don't like to have to take the time to organize my music collection. I'd rather someone else do it for me.

Nikon: I'm a pro photographer outside of school and own two Nikon digital SLRs. Their blend of image quality and ruggedness are just what I need.

Facebook: I'm a frequent, but not die hard user of Facebook, so it goes in the "Close to Me" category.

Triumph Motorcycles: My primary mode of transportation. Not exactly high tech, but important to me nonetheless.

Adobe Lightroom: As a pro photographer, this is the best image organization and editing suite. I spend 80% of my post processing workflow in Lightroom.

Netflix: I watch streaming shows on my TV, laptop and phone whenever I get a chance.

Reddit: My go-to source for procrastination, news, interesting facts, funny videos, and anything new on the internet.

What I Can't Live Without:

Gmail: My primary email account. Gmail makes organizing, sending and receiving messages easy.

iPhone: This is probably the single most indispensable tech I own. It's always within arm's reach and I access everything from email to BlackBoard to CNN to Facebook on it.

LTE: What's a smartphone without mobile data coverage? LTE is 4G data and turns smartphones into truly powerful devices.

Amazon: As a Prime member, I order huge amounts of stuff on Amazon. I'm not a compulsive shopper though - I subscribe to items I regularly use, and use Amazon as a more convenient alternative to brick-and-mortar stores. I average about 3-4 shipments per week.

Laptop: I currently have two: A Samsung ultrabook and an older MacBook Pro. They're the real powerhouses of information processing. I take the Samsung with me to class every day and I dock it at my desk at home with two huge monitors, a full-size keyboard and full size mouse.

Outlook: My laptop-based central hub for email and schedules - two of the most important things in my busy MBA school life.


Where I Get My News

This diagram shows where I get my news and how often I use that particular source. My most common news intakes are from CNN, Reddit, MarketWatch, and Google News. For tech news I use Gizmodo or Tech Crunch. For automotive news, I usually check Jalopnik. I'll occasionally use Youtube to search for news-related videos.


When I Get My News

Regardless of the day, I usually have two large news downloads. First, as soon as my alarm goes off, I get my brain pumping by checking email, CNN, Reddit, Facebook and the weather on my phone. Then, later at night during my homework session, I'll check those same sources, plus Gizmodo, Jalopnik, DPreview and Best of Youtube for anything new that day.

Outside of those two times, I frequently check BlackBoard and business news during school, and catch up on Amazon, restaurant reviews and photography blogs during free time.

Persona: Deb

The soon-to-retire weathered career woman

Meet Deborah, or Deb, as her friends call her. She is “62 years young”; she’s white and lives in Coral Gables, FL. Her persona is based on a woman I worked for during an internship in college.

Born at the midpoint of the 20^th century, Deborah’s life has constantly been filled with change. As a child she watched as the world grew to accept a new normal after the 2^nd world war, then came of age through the empowering 1960’s. She was politically opinionated and participated in a handful of marches and demonstrations in support of women’s rights and against the Vietnam War. Unlike some of her female high school classmates, she focused on her education and career more than relationships and didn’t marry until well after college. Her beliefs from her adolescence spurred her on to a busy career. She had three children in her first marriage, but it ended after 15 years in a messy, affair-ridden divorce. She blamed their overly busy work schedules for driving them apart. As time wore on, her children moved away and she eventually found time to date and remarry. Tom is a great guy, she says, but their relationship is rooted more in an aversion to loneliness than a deep seeded companionship. Her career is still going well, though she seems to have leveled off at a senior director level.

At this point in her life, Deborah is very well financially established. Her high paid career and that of her husband’s mean ample disposable income. As she and her husband get older, their focus has shifted to family and friends. She plans on retiring, or at least slowing down in the next several years, but much of her identity is defined by her career and she has deep seeded fears about letting it go completely.

Her work life is busy and often stressful, but she sees it as a sense of pride that she commands so much responsibility. Her identity as a working woman CPA is very important to her. She was of the generation that fought for women’s acceptance in the workplace and she feels that it’s her duty to push herself hard. She is well liked, but her colleagues steer clear of her on bad days. She can be bossy and demand very high performance from her coworkers, but she is very results oriented and hence very respected by top management.

In the back of her mind, Deb knows she’s getting older. She has two grandchildren, but doesn’t identify with the wrinkled, white haired grandmother of her childhood. This aging process is addressed with a robust beauty regimen including hair coloring, trendy anti-aging creams, facials, spa treatments, and whatever else with which she wants to treat herself. She has worked hard and deserves what she has.

The most important things to Deb are her family, her career, and feeling good about herself. Her constant drive to push herself in her career has cost her ground on the other two fronts and she feels guilty for the imbalance. She is constantly battling weight issues and the quality of her relationships with her children and current husband varies from time to time. She still feels the psychological effects of her divorce and considers connection to be one of her highest needs.

Her environment is very upper class. She is a member of the local country club. In fact, her strong golf game is another effect of her drive to succeed as a woman in the workplace. Her home is modern and well-designed, and her clothes are department store or better. She invests in new technology, though doesn’t necessarily use her smartphone and computer to their fullest potential. They’re more status symbols than anything. She also wears expensive, but not overly feminine jewelry, drives new cars, and buys high-end golf clubs more often than necessary.

On weekends, she loves to eat out with friends, usually at trendy restaurants in younger parts of town. She drinks wine regularly and has developed a fairly sophisticated taste. Not all of her friends are as successful as she is, but she doesn’t mind because it makes her feel validated. She and Tom travel fairly frequently and usually stay in high end hotels.

Ultimately, her career focus through her early and middle years has dictated her current behavioral drivers. Given the sacrifices she made to get ahead, she now uses her high earnings to live a fast-paced life to make up for lost time. She values herself through her accomplishments and status, but her relationships are what make her truly happy.