Portrait of a Creative

As a creative person, I am a visionary.  I dream big and aspire to inspire others with my visions.  My leadership skills compliment this well, because they enable me to communicate my ideas effectively and motivate others to join me in pursuit of bringing them to life.

I draw inspiration from many different sources.  On the whole, I am inspired by things that help my mind to roam vast, vague landscapes full of possibility.  This includes anything from house/trance music with the right beat to pictures of undiscovered territory.

One of my favorite songs to draw inspiration from is called "Valley of the Dying Sun" by House of Heroes.  This song details a lifelong struggle of a man and his dark side, ending with his triumph over it.  This song makes me think about the journey a hero must go on in most any fantasy story (similar to the hero's journey described in The Hero of a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell).  This outline leaves room for my mind to wander and imagine what kind of heroes are interesting and what kind of heroes have potential to make a good story and a good game.  This is the official music video which illustrates the struggle in terms of World War II.

This song makes excellent use of tension and release as it builds to the climax of the song, utilizing different melodies and tempos to affect the listener.

My current favorite artist to draw inspiration from is Caspar David Friedrich.  Many of his pictures describe vast, unexplored territory that seems to be full of mystery.  My favorite picture of his is called The Wanderer Above the Mists.

The mists prevent the wanderer from seeing what lies ahead of him in  his journey, and to me, that evokes excitement at the thought of the possibility of discovering the truth behind it.  This stands out to me as different from most popular art because it is encourages the viewer's mind to be active  in determining what the picture means and what it portrays, instead of didactically telling the viewer what the focus of the painting is.

The third place I draw inspiration from commonly is from games.  One of the best games I have played recently is Mirror's Edge.  It's gameplay effectively draws the player in because all of the different game elements work together toward the same goal: a frantic, intense experience that keeps the player's adrenaline rushing.  One of the techniques that helps this to happen is the strong use of color.  The artists used contrast and affinity to make it clear to the player what was important in the game, and where the player should go.

This photo illustrates what the game calls "runner vision."  The designers use consistent cool colors like blue, gray, and white to create the general atmosphere of the game world.  To contrast this, the path for the player to take is bright red, the enemies are black, and hidden information packs are yellow.  This simple color scheme makes it clear what is important to the player immediately and the player doesn't have to think about it.  This technique makes the fast pace of the game flow very smoothly, making for an excellent game.

All of these things are inspiring to me for different reasons, but most lead to the same thing: helping my mind to wander the sea of possibilities to find ideas that are truly exciting and worth making into a reality.