Visible and Invisible Innovation - Cirque Du Soleil

by Andrea Meyer

Point: Behind-the-scenes innovation makes visible innovation shine

Story: I saw the premiere of KOOZA in Denver last week. Actually, it was my second time seeing KOOZA (the first was in Boston), and it was even better the second time.

The first time, I was mesmerized by the overt innovations in the show, like the "Wheel of Death." Imagine two connected hamster-wheels, each of which spin while both together revolve vertically as well. Suspended high above the stage, the performers run, dive and somersault inside the wheels. And just when it looks like the act couldn't get any more thrilling, the performers switch to running on the outside of the wheel.

My second time at KOOZA, I sat in the second row, so I had a closer look at the costumes. Even from the very last row (where I sat the first time), I remember the dazzling shine of the juggler's suit. The second time, I had a chance to see the intricacy of all the costumes, which led me to wonder about the R&D that must go into them. The costumes hug tight body lines yet flex with all the contortions the performers make.

How does Cirque Du Soleil create these amazing costumes? First, Cirque hires talent: specialists in textile design, lace-making, shoemaking, wig-making, patternmaking, costume-making and millinery all work together to combine their knowledge.

Second, they actively seek out new materials which can be used. A "technological watch team" tracks global advances in adhesives, batteries and miniature lights to see how they could be incorporated into costumes. The team looks beyond boundaries of standard textiles to encompass fields such as avionics, plumbing, water sports and even dentistry for components that achieve the imagined task.

Third, the artisans of Cirque Du Soleil's Costume workshop custom-make all the costumes, dyeing the colors in-house or painting costumes directly. They mold each individual hat on a plaster model of the artist's head for a perfect fit. They consider comfort during these very athletic shows: the wig-making team, for example, builds wigs one hair at a time to achieve optimal ventilation. The attention to detail is staggering: the Bungee costumes used in Cirque's Mystre each have over 2,000 hand-glued sequins. The juggler's suit in KOOZA consists entirely of mirrored squares, like a disco ball.

Whether visible or hidden, Cirque du Soleil innovations shine.

Action:

• Hire specialists in multiple related disciplines to work as a creative team


• Explore beyond the expected. Cirque's costume team doesn't just use fabrics but expands into composite materials such as silicone, latex, plastics, foams and urethane


• Let team members be hands-on to devise ways to make an innovation work

Further information:

The show has moved on to Santa Monica, CA in October and will be in Irvine, CA in January. Info on future cities is here.

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Author of more than 450 company case studies and contributor to 28 books, Andrea Meyer writes & ghostwrites about innovation, IT and strategy for clients like MIT, Harvard Business School, McKinsey & Co., and Forrester Research. Follow her at www.workingknowledge.com/blog and twitter.com/AndreaMeyer.

The Art of Whitespace

by Matthew E May

Being a sometime pencil sketcher, I've been a fan of the Wall Street Journal pen and ink stipple portraits, also known as a hedcut (that's not a typo) since I started reading the journal in 1982. I love the fact that the portraits are most whitespace with artfully placed dots and dashes -- pure black and white -- and the brain fills in the rest and essentially creates the gray tones. I've tried the technique myself, and it ain't easy. Much easier is pencil shading.

I decided to track down the originator, Kevin Sprouls. You can find his work at Sprouls.com. You can read about the evolution of his technique and how he creates each sketch on his "Ink Rhythm" blogsite. And if, like me, you doubt the Wall Street Journal will ever do a feature article on you worthy of a hedcut, you can hire Kevin to do it for you for a few hundred dollars. Which is exactly what I did.

Not only is the art terrific -- I sent him the blog photo to the right so you can compare -- but the service he provides is outstanding. I sent him a request, he responded promptly, I emailed him the photo, and in two days received an overnight delivery (included in the cost) with the finished portrait along with a digital file, also included in the cost.

Make no mistake, you cannot replicate this technique with Photoshop masks and filters. I know because I've tried all the tricks available online. It's gotta be done old school by hand. And that makes it all the more special, somehow. I can even see small whiteouts here and there on the bristol board where a dot was not to his liking.

Over the years Kevin's mastery has enabled him to crank one of these out in a few hours. He emailed me four hours after I sent him the photo telling me he was done. To me, that's an amazing talent and skill.

Based on the experience and outcome, I intend to have Kevin do portraits of my family members (including the dog) as holiday gifts.

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Matthew E. May is the author of "IN PURSUIT OF ELEGANCE: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing." He is constantly searching for creative ideas and innovative solutions that are 'elegant' - a unique and elusive combination of unusual simplicity and surprising power.

Color Yellow Could Have Created a Billionaire

by Matthew E May

One month ago today, the legendary master potter Otto Heino passed away at age 94. You'd probably have to be a ceramics aficionado to appreciate his art and recognize his name. I know of him only because he lived and worked in Ojai, not far from where I live in southern California, and where my family loves to visit and camp. Otto was of Finnish descent, and the first thing you'd notice when you met him was his incredibly smooth skin, the result of two decades of applying his own porcelain slip (the liquid porcelain before it's been cast) as a mud mask to his face, 20 minutes per day.

Why is he legendary? Because the Chinese government once offered him a billion dollars for what he knew about color yellow. Not only that, but in 1978 when Pablo Picasso wanted to know who the best potter in the world was, he sent out a request to the ceramics world to help him figure it out. Picasso invited 50 countries to participate in a contest. It was Otto who won the grand prize with a 24 inch pot with two birds on it. His entry remains in Picasso's museum.

Otto's most elegant solution was a highly sought after shade of yellow. As the story goes, Otto went to a ceramics conference in Japan in 1980, where he met a Chinese monk who wanted European and American potters to work on a certain lost color. The monk was looking for a high-temperature yellow glaze popular during China's Chin Dynasty (A.D. 265 to 420). It was the color of a Buddhist monk's robe. What intrigued Otto, and what started a 15-year pursuit, was that the formula for mixing the color had been lost centuries ago. Said Otto in an interview with a local magazine two years ago: "I found an old book in a library that said the original Chinese artist had burned the formula because he didn't want it to be put onto cheap pots. So my wife [fellow potter Vivika] and I decided to work on it."

Two months after the sad passing of Vivika in 1995, Otto got it. "I knew it right away. I opened a bottle of champagne. I celebrated all day. I called China."

As journalist Anthony Head put it, "the ceramics world descended on Ojai. They came in droves. Japan and other countries sent official delegates to scrutinize the color and the ability to fire the glaze at high temperatures. Once they confirmed that the secret of this precious color had indeed revealed itself to Otto, they spent a lot of money obtaining his pottery created with this newly uncovered treasure."

The FBI didn't like it. After Otto cashed a seven figure cashier's check, they ransacked his shop and home. It took him three days to clean the mess up. Said Otto, "They came at seven in the morning, three with rifles, two with pistols. I thought all along the guy was going to shoot me. They said no potter could make that much money. They accused me of being in the drug business because I was on the phone talking about 'shipping yellow.'"

Otto's peaceful life in Ojai changed with the color yellow. What didn't change was his work ethic. He was up every day at 4 AM to start work. What didn't change were his principles--he turned down China's billion-dollar offer for the yellow glaze formula! Of course, he enjoyed depositing $600,000 cashier's checks for his wares. One of his uniquely shaped teardrop pots would easily go for $35,000.

As for Otto's elegant solution, it passed away along with him. He would not sell the formula. He would not reveal it to anyone. "When I die," he said, "then it goes with me. It isn't the money. It's the ethics. I don't want anyone to put this yellow glaze on bad pots. It is the most important part of my legacy."

Like his predecessor before him centuries earlier, Otto believed in creative integrity. He was a consummate artist to the end.

Otto Heino, rest in peace.

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Matthew E. May is the author of "IN PURSUIT OF ELEGANCE: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing." He is constantly searching for creative ideas and innovative solutions that are 'elegant' - a unique and elusive combination of unusual simplicity and surprising power.

Part 1 - The Power of the Question (Shanghai)

Lots of bad stuff happening in China right now. So let's talk about some good stuff. Like the design coming out of Shanghai.

Innovation, no matter where it occurs, always begins with a burning question (or questions), centered around "Is there a better way?" Artist-turned-designer Lu Kun has almost single-handedly put Shanghai on the international fashion map by pursuing three such questions:

Why doesn't China's clothing industry pay attention to detail? Why is it so cheap and uninspired? Why can't we do it differently?

Tired of his country being perceived as one big factory, Kun is on a mission to demonstrate that creativity and innovation are alive and well in China. His bold designs are doing just that. Drawing his inspiration from what he knows best - the streets of Shanghai - Kun's original creations are being hailed as elegant and imaginative, yet at the same time distinctly Shanghainese.

Undaunted by China's lack of a financial backing system for developing promising fashion designers, Kun has broken new ground. Until the arrival of Mr. Lu, no Chinese designer had achieved a presence on the international catwalk.

Kun did it in less than five years. How?

It's as if Mr. Lu took the advice of Sakichi Toyoda, who said: "Never try to design something without first gaining at least three years hands-on experience."


Kun's six-step path to innovation:

1. Learning the basics of fashion design in a vocational high school.


2. One year of cutting and sewing at a Shanghai tailor shop.


3. One year at a startup Hong Kong label.


4. One year teaching sewing technique and production design at LaSalle International Fashion School in Shanghai.


5. Then out on his own as a personal fashion designer for wealthy individuals.


6. And finally the design of an entire line of special occasion and upscale casual wear.

As with all great innovators, it's the power of the question that drives Kun's artistry.

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Matthew E. May is the author of "IN PURSUIT OF ELEGANCE: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing." He is constantly searching for creative ideas and innovative solutions that are 'elegant' - a unique and elusive combination of unusual simplicity and surprising power.

Crisis or Opportunity?

No one in their right mind would suggest that an economic collapse was just what we needed, but sometimes, tough times do throw up opportunities we don't hear when the bulls are roaring. I remember back in the 1970s, New York was a very different city to the one we know now. It had a gritty edge and the sense that anything could happen if you stepped beyond the lights. As the economy of the city collapsed and bankruptcy loomed, businesses folded or moved on to more congenial locations, leaving behind vast tracts of abandoned buildings and empty store fronts. One by one they were reoccupied, and very often by artists.

Downtown, the Bowery and SoHo exploded in a buzz of creativity. The subway, if you had the nerve to go down there, was a living gallery of graffiti art featuring the poignantly funny chalk drawings of Keith Haring on blacked out notice boards. As each train roared into the station, it was like watching a rainbow rocket past. Above ground, artists like Haring took advantage of empty stores and cheap rents to start their own enterprises. Haring called his the Pop Shop and it gave me the same charge of energy and enthusiasm I had seen and lived with in 1960s London.

I am certain we will see this same spirit blossom in the present crisis. One person's empty space is someone else's chance of a lifetime. This is certainly happening in London, a city that has been savagely hit by the current downturn. A number of artists have grabbed at empty shop fronts to create temporary exhibitions. It's the pop-up store concept in a different guise - opinionated, focused, passionate, committed. It's also an opportunity for local Councils to return some space to creative people to use as studios, sound recording suites, and practice rooms. Good times have the unfortunate effect of squeezing these essential creative resources out of the centre of cities. Let's welcome them back. Our ability to see opportunity rather than threat, and work to our strengths rather than succumb to our weaknesses is the way to get through these tough times. Best of all, it will inspire into the optimism we need to sustain us on the other side that we call the future.

Photo credit: Keith Haring's Pop Shop, New York, circa 1986. Photograph by Charles Golfi Michels.

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Kevin Roberts is the CEO worldwide of The Lovemarks Company, Saatchi & Saatchi. For more information on Kevin, please go to www.saatchikevin.com. To see this blog at its original source, please go to www.krconnect.blogspot.com.

Elizabeth Gilbert Thinks Differently About Creative Genius

Here is an interesting video of Elizabeth Gilbert speaking about the impossible things we expect from geniuses and artists. She also shares the radical idea that all of us "have" a genius. It's well worth the time investment.

Check it out:



What do you think?

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