THE BLOG

25
Oct

How Meditation Makes You A Mindful Multitasker

Being unproductive? Free yourself!

Being unproductive? Free yourself!

Om, that feeling of complete calm and quiet is something we’re all greatly missing in our daily lives, which is especially true when we’ve got a busy work and personal life schedule. Stress can manifest itself in many ways mentally and physically. It impacts our ability to be creative and think clearly, the way we relate to others, the quality of our sleep, and our overall well-being.

Latest neuroscience research shows that giving yourself time to relax and meditate help you better make creative decisions and even multitask. According to a paper titled “The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation Training on Multitasking in a High-Stress Information Environment,” released by professors at the University of Washington, meditation training can help people working with information stay on tasks longer with fewer distractions and also improves memory and reduces stress, which is something we could all use a little more of.

We share IDEO founder and Stanford professor David Kelley’s ideas in his most recent book Creative Confidence. We too believe that for clients to think creatively, it takes a lot of taking a step back, breathing and letting yourself assess the situation before judging or using analysis, the basic principles of meditation. That’s not just beneficial on the client side; anyone in our creative community could take a page from that. Too many times when we’re faced with a situation that has us over-taxed, emotionally, physically or mentally, we’re in such a hurry to power through it to get to the other side that we don’t often stop and really let ourselves really think on it.

So even with all of those multitasking apps aimed at improving productivity at our fingertips, the best solution might actually come from within.

 

18
Oct

How Creativity Boosts the Bottom Line

A while back, a group of us were meeting to discuss a project and client expectations. The internal conversation pivoted to questions about finding a “blue ocean” space for the design and branding industry, which eventually turned to a debate on measurement, and how to quantify “creative” using the metrics of efficiency and “value.”

Someone chimed in, “Creativity can’t be constrained by bottom-line considerations. That ‘line’ pushes away imagination and limits vision.” Since then, this perspective has become part of the culture and fabric at Oishii. Ish was recently featured on postPerspective speaking on this very tension: http://bit.ly/15Fv23V

11
Oct

Einstein Creative: When Two Brains Unite

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Everything we do, from logos to branding to energizing company cultures, stems from the confluence of the brain spheres.

From left to right, our eclectic team of designers, directors, researchers, consumer insight strategists, art theorists, storytellers and social scientists yield a unique mix of capabilities and depth – separate but interconnected perspectives.

Good design for us is the interdisciplinary merging of business, art and science, taken together. As our alchemy of strategy taps the right brain and the logical left, we were encouraged by the recent findings of Florida State University Anthropologist Dean Falk and East Normal Chinese University Physicist Weiwei Men.

Einstein’s brain showed physical signs of “inter-spheric communication” between his corpus callosum. In other words, Einstein was able to connect and utilize the powers of both brains. He was not only remarkable for pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge, but also for connecting and cross-pollinating them to challenge the status quo. He was aware of the ways society separates thinking and processes. He even went so far as to suggest the imagination is more important than knowledge: “For knowledge is limited to what we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world…”

No doubt, Einstein, without the practical work of the imagination, the impractical work of science could not happen.

Have you reached out to your corpus callosum lately?

04
Oct

Delicious: Creative Inspiration Curated By Oishii

DeliciousWe’re proud to present “Delicious“: all the creative inspiration that’s fit to “print.” Curated daily, our digital newspaper puts an eclectic community of the thinkers, dreamers and creators at your fingertips.

Why did we launch Delicious? Because we want to share the ideas that stir our wonder, curiosity and excitement – a platform that echoes the true sentiment of our company mantra: “Dare to Inspire.”

We believe inspiration is the key to imagining and experiencing the world in new and unforeseen ways. It informs every facet of our multidisciplinary approach to delivering award-winning creative. It is the bridge between great ideas and even greater creations.

In our creative field, inspiration is beautifully cyclical – and it all starts with our clients. We strive to reciprocate that with the caliber of creative we bring to their brands.

So flip through the pages of Delicious and discover a world where inspiration abounds, from industry-centric ideas surrounding design and digital media, to the music and arts community. As you come along on our Delicious journey, we hope you also find your own inspiration!