The Importance of Creativity and Design in Society
Repost. Originally Posted Aug 31 2018.
“Manage am like that now!" "Nothing do am and e fine for your body sef!” the tailor said impatiently, to the customer. The customer, who was slowly losing her temper, tried again patiently,
“The seam is not straight and that creates a bump on the side when I wear it, I need you to fix it, so it looks flat”. It was her third attempt at making the tailor do the right thing and fix several mistakes he'd made with the design of the outfit. There were not a lot of good tailors around the small town where she lived and she had entrusted him with her overpriced fabric, because he enthusiastically sold her on how wonderful his creations were. Unfortunately, his attitude and carelessness was aggravating to say the least, and she was running out of options.
The tailor angrily takes the clothing from the customer and went away to fix the annoying bump in the seam, grumbling the whole time.
For the tailor above, his work is not a craft that he takes pride in, or proudly puts his name on, he couldn’t be bothered to find new creative designs and innovative ways to improve on his art or manufacturing processes, it was just the means to an end and the least amount of time he spent on one item, the better for him, so he could collect his money and move on to the next project. A customer insisting on near perfection was just a nuisance, he didn't have the patience for that. He neither had growth or consideration for the impact, this seemingly small task could have in the future, if he just learned to provide quality products and excellent service at an affordable price.
Blocks of creative Lego pieces
In Nigeria, while there are a number of people doing their best to create crafts or provide services that they can proudly put their names behind, the vast majority just see their daily endeavor as a subsistence livelihood, often handled carelessly, that goes no further than the moment they find themselves in. This is why we rarely see or buy anything that says “Made in Nigeria” on the label.
From the ancient Nok civilization, the Egyptian, the Greeks, the renaissance, to the French and American revolutions, the one factor that is constant in the growth of these eras and societies, has been the ideas and creativity spawned within them. Today, we go to historic spots and museums to admire the crafts, creativity and designs of ancient times, that speaks of an era where dedication and quality was paramount and an embodiment of the mindset of the society.
We are able to fly across the Atlantic under 24 hours, communicate with a friend or relative a continent away - with just the dial of a button. The things we take for granted today, like cars, cell phones, Wi-Fi, electricity, indoor plumbing, innovative technologies in diagnosis and treating diseases, were all products of someone’s creative imagination and design that started small and grew into a worldwide phenomenon, through dedication and years of hard work with focused attention to detail and continuous improvement.
Every society comes with its own blend of unique challenges, whether in terms of needs in governance, health care, infrastructure, education, asset exploration (utilization and management) and for all of these challenges, creativity is the machine that drives the progress and growth of each society and how they choose to tackle the tasks ahead of them. When a society encourages the growth and development of design, it empowers its citizens to look within its shores for solutions, it inspires competition and utilization of intelligent output within the society, along with a renewed sense of purpose and pride that comes with the ability to improve on existing standards of creativity or to create new things.
When design is focused on the needs of the local community where it is developed, it sets a standard of expectation for the people. It creates jobs and growth opportunities and adds value to the society, More importantly, it not only establishes a reputation of relevance as the origin of creative and worthwhile ideas of the future for that society, but also shapes the philosophical ideologies of the people and serves to put them on the map as creators and idea leaders.
Identifying challenges in the society and coming up with creative solution reveals the level of brilliance and intellectual engagement that lies within the society and showcases what the citizenry are capable of achieving. Now more than ever in Nigeria, creative thinking and artistic engagements are critical because it is closely linked to our ability to solve problems, freely express ourselves, critical introspection and achieve self-actualization.
Creativity, arguably the building blocks of any nations social, economic, and political success, is often hindered by a lack of support, either from private individuals, entrepreneurs and civil authorities in the country, that places no priory in the education and intellectual development of its people. When a society is dependent on only one way of reasoning or problem solving, it limits its capabilities. Divergent thinking that generates a variety of ideas and solutions with an experimental approach, needs to be encouraged. Community interaction and feedback are also essential, as the products and outcomes, are a reflection of the communities the emerge from.
Every society that seeks a change for the better, needs creative thinkers, performers and achievers in all aspects of life, whose voices can be heard above everyday noise, people who can tackle complex challenges and develop innovative solutions to solve the kind of open-ended, unscripted problems we face in the real world.
As Nigerians, being unafraid to share our ideas and creativity with the world should be encouraged and aggressively supported, we must not let the fear of failure stop us from taking that crucial step to actualize our dream. We must step forward from the comfort of the familiar and make the bold move to recreate and redefine our country.
A lack of creativity is a lack of imagination and only a dying society lacks imagination.