What Does Innovation Look Like?

[15 August 2006 - CIO MAGAZINE]
Does innovation have a look and feel? How about growth? And how does that jibe with the look and feel of technology and business? These were the questions we pondered as we set out to design the cover of this year’s CIO 100 issue. Innovation, we thought, had to have energy and color and motion. It had to be fresh and somewhat surprising. When we talked about growth, we focused on the organic. That brought to mind images of plants, children, flowers. Technology and business, on the other hand, inspired more mechanical, electrical and even urban icons. The challenge was to marry these things that didn’t seem to go together and present them in a beautiful way. But in the end, isn’t this what innovation is all about: the combination of disparate elements in a way that hasn’t been thought of before to create something of unique value? More