Creativity from Without

One day, a friend asked me to go to an art supply store to get some paper for her class. And of course, I went with her.

After we returned to her apartment, she started to peel off the bar code tags which were sticky on the back of the sheets. She then put those tags one by one on the table. When I saw them, they were kind of connected and all rolled together with a certain height like a little structure. After she peeled off the last piece, she wanted to throw them away, but I stopped her.

I observed them arbitrarily in different angles and asked myself if this can be considered as a design, and I am sure to say, why not. I think this is an example of creativity from without, just like Andy Goldsworthy did with the track lines on the onion leaves. The similarity I found is that both of the designs are innovative. They used not only very ordinary but also very cheap materials which we normally do not associate with art. It teaches me the unlimited possibility of design: everything can be transforming to an art work by design. This is the fascination of design, and it convinces people in its own way.

Furthermore, I discovered that designer should observe the world frequently, because everything around us can be use to make a design. Like mentioned in the article “The Etymology of Design,” design is not only about “novelty” or “trendiness”; in the process of designing an existence into a new form, there is always an innovation or a new life emerged.