Welcome. I’m Greg Williams — design educator, creativity researcher, and the person behind this site. I’ve spent 25 years in the classroom, built 650 structured creativity exercises, and written 80+ research-backed educational primers. This page is a guide to the best starting points, no matter what brought you here.
If You’re Curious About Creativity
Creativity isn’t talent. It’s a trainable skill — and the research backs that up. Start here:
- The First Answer Is Always Slop — Why your best ideas never come first, and what the research says about pushing past the obvious.
- Playing With Purpose: Research Without an Agenda — The story behind the 650 exercises and why creativity training matters.
- The Case for Creativity Training (Primer) — The evidence-based argument, with meta-analyses and longitudinal data.
- What Creativity Actually Is (Primer) — Beyond the myths, here’s what the science says.
If You’re a Design Student or Educator
The primers are where the teaching lives — textbook-depth guides grounded in research, written the way I’d explain things at a whiteboard:
- All Primers — The full collection. Typography, color theory, composition, creativity science, learning science, and more.
- Typography Primer — Structure before style. Letterform anatomy through production.
- How People See and Process Design — Gestalt psychology, visual perception, and why design works the way it does.
- Study Smarter, Not Harder — Learning science applied to how you actually retain and use what you study.
If You Like Personal Stories
The blog started as a teaching tool and became something else — a place where I write about growing up, identity, failure, reinvention, and the moments that shaped how I see the world:
- I Didn’t Mean to Start a Blog Today — How this whole thing began.
- Nobody Gets There the Way They Planned — The winding road from international business to the classroom.
- How I Treat People. That’s It. That’s the Whole Thing. — What I’ve learned about what actually matters.
- The Lakeland Santa — A story about identity, community, and showing up as yourself.
If You’re Thinking About AI and Creative Work
I build with AI every day, and I write honestly about what it can and can’t do:
- How AI Rewrites You Into Someone Else — The voice problem nobody’s talking about.
- I’m 64 and Building Something New — What it looks like to start over with new tools at this stage of life.
If You Want to Explore Everything
The blog has all 95+ posts. You can also browse by what interests you:
- Stories — Personal narrative, growing up, identity, life lessons
- Creativity — The creative process, the 650 exercises, creative confidence
- Teaching — 25 years in the classroom
- Design — Color, typography, layout, hierarchy
- AI & Technology — Working with AI and building tools
- Playing With Purpose — Creativity exercises from the framework
- Thinking Out Loud — Culture, politics, and life beyond the classroom
Thanks for being here. If something resonates, the best thing you can do is share it with someone who might need to hear it.