Day 187: Shadow Catchers at V&A

Check out this amazing exhibition if you are into photography. These eerie images have been captured using shadows to manipulating light. What a cool idea!

Five contemporary artist/photographers are on show at the V&A Museum in London; Floris Neusüss, Pierre Cordier, Susan Derges, Garry Fabian Miller and Adam Fuss.

The V&A website has got more info, so that's a good place to start.

Shadow catchers...what a great name for a book...

Day 186: A little help please...

Today I want to talk to you about a project I'm doing. I'm proper excited about it and all in all, it's coming on a real treat.

So, I'm going into a secondary school in Bath to run a creative writing competition. Anyone in years 7, 8 or 9 can enter and I'll run workshops and one-to-one sessions to help them out. All entries will be turned into an anthology sold at an awards ceremony with readings and prizes. Oh, and the anthology will be sold to raise money for the school and a charity chosen by the winner...

...but, I need a theme. That's where you guys come in. I want it to be an abstract noun like, risk, so it's not too concrete. That'll give people's imaginations plenty of room to floowwww.

Any ideas...?

I might use two contrasting themes, like love and hate (but not that 'cause it's been done a million times!) Then they can chose...interesting...

So, put your creative thinking caps on please and help me out! You know what to do, put a little old comment below!

Thank you and goodnight.

Day 185: And it was all Yellow...

...Or was it?

Sometimes ideas can come out of the strangest places. Yesterday at work I misunderstood a girl called Laura who said, 'someone's stolen the yellow.' (What she actually meant was someone had taken the cleaning product we simply call, yellow spray!)

Can you imagine if someone stole the colour yellow?

What an amazing idea for a story! (As you can imagine, I had a field day with this one. Laura was properly bored by the idea by the time I'd finished with it!) What would happen to all the things that are yellow, like flowers, kid's playground, road markings, my t-shirt?

What about the sun? Would it go white...would it go black? Darkness rules the land!

Well, the truth is, anything could happen and as the writer/creator of that story, YOU choose!

Oh, the power...

What would you do with this idea? It could be used in loads of different areas of creativity. That's the great thing about it!

So, have a little think about yellow today (or the lack of it) and see what crazy ideas you come up with...

Day 184 : Always Coca-Cola...

I always know it's nearly Christmas when I see this advert on T.V! You know what I mean...



But, what I want to know is, does it really make people buy coke at Christmas? It certainly makes me want to be at home with my family getting Santa's mince pie ready and putting out my stocking (oh, whatever, you totally still have one too!)

Did Coca-Cola really make Santa red? Rumour has it, they gave Santa his red 'image.' Does that make us want to drink Coca-cola at Christmas?

I have to say, the other day I really fancied a coke when I saw an advert for it at the train station. In fact, all this makes me want one right now!

It's worth a few thoughts though, right? How much power does advertising have over what we do, say, think even? Do you think advertising is creative or just bashed out?

Take some time (perhaps over a mince pie) to think about advertising...you never know what might come up!

Day 183: Can you meet me halfway?

Do you realise that today is exactly halfway through my blog challenge. I have given you half a year of creative inspiration, people! Now if that's not cause for celebration, I don't know what is. (Well, I can think of a few like Christmas or New Years...) I'd like to pause here to say, thank you for coming along for the ride.

What other halfway points could I use to inspire you...? Well there's Black Eyed Peas' halfway song...yep, you've all met me halfway, so thanks for that. (It's a pretty creative video actually, so I think it deserves a mention.)

Or, what about this...See this glass:

Is it half full or half empty? What do you think? As it's halfway-day, leave a comment, 'half full' or 'half empty.' Then let's see what creative things we can do with it all.

Up for it...?

Day 182: Be Disney's designer!

Take a look at these logos. The chances are, you will know what company most of them belong too, we see them so much. That's the power of advertising.

But what do these symbols really mean? Why did they chose those colours, patterns, arrangements?

The cool thing is, it's someones job to design them and they get to see their work all over the world. When I was 14, I entered a competition to design a logo for a local bowls club and I won (yay). It was really fun and as far as I know, they're still using it.

Big companies like the ones above are always looking for ways to re-style their brands to keep it fresh and new...My challenge for you today is to design you own logo. It could be for your own future company or for an existing one you think needs to get with the times.

You your creative fingers going and design your way to the top!

Day 181: Kevin Brooks

At the moment, I am reading Martyn Pig by Kevin Brooks. It's about a teenage boy who accidentally kills his dad. Dark stuff. But I'm really enjoying it and you know why? Because Martyn's a really convincing character. It's written in 1st person and he 'speaks' like a real teenage boy would:

'It wasn't that I was jealous. Well, I suppose I was a bit jealous. But not in a namby kind of way, you know, not in a snooty, pouty kind of way. No, that wasn't it. Not really. That wasn't the reason I was glum. All right, it was partly the reason...'    p22

I love the way Martyn is arguing with himself here, justifying the fact he's jealous of Alex's boyfriend. It's honest and I love that about his character.

Look at how Kevin Brooks uses short sentences. That's how we think, isn't it, and that's why it's so realistic. And it's funny too. All in all, it makes for a good read. You should check it out if you like good books. In fact, check out Kevin Brooks in general. He's written loads. This is his first ever book.

Good writing makes me want to write. To create.

What makes you want to create? Whatever it is, get into it. Inspire yourself through what other people have done...and then get involved! I figure it's like a house. One person creates and inspire another, then they inspire someone else and so on. Together we make up the bricks, built up and up. A wonderfully creative house!

So go, start creating your brick, ready to inspire the next generation...