Applied Resilience Engineering, innovation, UX

Idea Machine

Posted by chad calease on

One of the many things I’m grateful for is the way my young son unknowingly shows me the value of iterating using a limited set of materials and parameters. Does it always lead to something innovative? Not always but it often enough does.

He’s inspired me with a brilliantly simple but challenging idea he had: to draw a unique napkin for his lunch each day. We started by using a few colored markers and our imaginations.

Silly?  Maybe but this silly exercise has translated into serious value in other parts of my life, opening my heart and mind to new and more diverse approaches to solutions both personally and professionally. Not to mention, his ideas have given my drawing practice a boost and it’s impossible to not be inspired by the power of a young mind’s natural gifts for collaboration.

When he kept asking, I thought we’d run out of ideas pretty quick. Here we are, more than 4 years later, and our idea machine (only I call it that) has become a prolific part of our lives that gives us great joy.

I don’t always remember to take pictures of them but here are some favorites (out of literally hundreds by now):

A big, smokey explosion with stuff flying everywhere that says BOOM, drawn on a white napkin with a black marker.
“Daddy, today will you please draw an explosion for me? A smokey one with stuff flying everywhere that goes BOOM?”
A dandelion with seeds being blown into the wind, drawn on a white napkin with blue marker.
And, “Will you please draw a blue dandelion with some seeds blowing away in the wind, daddy?”
A rocketship drawn on a white napkin with fire coming out of the engine and you can see the Earth.
“Daddy, will you please draw a rocket ship for me? With fire coming out of the engine + you can see the Earth?”
“Daddy, how about a chicken dressed up like a pumpkin for Halloween?”
A giant squid drawn on a white napkin with a black marker.
“Daddy, today will you please draw a giant squid that’s white? Just by itself, daddy!”
A black bomb drawn on a white napkin with a red, yellow and orange lit wick.
“Daddy, would you please draw a bomb for me? Because I think you’re the bomb, daddy!”
Merry Christmas, daddy
“Daddy, it’s Christmas time! Will you please draw Rudolph for me?”
T Rex
“Daddy, how about today you draw a T-Rex!”
blue. smiling shark
“Will you please draw a friendly, blue shark, daddy? And he’s smiling at us!”
ice mountains with Moon and stars
“Daddy, today please draw some ice mountains and the Moon and stars are shining!”

And, I’m especially in love with the moments when he challenges me to draw things that are way outside my comfort zone with ideas from the imaginations of great artists who’ve inspired us all:

Charles Schulz' Woodstock. His yellow head and shoulders drawn on a white napkin.
“Daddy, will you please draw Woodstock for me today?”

“Daddy, how about you draw Hobbes?”

“Hey, dad! I know! Draw Beaker!”
“Daddy, can you draw Donald Duck, please? He’s kinda hard.”
“Just keep swimming! Draw Dory, daddy!”
“Okay, daddy, today please draw Wall-E.”

This is a long-winded way to reiterate it’s the unexpected things (and my son, of course) that inspire me the most.  Best part? He’s begun to draw along (heart melts).