WHAT IMAGES TEACH US ABOUT INNOVATION
LEONARDO da Vinci

Vitruvian Man

1492

Pen, ink,

watercolour and metalpoint on paper

34.3 x 24.5 cm

Gallerie de l’Accademia, Venice

Robert Delaunay 

Formes circulaires, Soleil n° 2

1912 – 1913

Peinture à la colle sur toile

100 x 68,5 cm

Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris

Businesses cannot thrive on spreadsheets alone. Creativity is also vital for successful entrepreneurship, competition, and managing changing industries. Creative thinking is the spark that leads to new and better services and improved processes or goods. However, the current marketplace’s intense pressure to be innovative can often be more stressful than exciting. In this climate, how can a business manufacture creativity? One answer is to look for new sources of inspiration. Art can provide new ways to understand, spark, and renew creativity, but artists themselves must also seek inspiration. Even valuable masterpieces are never completely new. Artists find inspiration in what has come before them, picking from other patterns, shapes, forms, composition, and even topics. Imitation, transformation, inclusion, and finding new ways to associate preexisting elements are the key components of even the most “revolutionary” innovation, whether in art or in other fields.