Rhetorical Analysis of Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull
Creativity Inc. is a book written by Ed Catmull with help from Amy Wallace on how to build a creative environment. The story starts with Ed Catmull as a kid, then builds off that, talking about his college and early job experiences. A progression of how he builds Pixar comes next. The book ends with Catmull controlling both Pixar and Disney Animation. Catmull’s main argument is how to build a creative environment, and uses ethos, pathos, and imagery to support his claim.
In Creativity Inc. Catmull uses imagery to build his argument. In his college years he talks about the college class he loved in which he would later base his company off of; the same class that built the entire Adobe system including the PDF formatting, as well as Netscape (Catmull 12). This early on ideal of a creative environment shaped his to strive on building them with every company he encountered, including his own Pixar. “When it comes to creative inspiration, job titles and hierarchy are meaningless,” is what Catmull states when talking about West One’s meeting table (4). What Catmull means by this statement is that everyone can have an idea that is creative and new, not just the experienced writers and directors that sat at the center of the long narrow table. This breaks the stereotypical of who should speak and who does not matter that comes to mind when thinking about a movie production. Ed Catmull writes and repeats the influence of the flow of a place, either building the creative process or destroying it. One example of how flow destroys creativity was Disney Animation Studio, “imped[ing] the collaboration and exchange of ideas that Steve, John, and I believed was so fundamental to creative work” (253). Even doorways can “creat[e] a sort of gated community kind of vibe,” which expresses how important the flow of a building is to people being creative (253). However, the perfect building is not everything needed for creativity. Catmull explains his idea of how people must create their creativity with having “place[d] one foot on either side of the door — one grounded in what we know, . . . and the other in the unknown,” and by doing this, people are capable of making new things, but not fearing to fail at making new ideas (184).
Ethos builds from Ed Catmull’s life experiences in Creativity Inc. “When I was a kid, I used to plunk myself down on the living room floor . . . every Sunday and wait for Walt Disney,” showing how from a young age, creative ideas were all around him (7). Once they found a problem within Pixar where people felt like “second-class” citizens as some of the higher ranking jobs treated people lower ranked than them as if less significant, it became a major concern to not let happen again (61-64). On the other hand, it was an enlightening to a more creative environment through “honesty, excellence, communication, originality, and self-assessment [and] really committ[ing] to them,” showing how Catmull builds credibility through his failures (65). One thing Catmull had Pixar do that stood out from every other animation company was that he would have people go on trips to learn details of a Paris restaurant for Ratatouille and interview chiefs, along with other projects (196). Ed Catmull proved himself enough to Disney that he “walk[ed] through the doors of Disney Animation, entrusted with the mission of reinvigorating its people and helping them return to greatness” (248). With one of the world’s most powerful and influential Animation companies asking if Ed Catmull could take them and fix them, it goes to show how trusted and credible Catmull is.
Creativity Inc.’s use of pathos boosts its argument of creating a creative environment. Catmull talks of his “boyhood idols,” Walt Disney and Albert Einstein, and how they are the “two poles of creativity” (7). This look into Catmull’s childhood connects him to people through remembering their past, and is a little humorous imagining an eight year old reading “every Einstein biography [he] could get his hands on” (7). Catmull changes to a darker tone in chapter four when an accident occurred where a couple “left their child in the car in the broiling Pixar parking lot” (73). The child was okay, but the story was about how hard people at Pixar worked to finish Toy Story 2 in nine months, when more animations take two to five years. Pixar did this because everyone was motivated to prove Dinsey wrong and finish the movie on time, which they did, adding to the numerous achievements they have compiled over the decades (73). After the pain though, celebrations occurred having “pulled off something important, something that would define Pixar for years to come,” adding the powerful feelings of accomplishment and success to the story (74).
Creativity Inc. was written by Ed Catmull to explain how to have a creative environment. Using imagery, Catmull paints a picture of what not to do, and what is good for creativity to flourish. Through ethos, Catmull gives himself credibility as a highly respected person for managing people through his experiences he describes. Pathos is used to keep the reader stuck to the book with some humor, and yearn to know if Pixar succeeds or not. Ed Catmull sums up Creativity Inc. to “loosen the controls, accept risk, trust our colleagues, work to clear a path for them, and pay attention to anything that creates fear,” (295). And with that beautiful proclamation, Creativity Inc. ends the answer to building a creative environment.