Are you paying attention?

Houda Boulahbel

Crash Course in Creativity

November 2012

Hello!

Welcome to my second CCC assignment.

I was a little naughty and did not follow

the instructions to the letter.

I am a commuting Londoner, always

rushing from one place to another with

my nose in a book or a magazine, and

definitely NOT paying attention! So

instead of going into different stores, I

decided to pay more attention to the

places that I pass daily. I invite you to join

me on a short journey to see what I

discovered...

7.45 AM

I leave home for

work. On my way

to the underground

station, I notice the

little old man that hands me a copy of the metro every morning.

He takes the bus for just one stop to the underground station.

That’s less than 100m! And then I notice how much of an effort

he makes to stand at the door of the station and hand out the

newspapers, with a very wide smile! Note to self: stop being so

cranky in the morning!

8.45 AM

Paddington underground station…The worst part of my commute

IS not having to stand in a crowded train, or having to change

route because of some delay. It is trying to go out of

Paddington. Every day, I have to stand in a massive queue to get

out of the station.

Today, I Paid attention and I reAliSed why! It’s eaSier if I draw it..

Now imagine what would happen if they inverted the gates:

If they switched the gates, I would be able to have an extra 15

mins in bed!!!

Anyway, I’d better get gOing, I still need to get to work…

9.00 AM

At work…

I work in a healthcare advertising agency, and we share the

building with a

design firm. I

walk around the

building, and I

come

across this:

In fact, our

neighbours

have a big

doodle wall, and

plenty other

interesting

things that they

have invited us

to contribute to.

It turns out their creative

wall is a brilliant

conversation starter! I

made new friends today!

some of them will even

checking out the CCC

course

I then noticed that we have a similar space, except that our wall

is empty!

1.00 PM

I really need to pop out to the bank. I have been postponing it for

days, just because it would take a while to walk there, or even

take the tube. But since it’s not raining today (for a change!), I

make the effort.

I laughed my head off when I left the office, because just outside:

I walk past these every day! And I never noticed them before!

At this point, I feel a little ashamed of my lack of observation.

But the trip to the bank takes no time at all!!!!

6.00 PM

On the tube again. This time at Kennington station.

It’s very ugly

Most of the tube stations are covered in adverts. This one was

bare, neglected, it felt very grim and a little depressing.

I thought about the adverts and then thought some art would be

quite nice.

May be they can get some new budding artists to decorate the

station.

What if they got them to audition, like they do with the buskers?

By the way, London buskers have an audience of about 3.5

million…

What if, in the same way buskers change continuously, the

artists would change too?

So every now and again, you would see something completely

different.

You might get inspired.

You might start to pay more attention!

The question is:

Have YOU paid attention?

If you have, then you would have found Einstein’s quote on

creativity inside this very assignment…

If you haven’t, here’s a hint:

It’s good to be bold, to think LARGE and small and to appreciate

colour!

Thank you for your attention