My passion is graphic design, and in recent years I have found myself in an instructional design career path. I began this journey working as a Graphic Designer for MGM Resorts International, which I often refer to as my glamour job. Why? The attention and experience was unmatched! Eventually, I was led to internal communications where I was asked to lend my graphic design toward instructional design. I have happily accepted my new career path where I love to apply my graphic design skills and background to the learning materials I compose.
As a Graphic Designer who later worked in a career as an Instructional Designer, has proven some challenges, which is what led me to the TED Talk by David Kelley, one I found so inspiring. He brings up some great examples of how design affects individuals and how he too has faced significant challenges. He makes a firm decision to engage in a positive manner and help people realize, that despite challenges, we are creative beings.
David Kelley brings up the concept of Guided Mastery.
“ Using feedback to continually improve and become the master of something that challenges you.”
In my case, the challenge is making a case for exploring and pushing the boundaries of graphic design when composing instructional materials. I appreciate when David Kelley mentions how an interaction in life can convince someone, even an executive with a blackberry, that they may no longer be creative. I often invite feedback from executives, which I then use to help them see that they too are creative. I won’t accept an excuse like, “I’m just not the creative type.” Their feedback is important in designing materials that are engaging, but that also deliver accurate content. In these interactions there is less time spent defending design decisions and more time used implementing and trying new things as a designer. Another great outcome is when people have discovered that they are still creative. Allowing them to see the world from a new perspective, leading to improvement in how teams are managed.
Self Efficacy – “The sense you can change the world and that you can attain what you sent out to do.” –David Kelley
Similar to the example provided by David Kelley, a Medical Device Designer Doug Dietz observed how a little girl feared the MRI machine, so he designed and made an adjustment to better engage and comfort patients. I always try to go through a very similar process. I understand that it is very important to understand my peers, audience, stakeholders, and executive leadership. I have to be empathetic, to understand how and what I design will affect all users and peers.
For me this was a very powerful presentation. David Kelley has faced hardship and after watching his TED Talk I was inspired even more to pursue my creative endeavors as I continue to design learning content for various participants. This presentation by David Kelley has provided the confidence to maintain my creative attitude, and has also helped me inspire others to think creatively.
Using the assets provided by Jason Ohler I chose to evaluate this presentation using Story, Originality/Voice/Creativity, and Citations. I feel that David Kelly could improve on this presentation by implementing additional multi media. He speaks about creativity and convincing others that they are creative. I think it would be interesting to engage the audience in a creative exercise. Overall, I feel that David Kelley is genuine and sincere in his presentation, even using personal stories. I really liked how he involved the human element throughout.
| Story
|
How well did the story work? This trait can address structure, engagement or character transformation.
|
The story worked well and involved a human element that involved deep emotion. I believe it was appropriate although it could feel a bit heavy for some participants. |
| Originality, Voice, Creativity
|
How creative was the production? Did the student exhibit an original sense of voice and a fresh perspective?
|
David Kelley was original and his voice was sincere in tone. I feel that the production overall could have been more creative given the content. |
| Citations, permission
|
Has everything that is not original been credited? Have permissions been obtained where necessary? Do citations appear in the format required by the project?
|
David Kelley cited several sources and gave appropriate credit or material that was not his own. |
Matthew Kubiak 
Hi Matthew,
What an inspiring story and how true it is that many people lose their creativity because they give up easily or they don’t want to be judged, or even subconsciously try to justify a label, that was given to them at some point in their lives. At the beginning of his talk when he mentioned the term “Creative Confidence” I was rather uncertain about the meaning of “Creative Confidence”. The concrete example he gave about his friend and the negative comment his friend got for his clay horse, was sufficient to clarify what the term “Creative Confidence”. I find very creative the way he applies Bandura’s concept of guided mastery into helping people overcome their fear that they are not creative. I believe he uses enough images to make his point, however, what keeps people engaged are his originality and the concrete examples he uses to convince the audience that it is indeed possible to believe that each one of us can be creative. It is just a matter of achieving self-efficacy!
LikeLike
Hey Matthew,
This is a really interesting Ted Talk to listen to coming from someone outside of the background of design. I loved how focused Kelley was on creativity and how, no matter what you think, you are a creative individual with relevant and useful ideas. We always attribute creativity to writers, artists, etc, but it’s a human capability to create and we shouldn’t forget that.
I actually disagree a bit when you say that he should add in more multimedia. Some talks that I’ve watched have tried to incorporate all sorts of multimedia in their presentation and it tends to distract from the point, though it does help to keep attention. I know I have difficulty following someone’s course of material if they interrupt it with too much video/photo production.
Thanks so much for sharing this!
Nicolette
LikeLike
Hey Matthew,
This is such an interesting topic! I will have to go back and watch the video. From your explanation, I love that David Kelly is focusing on creativity in his designs and is trying to engage various stakeholders in making his designs more relevant. I like how you compared your job to the various points that he is making. It really made your post more relevant and showed how his ideas can be applied in the workplace.
The organization for your critique was nicely laid out and to the point. I might have to do something similar for my next critique. It’s great that you explained how he could have improved, I think a creative exercise for the audience would have been interesting as well. It would have proven that everyone is capable of creativity.
Overall, nice job!
LikeLike
Hi Matthew – I think you chose a very relevant story to critique given your background and interests. I like the traits you chose to highlight and your thoughtfulness in your review. I am wondering about the ‘originality, voice, and creativity’ given the structure of the TED talks. Thanks for your perspective as a design person!
LikeLike
0 Pingbacks