Founded in 1995

Youth-focused digital agency

Web, iOS, Android, Back-end

2D and 3D Art/Animation

Game Design, Concepting,

Strategy

Nick Jr. Draw and Play

Graph of Childhood Conformity

*Moran, James D. III, Roberta M. Milgrim, Janet K. Sawyers, and Victoria R. Fu. “Original Thinking in Preschool Children.” CHILD DEVELOPMENT 54 (1983): 921-926

Graph of Childhood Conformity

*Moran, James D. III, Roberta M. Milgrim, Janet K. Sawyers, and Victoria R. Fu. “Original Thinking in Preschool Children.” CHILD DEVELOPMENT 54 (1983): 921-926

Workshop Outline

8:00-8:30am: What is a creativity tool?

8:30-8:40am: Q&A/Discussion/“Bash The Speaker”

8:40-8:50am: App Demos

8:50-9:15am: Design Challenge

9:15-9:30am: Presentations and Awards

Ceremony!

Classic Creativity Tools

Creativity Tools “Hall of Fame”

7 Habits of Highly Effective Creativity Tools (OK, just 5)

Easy to learn.

Open-ended and repurposable.

Age and gender agnostic.

Facilitate creativity unobtrusively.

Endlessly challenging for wide range of

physical and intellectual abilities.

Easy AND Challenging…for ALL

But don’t forget these…

Hall of Fame – Part 2

Sandbox

Hall of Fame – Part 2

Puppet Show

Hall of Fame – Part 2

Box o’ Junk

Benefits of Creative Play*

Develop imagination

Develop own ideas

Develop social awareness

Feel and release emotion

Develop oral vocabulary

*From Olivia N. Saracho “An Integrated Play-based Curriculum for Young Children”, 2012

This Workshop Was Mis-Named

Digital and Mobile Creativity Tools

“In the Beginning…”

Logo/Turtle Graphics, 1969

“In the Beginning…”

Kid Pix, 1989

“In the Beginning…”

Word Processors, Clip Artand Font Porn, 1984-present

Creativity Tools Today

Tools Today are…MOBILE!

Don’t make a mess

Don’t fit in your mouth

Don’t stay at home

Benefits:

MORE opportunities to be creative, not less!

Result:

Tools Today are…POWERFUL

Mind-blowing production values

Huge factors of sharing and scale

Endless opportunities to try new forms of

media

Unprecedented learning opportunities

“Look what I made, Dad!”

Tools Today are…TOO GOOD?

What’s More Creative?

We’ve Been “Elf’d”!

Elf Yourself, 2006

We’ve Been “Elf’d”!

Elf Yourself, 2006

Creativity vs. Structure

*Chris Donnelly, “Creativity and Structured Activities,”2011

Creativity is the ACT not the PRODUCT

5 Guiding Principles

… (so far!)

Fostering Creativity

#1: Facilitate self-directed, open-ended exploration

iMagine Machine, Faces iMake

Fostering Creativity

#1: Facilitate self-directed, open-ended exploration

Watch video here: Faces iMake Video with Hanoch Piven

Fostering Creativity

#2: Embrace the “Play”

Toca Boca, Toca Tailor

Toca Boca, Toca Band

Toca Boca, Toca Hair Salon

Creativity “Killers”

Rewards and Incentives.

Evaluation.

Restraint and Structure.

Time Pressure.

Fostering Creativity

#3: Be instantly accessible and endlessly challenging.

Morton Subotnick, Pitch Painter

Fostering Creativity

#4: Re-think the “Canvas”

AR experiences

Hybrid play activities

Offline output

Meta-creativity

Fostering Creativity

#4: Re-think the “Canvas”

Fostering Creativity

#4: Re-think the “Canvas”

Fostering Creativity

#4: Re-think the “Canvas”

Fostering Creativity

#5: What’s iMissing?

Fostering Creativity

#5: What’s iMissing?

Creativity Tool Matrix

Turning Tools into Imagination Engines

Tool Imagination EngineUnguided

Product-Focused

Super Easy!

“Artsy”

Facilitated

Process-Focused

Self-challenging

“Life-y”

Hey Apps, Do This Please!

Geoffrey Nelsongeoff@cricketmoonmedia.

com@cricketmoon