Creativity is Simple...

"Anyone can make the simple complicated.
Creativity is making the complicated simple."
-Charles Mingus
So true Charles. Why is it that the most exciting creative idea is most often the simplest? Because it is clear, concise, on-target, & usually the brain-child of a single mind; NOT a dozen or so folks improving...sharing critiques via email.
Steinbeck believed our species has but one creative instrument, the INDIVIDUAL mind & spirit of man/woman. He didn't believe in breakthrough collaborations - whether in music, art, poetry, philosophy or math. Those creative programs were given birth by ONE. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, a table full of colleagues can certainly build and expand upon the idea, but the group never invents anything. ((according to Steinbeck)).
I suspect he's right-on here....the creative preciousness lies in the lonely mind of one. Sure.
Perhaps that is why creativity IS making the complicated simple. The complicated is born from a round table "building" on one another's ideas. Net, complicating the product.
Make certain the group is NOT adding layers. It's okay to refine, groovy; but not at the expense of additional layers. These additional layers do tend to push ideas into the middle of the road, and that is not an exciting or safe place to be. (ask roadkill!)
Creativity is simple. Apple. Spielberg. Mozart. Black & white. I have a true disdain for special effects - especially if it is simply to introduce a new 'effect'. Why?
If you're paying for a piece of communication, do NOT allow the idea to get in the way of the message. What is your message? Is it getting lost in some creative idea? Simple is better. Hard work & an openness to grace is good to.