Creativity Apps
These are the apps and tools I love to use to stay organized and to store all the ideas I get every day.
Design Tools
Some useful open-source tools
Everyday Tools for
accessible Brand design
There is a great tool you can use for your designer every day life. Do you want to create workshop with your team, I just find best practice to create accessible and color blind friendly brand
Color Blind Friendly Palettes
Dos and don'ts on designing for accessibility
Books & Audiobooks:
Well, being dyslexic I « read » only audiobooks. I will share with you some I have listened to recently plus some videos in case you don’t want to process them or you want to have an idea of the information you can get from them. Here’s a list of books, audiobooks and talks that have helped me in my career and that you can watch online.
CREATIVITY & LEADERSHIP
"First why and then trust". I think that asking Why? is the first step to everything in life. Be curious don't be scared to ask why! - By Simon Sinek
It's up to us to make genuine marketing.
Godin offers the core of his marketing wisdom in one compact, accessible, and timeless package. This Is Marketing shows you how to do work you're proud of, whether you're a tech start-up founder, a small-business owner, or part of a large corporation. By Seth Godin
From three design partners at Google Ventures, a unique five-day process for going from problem to prototype.
Book | Audiobook | Masterclass
Art direction explained,
at last!
Offers an introduction to what art direction is and what art directors do. This book covers the role of art director in numerous environments, including magazines and newspapers, advertising, corporate identity, museums and publishing. It also provides perspectives on typography, illustration and photography.
Guide for leaders across industries that want to push creativity towards a tangible outcome. By Scott Belsky, Co-Founder of Behance
Stop doing busywork. Start doing your best work. The world has changed and the way we work has to change, too. With wisdom from 20 leading creative minds, Manage Your Day-to-Day will give you a toolkit for tackling the new challenges of a 24/7, always-on workplace. By Jocelyn Glei
DIVERSITY & DESIGN
The book I would have loved to write! I'm so excited and thankful that it exists! Senongo Akpem shares a clear and accessible methodology for designing across cultures.
Design for
Cognitive Bias
Understand the logic powering human bias and learn to start designing more consciously.
Multicultural Intelligence:
Eight Make-or-Break Rules for Marketing to Race, Ethnicity, and Sexual Orientation
With decades of experience in multicultural marketing, author David Morse reviews the history of marketing to black, Hispanic, Asian, and LGBT (mostly lesbian and gay) consumers. He explains how including appropriate cultural cues in advertising can build brand loyalty that will pay huge dividends. He also cautions that missing the mark with advertising that excludes or is culturally offensive can be a costly mistake.
Extra Bold is the inclusive, practical, and informative (design) career guide for everyone!
Part textbook and part comic book, zine, manifesto, survival guide, and self-help manual, Extra Bold is filled with stories and ideas that don't show up in other career books or design overviews.
I finished Kat Holmes's audiobook "Mismatch How Inclusion Shapes Design". The "Love story" Chapter got my attention the most "...Love is a common trait in the creation of Inclusive solutions. Some stories centered around a person who is personally affected by a mismatched design..." I totally related.
And it's very inspiring for me to learn that the book "was written to be an audiobook", using Dragon, a speech-to-text translation software program.
After the first lecture, I realized the influence of the African culture in my education. Especially the notion of the family. We were raised with a collectivist mindset even if we were influenced every day by 2 individualist cultures American and French.
Explore the mythologies of Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Learn what makes these stories so important, distinctive, and able to withstand the test of time. Discover how, despite geographical implausibilities, many myths from across the oceans share themes, morals, and archetypes.
Online classes
Here are some great online classes I have used to improve my efficiency and my proficiency with application tools. Or to learn new digital techniques. I’ve even learned to play the ukulele. We are lucky to live in a period where we can learn anything at home. I just need time and motivation. Be curious !
Domestika
Domestika is for me the #1 learning platform for creative people. You will find very talented artists from all over the world sharing their personal techniques, a platform for the largest community of creative professionals. On Domestika they can share their projects, contribute to and learn from forums, connect with other artists and find employment.
Online learning experiences from IDEO. IDEO U equips you with creative problem-solving skills, easy-to-use tools, and leadership mindsets to stay resilient in our fast-changing modern world
Conferences
Be curious! We don't know what we don't know! I'm always looking for new things to learn to push my creative edge.
People/Companies/Podcast to Follow
These are the apps that I use every day and cannot live without or create without. I use pretty much every tool out there depending on the project so don’t have real strong favorites there.
PODCAST
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The Crazy One is created out of the real experiences and insights that host and award-winning design leader Stephen Gates who gives you actionable insights to be more creative, become a better leader, create more innovative work, build better relationships with your clients, grow a stronger career and more.
The Cognitive Bias podcast explores the world of things we do that don't make any rational sense, one bias at a time.
ORGANISATIONS
Through creative educational workshops, consulting, facilitation, and tools, we help all professionals hone their creativity to solve problems in the face of change and complexity.
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CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE, or CQ, is a globally recognized way of assessing and improving effectiveness in culturally diverse situations. It’s rooted in rigorous, academic research conducted across more than 100 countries.
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Solutions for dyslexics
My dyslexia strategy is basically using technology: voice messages, copy-pasting readymade emails, audiobooks, and Text-to-Speech for reading. I also have post-it around my deck with my favorite difficult words to spell-like "research" or "people". But what I've found most effective recently is to speak out and ask for support. When you take time to communicate your struggles you will find more support than judgment.
Certified dyslexic logo
from now on I will sign my emails with the logo that Justine Vilgrain created. This logo will help to stop the apprehension and will show the reader why the email may look different than another email.
Voice dictation on MAC
Macs have voice dictation built-in, allowing you to talk instead of type. To use voice dictation in an application on your Mac, first select a text field in an application. Next, press the Fn (Function) key twice or click the Edit menu and select Start Dictation. Speak to your Mac and the words you speak will start appearing in the text field.