Editorial Illustration: Rise of the New GroupthinkGD208 Computer Drawing February 1, 2012

Katie Joy Blanksma

After seeing this illustration paired with this editorial, readers should walk away with a fresh perspective toward their own creativity - they will go for a quiet walk alone, leave the conference room babble, lock themselves in their office away from all other influences - and start thinking. Business professionals and creatives alike should rethink how they approach brainstorming and ideas, seeking a better balance between collaboration and necessary alone time. This illustration will clearly highlight the frustrations, pitfalls, and wastefulness of an excessively collabora-tively focused creative process.

The phrase “creative collaboration” is overused and overlauded by artists across practice and profession as the standard in creative thinking, understanding, and pushing ideas to bigger, better places. Creative collaboration does have benefits. However, our current cultural understanding gives it too much credit is losing the value of creativity in individual thought and productivity in solitude. Americans in particular give introversion a negative spin, drawn in instead by charisma, energy, and a certain degree of groupthink. The goal of this editorial illustration is to call atten-tion to the foolishness of extremes and the need for a more balanced creative approach.

Saving time and money, bychangind cultural perspectives.

Background

Creative Brief

Target Audience

Objectives

Obstacles

Key Benefit

Tone

Media

Creative Considerations

The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), a leading global multimedia news and information company, includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, NYTimes.com , BostonGlobe.com , Boston.com , About.com and related properties. The Company’s core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.It is a thriving forum of cultural opinion, particularly online. This project will related an editorial questioning ac-cepted cultural understandings of the creative process, it efficiency in a work-place context, and its relationship to different personalities.

Creative ProfessionalsBusiness Owners - big and small, wherever producitivity effects costPhsycologists - and other professionals interested in the relationship between creativity and personality, and how to better understand its cultural relevance

• Creativity drives innovation in art, business, technology, etc. It is beneficial to understand and use our creative potential to the fullest of its ability.

• Increasing creative output is more cost-effective for businesses• Rethinking the relationship between creativity and personality will lead to a more positive cultural understand-

ing of introversion and “artsy” individuals. • Social norms (and habits of thinking) are the most difficult cultural force to change. This illustration communi-

cates the above mentioned benefits in a non-pushy, light-hearted way.

The illustration should be sarcastic, funny, and a touch uncomfortable. The type of illustration that makes you chuckle and cringe because you’ve been there and you know how ridiculous those meetings are - full of character exaggera-tion and familiar scenarios.

This project is for onling publication only via the New York Times website.

The topic is largely geared to an American audience and a Western point of view. Therefore, the illustration should reflect the ethnic diversity of the United States, but remain clearly from a Western perspective. Although globally applicable, the editorial and its supporting research approach cultural beliefs and social behaviors from a largely Western understanding and experience.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/opinion/sunday/the-rise-of-the-new-groupthink.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the%20rise%20of%20the%20new%20groupthink&st=cse

Process Drawing

Project in Process

Resource Imagesgoogle images and shutterstock

Try Again: sketches round 2

Process

Process

Final

Katie Blanksma