Digital Sketchbook by

Week 1

avcv2001_1 — 2024-09-08 22:08:32 UTC

Sometimes the beginning of creativity can begin on a quiet, peaceful Sunday afternoon on the couch watching Football. As unproductive as such an activity sounds, even just the act of sitting on the couch and watching a bunch of guys run full speed into each other can inspire creativity! The program I’m watching here called NFL Redzone provides 7 hours of commercial free Football coverage to its audience, showcasing every game happening, every Sunday afternoon. In order for this idea to come to fruition, someone must’ve said “hey this game is good and all, but wouldn’t it be cool if I could watch more than one game at a time without flipping through channels?” I’m sure that when this idea came about, whoever thought of it didn’t think they’d eventually be able to watch up to 8 games simultaneously! I feel that this can be considered a textbook case of what I call creativity from the comfort of your couch. As a couch potato myself I am sure I can find creative inspirations in my comfort zone that is my living room. Adventuring can be left for the other days of the week, on Sundays we watch Football!

Week 1

avcv2001_1 — 2024-09-11 20:47:42 UTC

Who says creativity must be limited by human beings? This is Loki the French Bulldog, and he is certainly worthy of his namesake. Don't let his sweet temperament fool you, he's always plotting his next mischievous scheme. In this particular instance, not wanting to sleep in his crate. It takes a creative genius to find a way to get him to listen! as you can see there are plenty of his favourite toys to help him self-soothe and fall asleep, but no luck in getting him down. Some outside the box (or in this case crate) thinking is needed to outsmart this little guy, so I put on some doggy lullabies on Youtube for him to fall asleep to. It worked this time, but who knows if it'll work the next time? Believe it or not, I think it is very possible for Loki to be creative too without even realizing it! Depending on who he's playing with at the time, he will try and steal the slippers of his playmate whether it is me, my mother, father or brother. He knows which slippers to steal just to get us to pay attention to him! Originally I just thought he was being a goofball and pushing our buttons, but after beginning this assignment and viewing everyday activity in a more creative lens, I give Loki more credit for displaying creative behaviour.

Week 2

avcv2001_1 — 2024-09-16 14:03:11 UTC

In my opinion, nothing screams creativity like a fridge full of food. Take a second and think about it, every item in this fridge is linked to some kind of recipe and has some quirky origin story to it. Take the leftover pizza sitting at the back (unfortunately not visible) for example, the origin of the classic Margherita dates back hundreds of years when a princess named Margherita visited Naples and went to a local restaurant demanding the best meal money could buy. The head chef, under lots of pressure decided to make a dish that could resemble the Italian flag (Basil = Green, Mozzarella = White, Tomato sauce = Red) and created the first cheese pizza and named it after the princess who loved it. (obviously!) This is just one example of endless possibilities that a fridge full of food can offer. More often than not, people just think about eating food rather than where it originally came from and what potential lies in each item. Another thought provoking item in my fridge is condiments. Who thought that honey, the gooey and irresistibly sweet liquid made by bees and mustard, a sauce with a harsh and somewhat distinct taste would come together seamlessly? Who thought originally that ketchup would go great on a cheeseburger or with fries? Who even thought that cheese would be good on a burger in the first place? So many of the foods we know and love were tested and further developed by people who didn't simply want to ask questions, but rather had a wildly creative mind and a burning desire for answers!

Week 3

avcv2001_1 — 2024-09-20 19:08:45 UTC

Working on my assignment for Ad Studio is forcing us all to unlock our creative potential. Not that it’s a bad thing! The brand my group was assigned was Bulk Barn, so I took it upon myself to visit the one closest to me. I had never visited Bulk Barn before so to say o was baffled with what I saw was an understatement. I never really heard of people shopping at Bulk Barn and I never see any advertisements for the brand, so I guess that’s why we were assigned Bulk Barn in the first place! The gimmick of having all of your product stored in bins and priced by weight is such a unique and unorthodox concept that is never really talked about. I expected the store to mainly just have candy spread out across the store with a few other miscellaneous items, and that was true but as you can see in the picture I provided they had bins of soup mix, Mac and cheese mix, various nuts, dried pastas and even nut butters as well. It definitely takes a creative mind to come up with Bulk Barn’s gimmick and to pull it off successfully. I think it works well for candies and snacks, other dried foods of that nature but there were certain things like the nut butters in particular, that I just don’t think worked. The practicality and cleanliness came into question for those products.

Week 3

avcv2001_1 — 2024-09-23 14:05:24 UTC

Racing is always a topic that has fascinated me, even as a young boy. it has the potential to have immense depth, nuance and complexity through the various rules and regulations of different racing categories, as well as the engineering expertise required to create such fearsome machines. However throughout these complexities, one goal remains the main focus of all involved; and that goal is so simple that even toddlers like to visualize it in their heads: finish first by being faster than everyone else. Formula 1 is my favourite category of racing, and it is seen as the most prestigious and exciting style of racing in the world. The creativity required to make Formula 1 what it is, is nothing short of extraordinary. Whether it is how the cars have evolved from the 50s to now, designing race tracks that are tricky to drive yet entertaining to watch, or even how safety standards have been constantly pushed to make the sport as safe as possible, everyone responsible for the success of the sport has essentially made the world their playground and let their imagination run wild.

Week 4

avcv2001_1 — 2024-09-26 20:00:27 UTC

Many of us know Tim Horton's as Canada's premier coffee shop that provides us with what is considered the stereotypical Canadian coffee experience. Perhaps Tim's most well known product that goes hand in hand with its coffee is the imfamous Timbit. Timbits come in a multitude of flavours so customers can mix and match however they like. The creative freedom each customer has when going to Tim Horton's is part of the reason why it has become so successful and remains such a staple in Canadian culture today. Even when looking at the Timbits themselves, creativity is inherently present but often overlooked. If you break it down, all they really are is just miniature dough balls that taste identical to the larger donuts Tim's offers its guests. However they also answer the question of "what ever happened to the middle part of the donut?" Donuts always inexplicably have a hole in the middle (apart from cream filled ones) and Timbits play the gimmicky role of being the missing bit of the donut. They also turn donuts which are seen as one person's dessert into a sharable delicacy that was not previously thought of. All of this thought behind such a simple ball of dough speaks volumes on the creativity of Tim Horton's and its iconic menu.

Week 4

avcv2001_1 — 2024-10-01 01:38:19 UTC

Today is my father’s birthday. On this occasion I had an intriguing thought: how did birthday traditions come about and what creative processes came about because of birthdays? It is believed that birthdays have been celebrated as far back as ancient times, with archaeological evidence suggesting that ancient Egyptians celebrated birthdays. Going beyond that to modern times, birthdays and their traditions were birthed through very interesting creative decisions. Who’s idea was it to throw parties for peoples birthdays? Or to make cakes for someone’s special day? Or to blow out the candles and sing the happy birthday song that everyone knows? All of these world famous traditions that are practiced by billions of people worldwide had to have come from creative minds, from people who thought that they had a moral obligation to make the world a happier place.

Week 5

avcv2001_1 — 2024-10-02 16:55:40 UTC

Despite having a heavy workload this semester, I need some time to unwind and shut my brain off for a few hours. My usual go-to is playing video games. Video games in my opinion can be considered one of if not the most creative form of media around. The sheer amount of creativity required to come up with concepts for games, create new stories that engage players, compelling gameplay that services those stories, as well as designing new cutting edge hardware to keep up with technological advances and constantly pushing the standard higher and higher is nothing short of astounding. This photo highlights 2 Xbox controllers, one from the Xbox 360 from 2007, and the other from the Series X which debuted in 2020. As you can see, Microsoft has stayed true to their controller's philosophy over the years, but have added features that have made the modern controller feel better than ever before. Some improved features include improved grips on the thumb-sticks, as well as an upload button that allows you to capture screenshots and clips from you game session to share on the web instantaneously. If you told a Microsoft employee working on the 360 about such cutting edge features, they'd probably tell you you're crazy. However, it is creativity that allowed them to take leaps and bounds of progress over the years and pushed the standard of gaming forever.

Week 6

avcv2001_1 — 2024-10-08 13:58:04 UTC

Today's in class lightbox was blackout poetry, which I had never heard of before. We each had some script from Alice in Wonderland and had to select which words from the script to keep, which would in turn make it into a poem. With the words I selected one could interpret the act of Alice falling down the rabbit hole as a dark and depressing state of affairs, as the existential dread of falling for a long time drove her mad, and as she hit the ground her last thought was "orange marmalade." Quite a depressing end to the story.

Week 6

avcv2001_1 — 2024-10-13 00:45:01 UTC

Today was Thanksgiving dinner, perhaps my favourite holiday of the year. I don't know what it is but there's just something about a plate full of turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing that speaks to my soul. It draws attention to the creativity behind Thanksgiving traditions and meals. Who determined that turkey would be the meal that everyone had on Thanksgiving? who decided that mashed potatoes, stuffing, and other vegetables would be the perfect sides? Who thought that cranberry sauce of all things would be the ideal sauce to dip your food in? Does anyone use cranberry sauce for anything else all year? I sure don't but Thanksgiving wouldn't be the same without it!

Week 8

avcv2001_1 — 2024-10-29 13:56:45 UTC

Today in class we had to draw the person sitting next to us. Unfortunately for Kaavya, she was sitting next to me. Many people argue that art and beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I pity whoever has to behold this monstrosity. I really did my best, but the fact that this is my best from an artistic standpoint is truly shocking. This portrait wouldn't look out of place in a kindergarten classroom along with the stick figures and the unintelligible scribbles. That being said, even an image as putrid as this helped get the creative juices flowing, which served me well in class. I suppose there is a place for garbage such as this

Week 8

avcv2001_1 — 2024-11-03 22:36:53 UTC

At first glance, this picture just showcases a plate of chocolate chip cookies. Nothing too jaw-dropping or sensational, but because they were baked with love by my grandmother they are extra special. The love of a grandmother is irreplaceable and remarkably pure and is a source of undying joy. It is also a source of bountiful creativity since grandmothers are always finding new creative ways to spoil their grandchildren and make them smile. Whether it is making yummy food that isn't good for you in copious amounts, or sneaking a 5 dollar bill in your pocket and saying "don't tell your parents," the bond between grandmother and child is a beautiful thing.

Week 10

avcv2001_1 — 2024-11-12 15:06:14 UTC

Today in class we were tasked with writing single lines for stories, and we passed the paper to the person next to us and folded the line before to keep it a mystery. The fun came when everyone's story came to fruition and they were read aloud. Seeing everyone build off of only one line of text beforehand made for some funny stories. It is also very interesting to see how the creative mind can work off of very little. Everyone went in a different direction and no one story was similar to another. That's the beauty of this exercise, identifying people's creative thought process in such a simple task speaks volumes to what the human mind is capable of.