When first prompted with this assignment I was nervous. With this being such a broad topic I didn't know where to start but I knew I would figure something out. I decided that if I didn't know it would be easiest to just start by asking any questions I have going into the process. I wrote them all out below.

How am I going to make a physical prototype? How am I going to use the heuristics? Who am I as a creative person? What are my creative beliefs? How am I going to come up with ideas for a prototype? What if I can’t think of anything I like? How long is this going to take me? Will I be able to get all the materials for this project? How am I going to be able to make time to work on this project? How can I involve a C4 in this process? How can I use six hats to come up with ideas for this project? How am I going to consolidate all my values? Will I be able to finish before the deadline? Will I need to buy things from the store? Am I going to need to ship things to the house? How will I come up with the text content for the manifesto? How am I going to organize all the text? How can I show that I took a risk? Will my idea be something that is out of the box? Who is going to help me on this project? Am I going to make a mess? How am I going to use problem statements in creating manifesto? How am I going to schedule my time to work on this? Where is this going to live in my life? Am I going to make a digital component for the manifesto? How am I going to display my process? Should I make a video to show a time lapse process? How am I going to document my process? Will I run into any problems in creating my prototype? Am I going to have to change ideas last minute? Am I going to work on this over Thanksgiving? Will I be able to get work done at home over break I can’t at school? What if I struggle to find a way to document my process? What am I going to use to write out all of the words? Will I buy things I need over Thanksgiving? What if I can’t figure out a good way to organize the text? What if I miss the deadline? How am I going to show how I will be creative going forward? How do I intend to live a creative life? How can I ideate lots of ideas for personal values and beliefs? Should I include personal beliefs as well as creative beliefs? Am I going to use this in my future career as a cool thing to hang? Will I need to have anything commissioned for this project? Will my family help me with this project? Will I ask friends and family about me as a creative person? Am I going to need to build things? What tools am I going to use? How will I find people to help me work on this project? Will I need to buy anything? Am I going to hurt myself while creating manifesto? How am I going to determine my beliefs? Who could help me on this project? What if I have to take an extension on this project? Is my manifesto going to hang on the wall? Am I going to hang it in my room? How long am I going to keep my manifesto before changing it? Am I going to have these same values a year from now? Will I continue to live a creative life? Will I inspire others around me to do the same? Is my manifesto going to be a physical place? Will I take my manifesto home over break? What if I destroy it the day before it’s due? Will I show enough of my process? Am I going to include enough reflection? Will my friends think my manifesto is cool? Am I going to need any staff members' help? Will my friends help me put together my project? Will I make new versions in the coming years? Will it still feel just as personal a year from now? How do I live creatively currently? What are ways I can be more creative in my life now? Am I going to encourage people to live creatively around me? Will I be happy with the final product? Will I wish I could have done more? Am I going to create something I will remember? Is it going to be meaningful to me?

With this session I am trying to determine my creative beliefs as well as how I am going to live creatively going forward. I also want to determine where I am creative in my life currently and what is a detriment to my creative process. Using this information I plan on grouping and theming my results to better understand the question behind the question and determine what I really value in regards to creativity in my life.

First thoughts that come to mind
Creativity can be seen everywhere It is a mindset Allows you to fully express yourself Creativity is personal Makes people unique Everyone is creative Can be expressed in many different ways It is practiced Is defined by a person's beliefs and values

When do I have most fin being creative in my life?
Working on physical projects Working with my friends or people I am close with When I am having fun in that environment Playing tennis When something is a game Writing my set Doing something I’m passionate about Drawing Cooking food Putting together class projects Designing apps Creating websites Organizing my room Picking out my outfits Playing soccer Ping pong shots Hitting serves Playing golf Talking to my friends Preparing food Laying out and optimizing computer Building pc When I’m in nature Conversing with people daily When I can be myself fully When I am surrounded by my family Work that affects the people I care about Able to be yourself and not feel judged

When I was grouping and theming I noticed that a lot of the things I put down had to do with me doing something to be creative. Which makes sense, but this was different than my thoughts on being myself. This is a theme that carries true through anything I am doing to be creative. When I am comfortable and able to be myself in any situation I am able to work more creatively.

What makes my creative process a struggle?
Feeling overwhelmed Outside things causing me to stress Other problems causing my mind to wander Getting hung up on ideas Not wanting to move on from old ideas Having to accept some things won’t work and adapt going forward Can be hard to come up with lots of ideas Time constraints and deadlines Willingness to fail and completely start over Temptations and peer pressure Self-doubt and negatively Lack of motivation Outside ideas at times Comments from other people on my work Too many people around me

When looking for themes in my black hat ideas there were several that stood out. One of the big ones was overstimulation being a large factor in limiting my creative process. This is something I have known and it makes sense that I wrote a lot of related things down. Another interesting theme that looking back makes a lot of sense was my unwillingness to move on from old ideas or risk starting new. Something I have always wrestled with has been getting attached to my ideas when I feel I am in too deep. It can be scary to start over or move in a completely different direction and this is something I need to work on. Something I also found was that internal pressures and my VOJ also hurt my creative process. Over time I have gotten better at managing these things that stress me out but it is a continual process.

What are my creative beliefs? How do I live creatively now? What is my why?
When I am able to be my true self When I don’t feel judged at all When I am able to express myself In the way I approach problems in my life The way in which I express myself The way I talk to people Providing an example to peers Constantly creating Always make an effort to try new things Push myself out of comfort zone Thinking differently Stimulating myself differently Always seeking new experiences Push myself to do things I don’t want to Discipline Forcing myself to create Creating solid habits Make a habit of committing to creating See the world differently Never stop laughing Don’t compare yourself to others Hold yourself to high standards Break down your walls Don’t get the best of yourself Don’t doubt yourself Take your time Seek inspiration in those around you Never stop learning Be kind to yourself I can do anything I put my mind to Hard work pays off Devote yourself to your craft Make a habit of creating Ask the questions that nobody does Look for inspiration around you Fall in love with the process Take risks

When going through my green hat ideas there were several themes I came up with. The personal stance section features things I consider to be personal values of mine related to creativity that aren’t just generic reminders. I plan on incorporating ideas from each theme into my manifesto based on what I think is most important to me. I already know that I definitely will be using a lot more of the ideas from the personal stance section because those are the most important to me.

I liked the thought of incorporating some of my black hat ideas as reminders to myself in my manifesto. I thought about these themes some more and wrote down any ideas I had on paper.

I kept brainstorming and adding to my list over the course of a couple of days as I thought of more things I could add based off of the themes and ideas I already had a groundwork for.

I knew that I wanted my manifesto to be something that was meaningful and personal to me. To do this I knew I wanted to somehow invoke my passions and/or creative outlets in my life. I decided to ideate and conduct a C4 to find something I could work with.

Golfing, Humor, Tennis, Writing, Clothing, Friends, Family, Self-improvement, Reading, MMA, Ping-pong, Food, Fantasy football, College football, UFC, The Browns, Blue Jackets, Ohio State Buckeyes, Comedy, History, Design, Technology, Video games,

Golfing, Humor, Tennis, Writing, Friends, Family, Self-improvement, Food, Ohio State Buckeyes, Comedy,

Tennis, Writing, Golfing, Humor, Self-improvement,

Tennis, Writing, Golfing,

Use the balls to spell something, Take felt off of the balls, Use the strings to spell things, Write the manifesto on the strings, Write on the outside of racquet, Use the tape from a court, Take off sections from a net, Use the net cord, Use the net tape, Incorporate the overgrip, Ground up tennis balls, Wood chippings from old racquet, Use of clay court material, Use of grass court, Combine elements of all three courts,

Have the format be in notes, Format like a notebook, Writing a book, Creating a magazine, Writing a poem, Writing my manifesto as a joke, Funky text and fonts, Written as a short story, Made on a pencil, Written as a receipt, Made with invisible ink, Spelled with pencils, Hidden inside a pencil/pen, Written as a pocket notebook, Looks like a movie poster,

Use the balls to spell something, Engraved on a golf ball, Use tees to spell something, Tees as a frame, Written on a club, Written on a club head, Made out of a bag, Each club in bag has different message, Use shafts to make a frame, Use shafts to spell words, Written on a golf shirt, Made out of a golf cart,

After ideating these three things I stepped back and thought about which of them was really important to me. Golf is something that I recently started doing for fun and it's something I enjoy doing but it isn’t me. Writing comedy seemed too broad and it's also only something I am really starting to get into doing. Tennis is something that I found a little later in life and has become my obsession. Having taught myself to play, the solo progression to now playing on the college club team has been really impactful to my life in many ways. The sport has taught me a lot and because of this I decided that I wanted to incorporate it somehow into my manifesto. My next step was to ideate more ideas before looking over them all and converging.

Use the balls to spell something, Take felt off of the balls, Use the strings to spell things, Write the manifesto on the strings, Write on the outside of racquet, Use the tape from a court, Take off sections from a net, Use the net cord, Use the net tape, Incorporate the overgrip, Ground up tennis balls, Wood chippings from old racquet, Use of clay court material, Use of grass court, Combine elements of all three courts, Make a board to write on out of racquets, Draw it in clay on the dirt, Make a song out of hitting balls, Made in shape of a court, Drawn on the lines of a court, Made on an actual court, Use old can tops for background, Spell using old cans, Background made of container metal part, Words in the shape of a racquet, Words in the shape of a ball, Words in the shape of a court, Made on a pair of court shoes, Written on the laces,

After doing some more ideating I was happy with everything I had done, but knew that some of them wouldn’t be possible to actually do. I knew I wanted to do something that would be fun, so I asked the convergence question,

Use the balls to spell something, Use the strings to spell things, Write the manifesto on the strings, Write on the outside of racquet, Ground up tennis balls, Wood chippings from old racquet, Combine elements of all three courts, Draw it in clay on the dirt, Make a song out of hitting balls, Drawn on the lines of a court, Made on an actual court, Background made of container metal part, Words in the shape of a court, Made on a pair of court shoes,

As I said before, I don’t think it would be possible for me to actually go through some of these ideas like making it out of a physical tennis court. This is why I next asked,

Use the balls to spell something, Use the strings to spell things, Write on the outside of racquet, Words in the shape of a court, Made on a pair of court shoes,

When looking at these last five ideas I decided I was just going to pick my favorite and what I was most excited about, which was writing on the outside of a racquet.

My first thought was to write the words around the outside and top of a modern racquet, but after thinking about that more it wouldn’t really be possible. I then thought about how I could use an old wooden racquet so that I could have more room to work with. I knew I had several of these in my room back at home, so over break I looked at one and thought about how I could make it work.

I looked back over everything I had written down and marked a star next to everything that I thought was most personal and important to me.