Understanding Your Brain for Better Design: Left vs. Right (P.2)

Saturday 27 August 2011 § 0


Their Relation to Art, Design, and Creativity

As one may have probably already guessed, those with dominance in the right brain may be more naturally creative.
It’s easy to assume this because for one, right-brained thinkers are less common than left, so it seems as though one would be seeing the world differently from everyone else.
Also, the natural heightened visual nature and curiosity tend to make the mind never stop thinking of the alternative — as well as how it can be applied visually.
Those with a dominant left brain are far more common, and far more analytical. They may feel at disadvantage for not having that ‘natural’ creativity. Realistically, though, left-brained people can be just as creative; they just come about it in a different way.
To better understand the artistic nature of both sides, let’s take a look at a few examples of artwork.

Abstraction = Right Brain

Right brained people may lean more towards abstract art, because of its lack of order and disorganization. Abstraction also gives no boundaries, so it can be considered more ‘outside-the-box’, or creative.
Abstract art is also known to portray emotion, even with no hard visual evidence. A right brained person may more easily be able to pick up on an abstract piece’s deeper meaning.
Abstract

Orderly Art = Left Brain

In contrast to abstraction, left brained people may be more attracted to a more ‘orderly’ form of art — either photo-realistic, or otherwise. As long as it is artwork with guidelines, form, and sense, it works.
Below is a painting, with plenty of creativity — but also with little abstraction.
Photo Realistic

Find Your Dominant Side

Before discovering how to harness one’s own creativity, one must find which side of the brain is dominant. As we know ourselves best, we may already have a good guess based on the definitions above. However, for more accurate results, there are a number of quizzes one can take online:
  • Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz for Artists
    This quiz is targeted at artists, with the questions concerning painting. Even if you do not paint for your practice, you can relate them to similar practices. For example, if you are a web designer, apply the questions to your digital workspace, and your online tools to your painting supplies, etc.
  • Right Brain vs Left Brain Creativity Test
    This is a more generalized test and may be more helpful to a wider audience. Furthermore, upon completion, this test gives you very detailed, highly accurate results, as well as further information.
Take the quizzes above and read through some more information. It may be surprising what you find, and you will probably already begin to brainstorm ways of making your work better based off of the results.

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