a magazine of

A magazine of someone who may is or isn´tcreative.

December 2021 | First edition of creativz magazine

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Let me introduce myself. I am Levin Vonester, a graphic design student in my first year. I decided to start with this very first magazine, to spread what I learn. Others start a blog or do Instagram posts (like I have done and will do in the future) but I have decided to try to publish a magazine. I want to dig deep into the world of culture, arts, and society.

I think I do not just want to identify myself as a graphic de-signer but as a social responsible creative and designer. I think this is what we all should do. Break out of just one domain of expertise and pull new things together that have not been brought together before.

Maybe this is what innovation is.

Publishing a magazine is nothing new, and the topics about which I write too, but I want creativz to grow beyond just researched topics, I want to explore and try new things.

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This is why I need you

Want to join me or give feedback?Write creativz (me) on Instagram

Let creativz grow.Help creativz grow.

@creativzmagazine

I can’t doeverything by myself.

So if you have any cool ideas about what we could do, write me.We together then figure out if your idea is doable or not.


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In this edition, we talk about creativity. For us, for creative people, to know what creativity is may be useful in order to train our creativity and to enter your creative state whenever we want or even are required to.

We will talk about the phenomenon of creativity.About what it is, that makes us creative in the first place and how to control creativity.

We will look at statements about creativity from teachers of the Willem de Kooning Academie.

To conclude, we look at the artist Basquiat and his history to draw a picture about inspiration and reference within the world of creativity.

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The art of Basquiat 24-26

Interview about creativity 18-21

What is creativity? 10-16

An interview with teachers from the Willem de Kooning Academie about creativityand there profession.

Content

Topic

Support uswith 20 Eurosand we will thank you.

Ohh and you can also display your work here.I mean, just if you want ...

(Main article)

Artist:Levin Vonesterwww.vonesterlevin.com


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First of all, creativity is not art related. Take Albert Einstein as an example. He was a mathematician but also one of the most creative people in history. Creativ-ity is a high-risk, high reward concept.To publicly display one´s idea for others to critique and judge, one needs to be brave. A creative idea can be perceived as not creative at all or it is so creative and ahead of its time that people don’t get the idea. Either way, being creative means taking risks.

Creativity is the one thing that enables innovation and expression. Without creativity, there would be no house, no train, no car, no mobile phone. All those ideas are products of their time. Every idea is based on what we absorb. The mobile phone could not have been invented hundred years earlier than it was, as well as the car. Those ideas are based on earlier ideas that somebody had. Everything and every big idea is part of evolution and innovation. A part of something bigger that grows with time.

So creativity is unbelievably important for humanity as a whole. We can be sure that creativity is the only thing that can save humanity in the future.The climate crisis is maybe a necessary problem for society, for someone to generate a new idea that is a step for-ward for humanity.

And you may be one of the people who contribute to that solution. Even the smallest and simplest-seeming idea can ignite a chain of ideas that lead towards a big one.

Why do people think they are not creative?

Kids are the most creative members of society, yet the same grown children would not claim themselves to be cre-ative in their adulthood. Why is that? Because we are taught that way.The educational system is not made for people to be creative, it is made for people to focus and repeat what oth-ers have done and to then compete who memorised best. Because creativity is not measurable, we learn that creative jobs are those of low

What is creativity?Creative activity

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income and assigned to avoid them. We are taught that creativity is nothing we should harvest but slowly forget about. So why is it that every kid is creative and not every adult? Adults do not play. They are stuck in their expertise. They learn to do things after certain rules that were set upon them by society. Society detaches us from playfulness and tells us to take life seriously, yet playfulness is what keeps us creative.Maybe the question is how to keep your inner child alive rather than growing up and losing it.

Reframing challengesBy reframing a challenge, we can quick-ly escape the prison of expertise. Ex-pertise is crucial and allows us to make quick, smart and well-informed deci-sions but it is also the biggest barrier to creativity. To be creative, we need to think outside the norm/the box and this is the exact opposite of expertise.Words, like job titles, are attached to all kinds of assumptions/preconceptions. Just by renaming and reframing the title, the assumptions are gone. This creative playfulness opens a playground full of new possibilities and opportunities.

A writer is no longer a writer but an ad-venture guide.A secretary is no longer a secretary but the director of first impressions.A filmmaker is no longer a filmmaker but a collector of time and space.

This opens up the possibilities about what could be done. Next time when you are tasked with an assignment, reframing the nature of the it is maybe just what it needs to think outside the box.


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How we create ideas

Have you heard about the idea that cre-ative people are more right-brain think-ers and analytical people are more left-brain thinkers?

Sorry to disappoint you, but this is sim-ply not true.Creativity does not happen in a partic-ular hemisphere and part of your brain. Creativity happens because of many dif-ferent brain networks that are respon-sible for different tasks. Creative ideas are formed of strategies, personal pref-erences, experiences, emotions, feelings and everything there is.

Ideas that we create are a mixture of what goes on inside of our heads.

Has it ever happened to you, that a group of creative people is faced with a creative challenge and everybody some-how had the same result? At least this has happened to a few tasks within our classes at the WdKA. It was maybe because we all were basically on the same level of developing our creative ability. Possibly we are all more similar than we like to think.

It is an interesting phenomenon that even if the individual thinks that they are original, everybody thought about the same. Maybe the answer lies within the four c model of creativity. Most likely there is no one solution but maybe we can conclude that we sometimes have to search and think more in-depth to come up with something that truly originates from us.

So how do we challenge our creativity?

Ask: What if?That is maybe the most powerful ques-tion to ask. Do not take things how they are but play with them, play with reality and your ideas. The longer we play the more extraordinary the idea gets.What if the poster could speak? What if the poster could interact with the view-er? What if the book could read itself? This question challenges you to think beyond.

Looping ideas is also a great phenome-non and a technique one can harvest and use.Bouncing ideas between different per-sons can alter them in a way that makes them more captivating. This may also be just called brainstorming with multiple people. But perhaps this concept can be dragged into more extreme and intense sessions.

But how does creativity work?

We, as future professional creatives should be able to answer this question in order for us to perform and maybe save humanity one day.

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State of mind

The answer lies in the thing between your eyes. The state of your mind in a particular moment.The alpha state of the brain is proven to be the state where the brain is the most creative and can absorb the most infor-mation. Unfortunately, this state re-quires us to be calm, peaceful, relaxed, happy and engaged. Very unfortunate for our school system I mean. Most of us were bored before even entering the classroom. This is the killer for alpha waves. In that moment of boredom and pressure to get a good grade to pass, we were in the beta state. Also in most work environments when we concentrate on a task we enter the Beta state. Beta waves are simply a frequency of active, busy and anxious thinking. This keeps us from being creative.

The Alpha waves have a frequency of 8-12 Hz. The Beta waves have a frequen-cy of 12 to 38 Hz.To get into the Alpha state, we need to calm down. Yes, it’s that easy.Take a deep breath and focus on your body.The Alpha state is a state of meditation. So concentrate on the present.By doing that you lower your heartbeat, you will calm down, the frequencies are lowered and you enter the alpha state.

Well done.

Nonetheless, the beta state is a crucial state we sometimes need to be in to get work done.

Try it! Does it work?Chat with us on Instagram @creativzmagazine

Creativity is not equal to creativity.A kid that just drew something is cre-ative. Albert Einstein as he developed the theory of relativity was creative. But there is a big difference. The ideas differ in originality, usefulness and future im-pact on their particular domain. Those are the main measurements for creativi-ty.Based on those parameters, there are different models.This is where the theory of mini-c cre-ativity to big-C creativity becomes inter-esting. Mini-c creativity describes learning and personal insights while big-C creativity describes the eminent, the extraordi-nary creativity. The more we move towards big-C cre-ativity the fewer people in existence reach that stage.Your c creativity is domain-specific. You could be a big-c in playing the nose flute but a little-c in constructing houses out of popsicle sticks.

Hi,Love the tips. Calming down is sometimes difficult for me but i keep trying.I am a creaive person. I would love to join Creativz.


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These are the different c´s:

Mini-c creativityGaining new information that we did not know about or getting new insights are the most basic forms of creativity. Those new insights or information do not need to be new but just new and important to us. At this stage, it is about the individual. It does not matter if others would label insights, new information or actions as creative.

Little-c creativity This level of creativity is also called every-day creativity.At this stage, other people might label what you do as creative,like building your popsicle houses for ex-ample.

Pro-c creativity This is dependent on you and others.Other experts in your domain need to de-clare or acknowledge you as an expert.

Big-c creativityThis stage is not as controllable as the pro-c stage.The ideas need to change the domain. We can take Albert Einstein as an example.At this stage, history decides whether your idea was and still is important or not. The creative individual who had the idea can no longer influence that.

Where are you at? In which domain are you a little-c to pro-c creative?Write it to us. We are always looking for new team mem-bers thatwant to create and are creative.

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So let’s go a step further.

The model of the seven levels of creativity. Those can be connected with the four c creativity model. A different approach are the seven levels of the creative span. The Levels resemble stages from childhood to adulthood.

Level 1: Universal Creativity (in all people from infancy; also when learning something new)

Level 2: Rare compared to peers ( the child or adult cre-ates unusual perspectives, actions, products, questions)

Level 3: Developing Talents (expertise acquisition of strategies and ways of doing things)

Level 5: Producing information (shift from adapting to a feel to beginning to add informa-tion to it)

Level 6: Creating by extending a field (linear trajectory)

Level 7: Transforming or Revolutionising a field (net-work trajectory)

The distinctions are based on six variables. The first variable is adaption. Initially, the individual adapts to the world and the work field. In stages four and five it turns. The world and the work field slowly starts adapting to the individual.The second variable is pur-pose. It is the shift from mas-tering the domain towards extending it to then trans-forming the domain.The third is novelty. This is the transition from something that is new to the individual to something that becomes rare and important to the peers. The next stage is when it be-comes new to the world.Value describes the shift from valuable to the individual to valuable to the world. The next variable ‘speed’ de-scribes the initial fast progress of the individual which gradu-ally slows down.The last defined variable is mental structures, this is the incompletion through trans-formation.That means that mental in-completion and the curiosity to go further and further is a condition for transformation.


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We all like to believe that creativity has something magical to it. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. I think the notion that creativity equals magic clarifies one thing: How important and powerful creativity is! In today’s world, we measure and seek to understand everything there is to understand. Measur-ing creativity and creating models is one step away from the mysterious force but one step towards better control over it. What is clear is that creativity, in the end, is the most import-ant resource humans ever had and will ever have.

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Interview with WdKA



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I’m Belle Phromchanya, an independent design-er/researcher originally from Thailand. I studied at Sandberg Design Department in Amsterdam, graduated in 2013. I’ve been a guest tutor at dif-ferent art academies, depending on the occa-sion. At the very moment I’m teaching at Wdka (of course) for graphic design and visual cultures, Chulalongkorn University and Bangkok Universi-ty in Thailand, and a confidant at Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.

which focus on initiating non-western discours-es through the lens of Asian creatives living in the Netherlands.

Creativity is the ability to create things that touches people hearts.

An ability to create things that touches people heart, even the slightest.

Stay curious.

Life and death situation.

Yes

1. What is creativity?

2. How do you stay creative?

3. How important is creativity for humankind?

4. Is everybody creative?

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Yes

By teaching something else.

Say it’s great when it’s great, when it can be great then I share the possibilities I saw in their works. Don’t say anything if it’s not needed to.

Be critical, be vulnerable, and recog-nize the vulnerability of others while doing so.

Put flowers in the room, even if it’s a mess.

Pat yourself on the back sometimes. It’s fun.

5. Is creativity teachable?

6. How do you teach creativity?

7. How do you give feedback?

8. How would you advise students to give feedback to each other?

9. How do you create and keep a creative

atmosphere?

10. What else would you like to say?


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In a way we, at the academy don’t teach creativity. We guide creative minds.

1. What is creativity?

2. How do you stay creative?

3. How important is creativity for humankind?

4. Is everybody creative?

In my eyes: original twists to problems or to non-problems

I guess you are or you are not, a creative person. If you stay relevant is an other question.

It is very important. Times keep on changing constantly so every time needs new ideas, twists and solutions

More or less, yes

Dennis Koot is a graphic design teacher at the WdKA since 2005.From the years 2000- 2006, he worked at studio Dumbar. From 2004 - 2009 he was the art director and editor at ‘Items’, a Dutch design magazine.

Besides that, he works as an independent designer and has won several design awards, such as the European design award or the International Red Dot award with ‘Items’ magazine.

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5. Is creativity teachable?

6. How do you teach creativity?

7. How do you give feedback?

8. How would you advise students to give feedback to each other?

9. How do you create and keep a creative atmosphere?

10. What else would you like to say?

No.

Creativity is like a muscle you can train, but you need the talent first. In a way we, at the academt don’t teach creativity. We guide creative minds.

Stimulating the students to un-derstand, take steps, directions and solve themselves

See above

I think the feeling of freedom is most important.

There are no fixed answers to above questions really. There is not a ‘re-cepy’ to get creative with. That doesn’t make the questions (and answers) less interesting though...


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Artist in Focus

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Jean-Michel Basquiat was an African American artist who lived in New York City. Basquiat grew only 28 years old and was born in 1960. In his short life, he reached tremendous success with his paintings. He was the first African American artist who succeeded in the white-dominated art world at that time. He used his unique visual language to portray black people and the inequality.

Basquiat was an artist who not only painted but made music and films.He grew up in a middle-class house-hold in Brooklyn, where he was privately educated. He had a Haitian father and a Puerto Rican mother. He knew how to read and write at the age of four and spoke three languages fluently. He had a close relationship with his mother. She took him to museums to see “Guernica” and enrolled him as a junior member of the Brooklyn Museum of Modern Art. She always encouraged his creative side. In 1968 Basquiat had a bad car accident after which his spleen was removed. After he recovered, his mother gave him a textbook about anatomy. This would later play an important part in his work.When he was thirteen years old, his

mother was sent to a psychiatric hospi-tal. At the age of seventeen, he then left his home. He went to Manhattan and lived on the street and in fleabag hotels.

In 1978 he founded the street art duo “SEMO” with his friend Al Diaz. They together began to spray paint on build-ings on the Lower east side. Their graffiti consisted of poetry and cry-get messag-es. Quite the opposite of the “tagging” gravity style. The unusual graffiti and poetry led to fast fame for the collective. In 1980, he declared SEMO dead. He wanted to become rich and famous.

He moved to the east village with Alexis Adler. There he painted on the furniture and floors, simply because he had no money for canvases. Later he went on to create postcards which he sold for one dollar on the streets of Soho. There he spotted Andy Warhol at a restaurant because he was a big fan, he tried to sell him a postcard. The postcard was called “Stupid games, bad ideas”. A few years later, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat became friends.

Who was Basquiat?

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In 1982, New Yorker gallerist Anna No-sei provided Basquiat with a studio to work in underneath her gallery. There he worked on his first solo exhibition with her.

In 1985 Warhol and Basquiat had their first exhibition together.It was ripped apart by the media, Crit-ics called Basquiat the mascot. The two artists had a good relationship. So come that Warhol was the only person Basqui-at listened to when came to advise on reducing his drug use.

A year after their friendship ended, Warhol died during a routine surgery. Basquiat didn’t take the sudden dead well. He isolated himself increasingly while his heroin addiction and depres-sion got out of control. One year after Warholes dead, Basquiat died from a heroin overdose.

Where did Basquiat pull the reference form?Basquiat pulled references not only from painters but from musicians, writers and so on.

He referenced fine artists like Cy Twombly and Jean Dubuffet, writers like Jack Kerouac, Allan Ginsberg and Wil-liam S. Burroughs, musicians like David Bowie and Miles Davids, in his work.

He got also inspired by young rappers. He looked at how they would sample their work and applied it to his art-works.

Basquiat also pulled references and inspiration from his environment. He used Anatomy, Poetry, Jazz, Trash, TV, Typography and Art History in his paint-ings. His many reference points enabled him to create original collages. His use of different materials and styles like spray paint, oil paint, crayons and acrylic al-lowed him to incorporate many layers of different colours and different textures.

Basquiat focused on displaying black people. One of his most ambiguous motives were black heroes. He used the symbol of a crown to emphasise their importance. The omnipresent skulls in his artworks were meant to depict gen-erations of slaves, voodoo skulls of Haiti and African masks.

The time and influence of Basquiat

1980 the Neo-Expressionism movement emerged. Remember, that Basquiat’s successful years were the last seven to eight years of his life till 1988. Charac-teristics of Neo-Expressionism are the rough use of materials, colours in a bru-talist manner. Often figurative represen-tations with violent emotive expressions were also ubiquitous in the movement. It was the playfulness, tension and ex-pression that made the paintings stand out and break the known art domain.Art Historians claim it as an important bridge between modernism and post-modernism.


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When we go back to the question of what creativity is, we sure know that creativity or art is not specifically meant for one domain. Non either the less we pull only reference from the same domain we are working in. Graphic designers look at good graphic de-sign, filmmakers look at good films, anima-tors at good animation and so on. Sure that’s important because we need to have an idea of what good in our domain should look like. Maybe we all need to start looking at not just artists of our field but outside of what we are used to surrounding ourselves with. We need to be conscious about the impact of art on society and maybe need to use that power to stress social important topics.

Art has power, creativity has power and we, as students, are on our way to harvest and increase our powers. We shell all use it wisely.

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Thank you for reading creativz.

-Please give us feedback?What can we do better?Maybe you yourself want to do it better.

-Do you have any cool topics you want to write a guest article about?

-We want to go digital as well, do you want to help?

Contact us on Instagram.@Creativzmagazine

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