Preempt Recycling with Upcycling
Looptworks makes innovative products with materials other producers have discarded as production excess.
This pre-consumer textile waste has never been used, but doesn’t amount to enough for another production run – so off to the landfill it goes. Looptworks intervenes, upcycling the textile waste into limited-edition clothing and gear products.
Subscribers to Fresh Ideas will recognize this as a Rearrange the Sequence strategy at play.
Add comment July 28, 2010
The Burqini
Growing up in Australia presented challenges for Aheda Zanetti, a young Muslim/Arab girl.
Complying with Islamic beliefs about modest dress while pursuing sports-related interests was a persistent challenge.
The solution?
The Burqini, a comfortable, flexible form of sportswear suitable for Muslim women.
Subscribers to Fresh Ideas will appreciate linking this solution to the ‘Make a Note of Unusual Combinations‘ strategy.
Add comment July 15, 2010
Business Model ‘Stretches the Rules’
Here’s a refreshing example of how the Fresh Ideas strategy Stretch the Rules has been applied to a business model:
MileMeter works “… to bring innovation and common sense to auto insurance” with a product that links your coverage fees to your mileage. If you drive less you pay less.
Add comment July 7, 2010
Thirty Years of Mac in Two Minutes
‘Saw this over at the swissmiss blog:
Where’s the opportunity for your own version of the Fresh Ideas strategy, “Prototype Early and Often?”
Add comment June 30, 2010
Solving World Hunger with Gaming
Gamers play online games for over 3 billion hours a week.
Jane McGonigal thinks we should play even more – when the games have been designed to teach transferable leadership skills and collaboratively solve the world’s most urgent challenges.
The recently released Evoke was designed with these goals, watch this trailer and recognize an example of the Fresh Ideas strategy ‘Turn Up the Volume’ at play:
Add comment June 24, 2010
Shift in Perspective Produces Shifting Spaces
Architect Gary Chang changed his perspective from “How to live in a very small space?” to “How to make a very small space more livable?” This shift resulted in a tiny apartment (330 square feet) with 24 usable rooms. Take a four minute tour here:
Subscribers to Fresh Ideas will recognize this as an example of “Redefine the Problem.”
Add comment June 17, 2010
Eclectic Creative Prompts
In a recent Fast Company slideshow,
designers combine typography with skin, stones and shopping carts (among other things); creating interesting and sometimes unsettling images, and providing opportunities to practice two Fresh Ideas strategies: ‘Collect the Eclectic‘ and ‘Make a Note of Unusual Combinations.’
Add comment June 9, 2010
IBM Study: Creativity Most Important Quality for Business Success
IBM released findings from a landmark study based on the largest known sample of one-to-one CEO interviews. When 1,500 corporate heads and public sector leaders across 60 nations and 33 industries were asked about leadership qualities that drive business success today, “creativity” came out on top.
Steven Tomasco of IBM Global Business Services noted that ” …coming off the worst economic conditions they’d ever seen, [CEOs] didn’t fall back on management discipline, existing best practices, rigor, or operations. In fact, they [did] just the opposite.” 60% of the CEOs polled named creativity as the most important leadership ability. 52% cited integrity and 35% cited global thinking.
You can learn more about what the CEOs said here .
You can hone your creative edge here .
Add comment May 19, 2010
The Emotion Behind Invention
In this 19.33 minute video, note the emotions (anger, bashfulness, passion, jealousy, depression, frustration, enthusiasm, astonishment and determination) fueling Dean Kamen’s ability to craft a solution to a life-altering challenge. Subscribers to Fresh Ideas will note the impact of ‘Get an Emotional Charge’ at work:
Add comment May 4, 2010
More Unusual Combinations
Lots of great feedback on the ‘Make a Note of Unusual Combinations’ issue of Fresh Ideas. Sometimes combinations are evocative because they combine disparate fields in an interesting way, like:
(Design Within Reach) + (Coke) = (a beautiful chair containing more than 100 plastic Coke bottles)
Sometimes the combinations strike a cord because they combine two adjacent fields in a unique way, like:
(tube socks) + (flip-flops) = (Sanuk’s TubeFlop )
What combinations have been making you take a second look?
Add comment April 23, 2010
