DESIGN

The 5 levels of creativity

This article may help you have another perspective on creativity and know your level of creativity.

Illustration by Foxy

What is creativity? It’s a hard question for those who are working in our creative industry. If you Google this question, you’ll find tons of answers such as:

• Creativity is to create something new.
• Creativity is about connecting the dots together.
• Creativity is to think of an idea or a new product.

I personally prefer the definition below:

“Creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing.”
- creativityatwork.com

It means if you have a bold idea but do not have the capacity to implement it, what a pity for the idea itself.

“If you have ideas but don’t act on them, you are imaginative but not creative.”
- Linda Naiman

Thus, creativity is not just thinking about an idea but also turning it into reality. Personally, I think there are 5 different levels of creativity:

Level 1: Copy

Copying an artwork or a user interface design is still creativity. This is the lowest level of creativity, and should only be applied for training or practicing purposes. We should not use the output at this level for commercial use or claim that the idea is created by our own.

Level 2: Copy + Modify

To level up, we can’t merely copy something but rather modify it to fit the context of use. This means we have to start putting our thoughts into the creation of the work. Output at this level is…