Loving Creative Limitation
(Formats, Limits, Containers & Boxes)
Formats!“I’ve realized that context largely determines what is written, painted, sculpted, sung, or performed. Conventional wisdom is that the rock-and-roll singer is driven by desires and demons, and out bursts this amazing, perfectly shaped song at three minutes and twelve seconds — nothing more, nothing less. This is the romantic notion, but I think the actual path of creation is 180º from this model. I believe that we unconsciously and instinctively make work to fit preexisting formats. This is not entirely bad. Thank goodness, for example, that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time we make something.”
— David Byrne
Composer, Performer
Limits!It’s axiomatic in the creative business that if you want greatness, call us back in five years and we’ll think about it. But if you need something elegant by Friday, limit the length, the colors, the fonts and and present me two choices! Done! On time and on budget!
Novels — with their characteristic no holds barred creativity — tend to take years and sometimes break their author’s sanity, relationships, and health in the birthing process. It’s hard when you have to create the universe, the planets, the many peoples, the ecology, the language (including syntax, grammar, words and profanity) and all the key players. All of it, every particle, created from scratch. And it takes forever — at least it did, until someone started working to a genre, a formula and a format.
Absolute Creativity is laudable, but takes vast amounts of time. Limited Creativity — in the “box” provided by a Commercial Format and a “Creative Brief”– channel the creative impulse by imposing limits on the endeavor.
It’s ironic that limits can become the “friend of the creator” and give definition and direction to the creative process.
Containers!Once, items shipped from one part of the world to another, would be individually wrapped, packaged, mounted on pallets, lifted by cranes, nestled by hand into a ship’s cargo hold for the voyage, then unpacked and repackaged to go onto/into a truck or freight car or both; ultimately to find a path to a customer or distributor. Worldwide shipping was expensive, subject to damage, theft and and accident and it took forever — until containers. Today, that item will make the entire trip in a “standard intermodal shipping container.”
Ironic, isn’t it, that when we started standardizing (imposing limits) on the container, the amount of shipping expanded astronomically, and the costs and losses dropped dramatically. Container shipping dominates the world.
Formats, Limits and Containers. Is there a connection with communication?
Shipping Containers for IdeasWhat if we create a “Composition Discipline” that combines judicious “Creative Limits” and “Shipping Containers,” or “Boxes for Ideas!” Let’s use it to guide and direct creative writing toward a predictable and productive outcome: A “Next Step.”
- Ready: What’s the desired outcome? What action must your listener take?
- Set: Analyze the Audience! What must they hear or discover to decide?
- Go: Organize Remarks! 30 Words Only! Fill in the boxes. Start at the end.
“Ready, Set, Go!®” BoxesIt’s an Intellectual Discipline! A standard “Container Format” to gently limit creativity, and focus the creative energy of the speaker on a finite goal, with a practical focus: to get your ideas from here to there, in shape to convince your audience to act. Think of “Ready, Set, Go!” as a “Creative Armature,” around which you sculpt and shape your ideas into their final form.
Individual “modules” can be created, connected and broken apart at will to create new and different configurations, based on the desires, intentions and creativity of their users. As more and more users adopt the system, the accompanying software/apps can take the discipline out to broader awareness and acceptance.
At first encounter with “Ready, Set, Go!”, many choose to critically reduce the the process to something as low, generic and workmanlike as a clothes hanger, a cardboard box, a shipping container or a musical or literary template…
That would be the point, exactly. Music, Architecture, Writing, Storage, Shipping and Professional Communication are Industries, each with their imposed limits and templates. That’s how it works.
It’s a limit on our creativity, yes! But what’s not to love?
Next Time you decide to make an entirely new creative product, never before seen on this planet; breathe for a second and ask yourself, “Can I get this done faster and better if I use a template?
Applications:
1. For You
Standard tools, formats, templates and cultural assumptions are what make the world go around. It might be fun to personally design your entire wardrobe, but not before your morning commute. Creative limitations help us get to work on time. Get used to the idea that “Culture” is a set of “shared assumptions” about what we value, and how we choose to live — together. Our shared culture may not be perfect, but if you want, you can push the edge and make it better while getting rich in the process! Just be prepared for a long slog to greatness.
2. For the Family
There’s not a child among us who has not refused to put on their shoes, to get dressed on time, to write a five hundred word essay, to dress acceptably for school, to enjoy a family conversation over dinner. We all chafe under the pressure of accepted cultural norms, practices and tools. Those of us who rebel and persist often go down in history. Just weigh the price in lost productivity and perhaps, sanity. It’s a trade off, isn’t it?
3. For Work
We use keyboards and computers all day long, because they are faster than hand-writing a document and copying. But we also tend to eschew using a Master Document, or a Template for new Presentations. Perhaps it’s because we didn’t know that there are such things; or in moments of personal rebellion, we decided to go it alone… and make it up as we go along. Then comes Monday and another presentation.
Recipes. Song Formats. Presentation Templates. Hot and Cold Faucets. Composition Disciplines. Ties. Speed Limits. Nuts & Bolts. Shoes. Stop Lights. Shirts. Jackets. Wrenches. Underwear. Turn Signals. Bats. Racquets. Helmets. Regulation Balls and Uniforms. Child Safety Seats. Automobiles. Silverware. Frying Pans.
We can go on…
Learn to love those creative limitations!
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