22 Ultra Inspiring Blogs About Creativity and Idea Generation
I’m keenly interested in this whole creativity, inspiration, and idea generation thing. I like the idea of turning my (and your) cognitive surplus into something good. You can probably tell this from my recent postings about Maslow’s hierarchy, including esteem and self-actualization, as well as Creative Infrastructure 2.0.
I’ve been scouring the Web for resources to learn more about the creative process, so I figured I should share them with you.
The main (and highly subjective) criteria that I used to evaluate these blogs are:
- They were obviously about creativity and idea development
- They’ve had new posts within the past month
- I liked what they had to say
So here they are:
Typical Choices (creativity and design blogs)
Improved Lives –This post in particular has a great link to a NY Times article about the creative process – The Creative Process Demystified.
Creative Something – Subscriber only, but great short articles. Kind of hard to give you a meaningful deep link, but we did cover them recently.
Creative Creativity – This blog bills itself as a daily guide to creativity and new ideas. I really enjoyed their article featuring Douglas Adams (the man who created The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy) quotes: Douglas Adams on Creativity and Inspiration.
Abundance Blog at MareLisa Online – Just starting to explore this one, but it looks like a fun combo of creativity and productivity. Sample post: Creative Thinking Techniques – The “Playful” Edition.
Accidental Creative – Accidental Creative is a consulting company that provides services to creative professionals. Although it’s not really focused on the amateur, there’s still good material there for anyone. Blog and podcast. Recommended post: The Straw-Man and the Burn Draft.
Lateral Action – Brian Clark, Mark McGuinness and contributors – great new blog for creative entrepreneurs – I highly recommend that you check out the Creative Rock Stars series.
Wishful Thinking – Mark McGuinness’s own blog about “inspiring creative professionals” – this article talks about motivating creative people.
Creative Sage Arts Blog – The artist blog of Catherine Hrudika of Creative Sage. I particularly enjoyed this article: Rotating Creative Crops.
LifeDev - This blog’s tagline is Empowering Creative People. Good article about using mind mapping software. They also have interviews with people about creativity that are worth checking out.
Productive Flourishing – this blog bills itself as productivity for creative people. I particularly like the Do You Have An Idea Garden post because it’s very similar to the Fields of Awe concept that I’ve been thinking about for months.
Creative Generalist – Broad thinking leads to brilliant ideas – you’ll get a wide variety of quotes, anecdotes, links, and more from this intriguing blog. You’re bound to find something to stimulate your thinking. I liked this short post in particular: Respect.
TED – “TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.” I haven’t watched many of the short videos that have helped make TED famous, but the ones that I’ve seen have been great. TED videos are a great place to find inspiration and ideas. Here, you can see Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi speak about his famous “flow” concept.
Info Aesthetics – where form follows data. Big emphasis on design here. This article about lifeflow is great.
Smashing Magazine – I think Web designers, coders, etc. are often fans of this website. I’m not that familiar with the website, but the comic book geek in me was impressed with Showcase of Brilliant Comic Book Cover Art.
Get Fresh Minds – Ideas so fresh, they should be slapped (seriously, this is the blog’s tagline) – interesting review of Conversational Capital.
Greg Fraley, Author of Jack’s Notebook- Take a look at Creativity Gone Sour: Motrin, Mothers, and Twitter.
Atypical Choices (blogs about more than creativity)
These blogs and articles aren’t specifically about creativity and inspiration, but they often make me think differently. You can do searches within these blogs on ideas, creativity, and more:
Seth Godin’s blog – business, marketing, making change, you know?
Illuminated Mind – this is a personal development blog and it has some interesting ideas about creativity Embracing Creative ADD and Thinking Inside The Circle.
Write To Done – Great posts about writing. They have several posts about inspiration and idea generation.
Steve Pavlina’s Personal Development Blog – Personal Development for Smart People (and a whole lot besides that) blog and forums.
How To Be a Better Improviser – the techniques in this article are worth checking out.
GapingVoid.com – Cartoons drawn on the back of business cards. From Hugh MacLeod, the man who wrote How to be Creative: creative (and often humorous) cartoons and blog posts.
Hopefully the blogs that I linked to in this post will help inspire you to do bigger and better things. Do you have any favorites that you’d like to share with the rest of us?
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James Chartrand-Men with Pens:
Lateral Action and Wishful Thinking are two top-quality blogs. I read those and just soak it all up. Good stuff!
3 December 2008, 6:20 amMark Dykeman:
And they both involve the same guy? Hm….
3 December 2008, 6:27 amHendry Lee:
I like it! (Pressing that button on SU toolbar)
if only I could grab the RSS feed or OPML of the whole thing at once… Am I asking too much?
I found a few new blogs I haven't been following sothanks.
3 December 2008, 7:45 amMark Dykeman:
Sure, let me look into that. I'd like to see if we get any other recommendations, too.
3 December 2008, 7:53 amGera:
Hi Mark!
Definitively an inspirational post to explore all this interesting blogs!
I'll need extra time, some of them are new for me….
A great thumb up and dugg too
Gera .:. sweetsfoods
3 December 2008, 9:08 amMark Dykeman:
Hi and thanks!
3 December 2008, 9:11 amKatFrench:
Very useful.
Another good, reasonably-recent post on creativity was this one by Liz Strauss.
3 December 2008, 10:37 amMark Dykeman:
Oh, good call, gotta check Liz's post out.
3 December 2008, 10:41 amKatFrench:
She's got several good posts on creativity, but that was one that was fairly recent and which stuck in my brain, what with the whole Cziksentmihaly reference and all.
3 December 2008, 10:55 amMarelisa:
Hi Mark: Thank you for the link. I''d never heard of the Lateral Action or Wishful Thinking blogs; I'm on my way to check them out now
3 December 2008, 8:11 pmMark Dykeman:
You're welcome and cheers!
3 December 2008, 8:30 pmmousewords:
Cool! I know a couple, but many of those are new to me–I look forward to checking them out.
3 December 2008, 11:10 pmCreativeSage:
Mark,
Thank you for mentioning my Creative Sage Arts blog in this fine group of 22. I'm honored to be included among them. As you probably know, I have two other business blog sites that branch off of my main home page at http://www.CreativeSage.com, in addition to my artist blog. Some of your readers may also enjoy “What's Innovation Got to Do with It?”, a blog that is more about creativity and innovation in business, or my “PR, Social Media and Marketing Mentor” blog. I discuss creativity and innovation on all three blogs, in one way or another. Thanks again, and I'll be back here to read your blog again, too.:-)
4 December 2008, 4:29 amMark Dykeman:
excellent
4 December 2008, 5:33 amMark Dykeman:
Very good and thanks for the additional info
4 December 2008, 5:33 amTodd Henry:
Thanks for mentioning Accidental Creative. Mark. I'm glad you enjoy the site, and it's an honor to be included on such a list.
4 December 2008, 7:12 amMark Dykeman:
You're most welcome.
4 December 2008, 7:54 amsusiemonday:
Just finished a new site for our new book NEW WORLD KIDS: THE PARENT'S GUIDE TO CREATIVE THINKING — http://www.newworldkids.org — for those looking for ways to encourage and nurture children's creativity. They surely aren't getting it in “back to basics” test-driven systems. Hope you'll check out the site.
4 December 2008, 3:22 pmWayne Smallman:
The creative process is the last bastion of individuality, since most other character traits have either been copied, cloned or made into a clique.
As a force of the mind, its is both intangible and ephemeral, but always utterly unique…
4 December 2008, 4:09 pmChris Zydel-CreativeJuicesArts:
Love Lateral Action! And it's great to be introduced to other creativity bloggers. Thanks for the list!
4 December 2008, 4:22 pmMark Dykeman:
Did you intend to rhyme?
4 December 2008, 6:31 pmMark Dykeman:
You are welcome and thanks for stopping by.
4 December 2008, 6:54 pmMark Dykeman:
This is petty, but I wish he'd abbreviate his name, life would be simpler. Or at least abbreviate it to Czik.
4 December 2008, 6:55 pmMark McGuinness:
Thanks Mark, a great list with some of my personal favourites and some new things to explore. And I'm honoured to make the cut twice. Much appreciated.
5 December 2008, 2:26 amMark Dykeman:
You are welcome!
5 December 2008, 5:41 amThe Creative Path : Russ Pond:
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7 December 2008, 10:07 ameddt:
These are real good blogs
30 December 2008, 12:26 pmBaker :
Awesome post.
6 February 2009, 12:24 amTerry:
Mark:
Thanks for the creativity list. I am also interested in this whole creativity thing!
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22 October 2009, 7:09 amjobseeker83:
Hi Mark: im jack thank you for the link and it is useful sites . thanks you very much.
3 December 2009, 3:23 amLeigh Ann Otte:
Thank you for this thorough list. I’ve started a blog for doctors who write and was hoping to find some blogs about creativity to follow. This helped. (I’m following yours too.)
21 February 2010, 3:26 amLeigh Ann Otte´s last blog ..Should medical experts write for free? The pros and cons.
Ted:
Nice post. I’m going to refer to it in a post on my site. I follow many of the same blogs, Mark. Best, Ted.
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