Creativity & Genre

Creativity might be the most important aspect of this project. Without creativity, my magazine will be just as similar as every other magazine that's ever been created. I have to start thinking outside the box, and I have to do it correctly so that I can make the process I need to create the magazine I wish to create. In my life, I have always tried to be creative. I find that I can be creative, but I am not always artistic. I have never been good at drawing or creating scenes that weren't commute computer animated. By choosing the magazine, I have gone a little outside of my comfort zone and I will have to try and create something that reflects my own ideas and incorporates small parts of others.

When doing research on what makes me special, an activity that was done in class made me think deeply about myself. It was a simple activity dash we simply had to compare ourselves to either a food or an animal that we exhibited similar traits to. I compared myself to my favorite ice cream, moose tracks ice cream. The ice cream is vanilla full of chocolate peanut butter cups and fudge chunks. I chose this because it's not the average ice cream, and I feel that it represents me in some ways. When you first take a bite into moose tracks, you are surprised by the bold and different flavors. I think that I can surprise others with my creativity because I am an athlete at my school who isn’t at first impression, made out to be a deep thinker because of stereotypes athletes face. I think I have a lot of fun, which is why this ice cream is my favorite since it is so fun.

When researching how to connect with my creative side, watching a TED educational talk helped me realize the power of unconscious thought. The speaker discussed how geniuses like Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein would just fall asleep but have a device to wake them. They would write their thoughts down since they were able to access their unconscious mind. I decided to try this for myself, for a different class. I stayed up later than I would normally and queued up songs that were calm, with a loud one five minutes later. The bass awoke me, and I wrote down all of my thoughts for my assignment. I read them again in the morning and was shocked about how detailed and easily they flowed on the page. As I shouldn’t stay up late every night, I will try to meditate and relax my mind so I can use my subconscious to develop thoughts and plan this portfolio out.

Another aspect of creativity comes from others, not yourself. In an interview with the North American Journal of Psychology, Ron Beghetto, a Ph.D. in creative thought said that taking feedback from others was one of the best methods to be creative, seeing through a lens you did not see before. Although my project is independent, I will still rely on my classmates and instructor when I need to so my portfolio can be the best it can be, especially after my drafts come out.

My plan for my portfolio is to make it a combination of environmental and a travel magazine. I want to talk about the environment and environmental issues in different countries around the world, and how visitors can help when they attend their vacations. I think this would be interesting, 1, because climate change and pollution have become such major issues on a global scale; as well as having the access to information about different types of problems around the world. For this, my inspirations were from National Geographic and Travel + Leisure magazine. I feel that my design cover could be a photo of the scenery, with my cover lines covering the different types of environment and habitats of the scene I will talk about.