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If we push ourselves to our limits, we find out who we really are. For an example of what happens when you drive your work to extremes, look no further than Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty. The exhibition has just opened at the V&A Museum in London following an astonishing success at New York’s Metropolitan Museum. The exhibition showcases McQueen’s visionary body of fashion design.
Alexander McQueen was a product of Central St Martins College of Art where I lecture on creative thinking. Only St Martins could have produced someone as innovative as McQueen because it champions originality and innovation. The other day Kanye West paid St Martins a visit - he wanted to find out what it is that St Martins do that brings out the originality and creativity that everyone contains but often lies dormant.
Creative thinking can be learnt – I know because I teach it. McQueen and other great creative thinkers are examined in my new book The Art of Creative Thinking in which I share the insights into developing creative processes that I pass on to my students. I explain how McQueen’s originality was the product of the way he was taught to think at St Martins.
One of McQueen’s processes was to push his work to extremes. What’s the most extreme material? The most extreme model? The most extreme catwalk show? He found the thing he was good at simply by being as excessive as possible. Many people never connect with their real talents and fail to attain their potential because they don’t push what they do to the limits.
His fashion shows, for instance, introduced theatrical extremes to the catwalk - a volcanic catwalk that erupted into flames, a catwalk filled with water, a robot spray painting a dress and a giant Plexiglas snowstorm. He caused controversy when double amputee Aimee Mullins modeled on the catwalk wearing a pair of carved wooden prosthetic legs he had designed.
One of the simplest methods of creative thinking is - whatever your field - see what happens if you push your work to extremes. It will make your work stand out. One person who is prepared to be excessive can achieve more in an hour than fifty reasonable people can achieve in a year.
This article is based on a chapter from The Art of Creative Thinking copyright Rod Judkins
