Digital Media and the Creative Process, as the title suggests, provides a topic to discuss the challenges and the possibilities that designers en- counter as they integrate digital tools in their daily workflow. It features a number of high quality submissions of articles that insightfully address the subject.

This work equips readers with a solid conceptual and critical foundation for digital creativity, presenting both technical explanations and creative techniques.

The Art Therapist’s Guide to Social Media offers the art therapy community a guide that addresses content related to social media use, its growing influence, and the impact social networking has on the profession and work of art therapists. This book presents a framework of relevant theories, best practices, and examples to explore existing and emerging areas of social networking's power for art therapists as practitioners and artists. Divided into three sections that highlight the themes of connection, community, and creativity, chapters explore timely topics such as the professional use of social media, ethical considerations, potential benefits and challenges, and strategies to embrace the possibilities that social media can create for the field worldwide. Art therapists in training, art therapy educators and supervisors, and practicing art therapists will find content in this text helpful for their learning and professional practice.

The creative process refers to the sequence of thoughts and actions that are involved in the production of new work that is both original and valuable in its context. This book examines this process across the domains of visual art, writing, engineering, design and music. It characterizes each domain’s creative process based on evidence stemming from creators’ accounts of their own activity and a wide-range of observational material and theories specific to each field. Results from empirical research are then presented across a set of closely linked chapters, using a common set of methodologies that seek to trace the creative process as it unfolds. This highly interdisciplinary edited collection offers valuable insight into the creative process for scholars and practitioners in the fields of psychology, education, and creative studies, as well as for any other readers interested in the creative process. Todd Lubart brings together a group of authors who are themselves actively involved in their respective creative fields and invites readers to adopt a broad perspective on the creative process in order to unravel some of its mysteries.

Design philosophies can be useful, but inspiration, creative strategies, and efficient work habits are what really get the job done. Designer, instructor, and author Curt Cloninger provides a multitude of strategies, tools, and practices that readers can use to inject a big dose of creativity into just about any design project. With illustrations drawn from 20th-century French philosophy, medieval manuscripts, punkrock posters, and more, Curt’s innovative text introduces readers to his personal toolkit for hot-wiring the creative process. You’ll learn strategies to: • Recognize and believe in your creative powers • Develop effective methods for evaluating your own work • Draw inspiration from the past • Use standard software in experimental ways, and find nonstandard applications to create new effects • Maintain a personal design playground • Mine your subconscious with the Oblique Strategies Cards, developed by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt • Un-stick your imagination by “blitz-designing” mock-ups Curt Cloninger is an artist, designer, author, and instructor in Multimedia Arts & Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. His book Fresh Styles for Web Designers: Eye Candy from the U nderground (New Riders, 2002) is an industry standard on creative Web design solutions. Curt’s art and design work has been featured in I.D. Magazine, HOW Magazine, The New York Times, Desktop Magazine, and at digital arts festivals from Korea to Brazil. He regularly speaks at international events such as HOW Design, South by Southwest, Web Design World, and FILE. His pirate signal broadcasts from lab404.com to facilitate lively dialog.

Emerging technologies enable a wide variety of creative expression, from music and video to innovations in visual art. These aesthetics, when properly explored, can enable enhanced communication between all kinds of people and cultures. The Handbook of Research on Digital Media and Creative Technologies considers the latest research in education, communication, and creative social expression using digital technologies. By exploring advances in art and culture across national and sociological borders, this handbook serves to provide artists, theorists, information communication specialists, and researchers with the tools they need to effectively disseminate their ideas across the digital plane.

There are two paths in life: Should & Must. We arrive at this crossroads over and over again, and every day. And we get to choose. Starting out or starting over, making a career change or making a life change, the most life-affirming thing you can do is to honor the voice inside that says your have something special to give, and then heed the call and act. Many have traveled this road before. Here’s how you can, too. #choosemust An inspirational gift book for every recent graduate, every artist, every seeker, and every career change.