INSPIRED! : The Joy of Street Creativity

Street creativity is imaginative problem solving through the use of the things that happen to be at hand. This book celebrates these inventive acts by bringing together more than a thousand examples spotted over the last twenty years.

These improvised acts are raw creativity, mostly by untrained designers at zero or very little cost, tackling problems in ingenious ways and featuring highly original uses of objects and surroundings. The book inspires readers to see and use things in new and smarter ways by revealing original and exciting new perspectives. In this book we see some problems that have been solved through improvisation in immediate on-the-spot reactions to circumstance, there are also results achieved after meditation on a problem prior to assembling a solution. We see answers to challenges faced by us all at one time or another, for example how to keep dry during a sudden shower, find shade, shelter or a comfortable place to sit whilst waiting for the bus. As well as seeing selections of victories over these common trials there are examples of improvements on existing designs – making things easier or better functioning. There are also collections of varied solutions found to the same problem, some examples of innovative, enterprising and entrepreneurial ideas and a section on the playful disposal of objects – some creating witty and surprising street surrealism. Featured are an array of different uses made of the same objects and materials. These show the significant ability of creative thinking to extend the life of things after their intended purpose has come to an end, frequently through the discovery of radically new uses and functions undreamed of by their original designers.