Tag Archives: Creativity

A Cool New Product

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Let’s face it, your cooler is pretty boring. Well, there’s a Kickstarter out there set to make your cooler become the focus of your weekend in the sun – fittingly, it’s called The Coolest.

The Coolest is way more than just an old school cooler. It comes with built in bluetooth speakers, a blender, a cutting board, storage for plates and a knife, a phone charger, and more. It truly is all you could need for a picnic, day at the beach, boat cruise, you name it this cooler has everything you need.

The Kickstarter has already tripled it’s fundraising goal and the cooler is projected to ship this fall. We love to see creative innovation on everyday products, and this is truly a cool one.

What Sparks our Fire: Seeing innovation on an everyday product that has remained untouched for decades.

What is your favorite feature of The Coolest?

Under the Dome

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The weather may not always be your best friend. Sometimes it’s just too hot, too cold, or too rainy, which can often ruin a perfectly good day. Dubai is setting out to tackle this issue with their proposed plan to build The Mall of the World. This project is more than a big mall, it’s a 48 million square foot city. All of the streets and outdoor attractions will be fully enclosed and climate controlled. Additional features include 100 hotels and luxury apartments and the world’s largest indoor amusement park.

Tourists will be happy to know that everything is housed inside, as Dubai temperatures average an unbearable 107 degrees in the summer. During the winter, when the temperature falls to a not-so-chilly 73 degrees, the roads and other outdoor areas will open allowing for a natural breeze of fresh air.

Who knows what the world’s first indoor city could inspire moving forward. While it could eerily remind you of the CBS show, Under the Dome, The Mall of the World seems like a positive direction for indoor cities and demonstrates one viable solution to global warming. But for now, I am happy I don’t need to entirely leave New York City just to get outside.

What Sparks our Fire: The possible implications that indoor cities can have on the future.

What do you think are the possibilities of a completely indoor city?

Say Goodbye to Cash

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Okay, so maybe this only applies to those attending Lollapalooza this summer. It isn’t officially time to rid ourselves of those green bills just yet. But, that does seem like a reality we are getting even closer to.

It was just announced that attendees of the three day music festival will be given wristbands to replace their wallets. Festival attendees will log their credit card information into a system and receive a bracelet using near-field connectivity technology allowing them to touch their wrist to the screen, enter a pin number and make a payment at all vendors. The wristband also function as the entry ticket for attendees so there is no way around not having one.

This is a great move forward for mobile payment systems. Not only does it make it easier for concert goers not to have to worry about carrying cash and credit cards around with them, but it’s a great sign for the future uses of devices like smartwatches. We could be approaching a time where something like a wristband will completely replace the credit card and leave cash even further behind in the dust.

What Sparks our Fire: Seeing an organization take advantage of new technologies and paving the way for innovative payment gateways at music festivals.

Where do you see the future of payments going?

Inspiration, Caffeination

I find I’ve been thinking a lot about ideas and where they come from. I personally do my best writing when I’m in a certain state of mind, and the ideas and concepts flow and almost create themselves. This state of mind for me is usually caused by caffeine.

Many of the successes I’ve had in the field of writing have been a result of the kick in the pants coffee offers, and I took to the internet to research the science behind it. During this search I found the blog I <3 Coffee, and a wonderful infographic on how both coffee and beer affect the creative idea and inspiration process. In order to better harness your creative ability, check it out below.

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And, of course, everything in moderation. Except coffee.

What Sparks Our Fire: It could be coffee, beer, naps, or music. Whatever it takes to get those creative juices flowing.

How do you get in a creative mindset?

Wait, wait, don’t tell me!

day dreaming1We have all been there. It’s late in the day you’re feeling tired, so your mind begins to wander. New research suggests that daydreaming is totally normal and is actually encouraged to exercise a healthy mind. According to research psychologist Peter Killeen, “Your neurons can fire for a while with the energy they have inside, but not for long: After a dozen seconds, each neuron needs more energy.” If your brain does not have enough energy, your neurons will fire more slowly and your chances of focusing on one thing quickly decrease.

How do we deal with the wandering? One way is to recognize that you have a finite attention window and to structure your workflow to match that same capacity. In other words, to be the most productive and creative it’s best to work in a series of bursts and unplug throughout the workday. By switching tasks we can delay mental fatigue. It’s a way of being creative,” says Killeen. “It’s a way of giving the linear programming, engineering, hard core work in the brain a break.”

What sparked our fire: Creative problem solving completed by creating unique contexts around each problem.

Is this solution enough to combat the addiction to multi-tasking that we already see in millennials?

Enjoy!

-Canopy Team