"Think Outside the Box"

While stumbling around on the internet, I came across this cartoon that made me laugh a lot. It wasn’t just because the message was delivered in a humorous and ironic way; it was because the whole image was put together in such a simple and straightforward way that it is almost impossible to mistake its intent.

I found this cartoon on the Wilmington Design Company’s website. The author of the post entitled Creativity: what it is and how to get it and the cartoonist is Carolyn Pikoulas. The article was interesting and provided numerous examples of ways to stimulate your creativity by journaling and freewriting and is worth reading when you have a spare ten minutes or so. I digress.

The cartoon is aimed toward the world’s populace, more specifically to individuals who have difficulty accessing their creative spirit. Pikoulas’s take on the cliché “Think outside the box” shows that creativity is not as seemingly effortless as some people believe it to be. The close proximity of open box and the frustrated young man give the audience a sense that he is straining to think creatively. The bleak monochromatic color scheme combined with the caption “This isn’t working” gives the viewer a sense of the character’s frustration with his situation.

Without the context of the article on creativity, someone could see this image as a left-brained person’s critique of creativity and complaint about its inaccessibility. Overall I think the cartoon conveys its message very well, but it is the caption that clarifies its intent to the audience.

I think everyone can empathize with this cartoon weather in a creative sense or not. We’ve all run into road blocks when working on school assignments or projects for our jobs. It’s a fairly universal feeling, particularly since the more you hear the phrase “think outside the box,” the more you want to slap the person who says it. At least, that’s how I feel.

Cartoon by Carolyn Pikoulas - http://www.wilmingtondesignco.com/index/c/procrastinator-news/article/63/