By Freelance Author - June, 8th 2015

Let’s talk about creativity and the way employes’s of big company like Apple are taught to reach it. The Apple University is the internal training program of Apple where the art of simplicity is taught to employes. Of course the lessons they learn are not baked at Apple at all. It’s Picasso’s fault actually for their study program to be the way it is.

Since creativity is universal value, you don’t have to be an Apple employee to learn some lesson about it. It might be enough only to be a freelancer at localancers 🙂 The main picassian idea is that the work of art is a strive for simplicity by eliminating details. Here are the three important creativity lessons he would have give you if he was alive!

Lesson #1

Limits are gold
The creative edge is usually not supported by money, time and tools. Picasso reached his art breakthrough by restricting himself from luxury and focusing in fundamentals. Less is more. 160 is more than 1600.
“For a long time I limited myself to one colour—as a form of discipline.” – Picasso

Lesson #2

Development
You have a project to work on and what you don’t have to do is start polishing the very first idea you had. That’s what Picasso would have told you, if he was alive today. He always worked on different variations of the ideas he had. So either you do something and wait for the client to tell if it’s okay, or you do something and then rework it in several variations until you get the perfect result.
”Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Picasso

Lesson #3

Reduce the unnecessary
The key to creativity often is the reduction of details. Steve Jobs himself held on to the idea that the complex work should be kept hidden and the end user should see only simplicity. For freelancers that would meen that they need to simplify their work when they seek for creativity.
“Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.” – Picasso