McCulley Design Lab

A recent study by Adobe has revealed Japan as the most creative country. But the Japanese and Americans do not see the Japanese as creative; Americans believe that America is the most creative.

In an interview of 5,000 adults across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan, Tokyo is found to be the most creative city, with New York coming in second.

The study also shows that 80% of people feel that unlocking creativity is critical to economic growth; but only 1 in 4 people feel like they’re living up to their own creative potential.

75% of respondents said they are under growing pressure to be productive rather than creative—the lack of time being the biggest barrier to creativity.

Most of those surveyed feel that creativity is stifled by education systems, and many believe creativity is taken for granted.

Additional InfoGraphics at above link.

Great list of 20 questions and honest replies…my favorites:

“There’s no better gift than a photograph. Stephen Colbert recently sent an enlarged, framed photo featuring him dressed as me, vacuuming, with a nude model on his back. It was similar to a photo of me kiteboarding, and it was gratefully received because the fire on Necker burned down my office and with it all my notebooks and photographs.”

“I’ve spent a lifetime trying to set an example to get the necktie abolished. I mean, I just find it so sad going somewhere like Japan, where they’re all wearing suits. You look at these lovely pictures of them 100 years ago in their beautiful robes, and you think, ‘how on earth did the necktie ever catch on?’ I just find them uncomfortable and restricting. I think it’s people who run departments of companies, who’ve had to suffer all their lives and are damned if the next generation isn’t going to suffer, too.”

“I hate being in hotels with a thousand rooms. And I personally don’t like going into hotels where you’ve got formal check-in desks. I’d much rather come and sit on the couch and be checked in that way, or ideally be checked in before I’ve actually gotten to the hotel.”

Read the rest at above link.

From the Wall Street Journal:

IT’S A PHENOMENON AS OLD as America itself—our taste in furniture, as in fashion, is fickle. In the early 19th century, the winged pedestals of English Regency were brushed aside for the sleeker lines of Grecian Plain. Our suburban forefathers moved Danish modern into the attic and trucked in lumbering Spanish revival. And today we’re putting our playful blob lamps on eBay and returning to simple, locally made pieces.

Call it the New American Minimalism. It usurps our 2000s-era romance with confections perhaps best represented by the Dutch brand Moooi, which conjured up crocheted side tables and Louis-style chairs burned to a slight crisp. It also bears little resemblance to older minimalist vocabularies, like the colorful Memphis style that was parodied in the 1988 movie “Beetlejuice.” Instead, honesty is now the policy: reserved shapes, natural materials, apparent construction and hand finishing.

Full article with additional photos at above link.