Dictionary (1992, p, 444)
“Imagination – (the part of the mind responsible for) the ability to form or act of forming mental images of things, etc. one has not seen or of which one has no direct perception or knowledge.”
I think that imagination is crucial to the formation of creativity and it takes imagination to form these original ideas. The ‘chambers dictionary’ definition reinforces this idea by saying that imagination is needed in order to have the ‘ability to form’ original ideas. I think that the model below reflects my individual perspective on the links between imagination, creativity and innovation.
- Imagination is the basis for creativity
- Creativity uses original ideas to infect innovation
- Innovation is a reflection of original ideas
- Innovation for a company, is when something is new to that company
Gundry (2007, p. 37), in his ‘Opportunity Identification Process’, uses a light-bulb to represent the concept of ‘idea generation’, which is a method transportation in my eyes for imagination. Thus there are theoretical authors which support this notion of ‘imagination is creativity’ which I have suggested.
Berys Gaut on Imagination and Creativity
‘Imagination is used virtually as a synonym for the ability to engage in creative thought’
From Gaut’s article I extracted the sentence above. Gaut agrees with the idea that imagination and creativity are closely interlinked. On the right hand side is the ‘links’ page, where you can access the whole report on the link between imagination and creativity by Berys Gaut. The article gives an in-depth exploration to how the two can be explained.
Gaut posses pleanty of real life examples which gives credibility to how the two concepts interlink. From chess players who use their imagination of what moves may come ahead, to how people within the arts sectors use their imagination in order to be creative in their output. For example a painter is likely to imagine what the results of his painting will look like, and by employing this imagination they are therefore being creative in their work. (Gaut, 2003, p, 276)
This explanation of an artist using his imagination to be creative can be applied to the business world. In marketing many companies have to create storyboards for television adverts and it is the imagination’s of the people in marketing that produce these creative ads. Like the ‘Budweiser’ storyboard example below.
Reference List
Catherine Schwartz. 1992. Chambers Dictionary. W & R Chambers Ltd. Edinburgh.
Lisa K. Gundry and Jill R. Kickul. 2007. Entrepreneurship Strategy. Sage Publication Ltd. London.
Gaut, B. and Livingston, P. 2003. Creativity and Imagination
Available from: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/file.php/3187/!via/oucontent/course/61/reading6.pdf
Image available from:
http://victoriarenwick.wordpress.com/2011/02/18/chapter-65-inception-in-my-book/
Accessed on 19/12/2011
Image available from:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/steveschoeffel/4277131870/
Accessed on 19/12/2011
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