Jan 2004 - Issue 1

Burn Your Creativity

Maintaining your creative drive is hard work, we know. So what happens when you run out of inspirational fuel? Whether you've hit a creative roadblock or simply want to haul your brain our of a rut, give us a month and we'll get your creative gears turning.

Claire Nivlets

Claire is author of "Creativity and Productivity" and award-winning illustrator based in... read her profile »

Create a smile file. Collect things that make you laugh or think harder. Clip magazine articles, cartoons or cool project announcements and keep them together for instant inspiration.

Play "WHAT IF". The goal of this game is to think of the most outlandish situations possible. What if paper were outlawed? The more ridiculous the scenario, the better.

Buy three magazines you normally wouldn't give a second glance. Consider the following questions: How does each magazine visually tackle its subject matter? How do they aesthetically connect with their audiences? What does each do differently?

Designers should do whatever they need to do to clear themselves-whatever they can do to be able to listen-to hear their own intuition. The creative process always works; in our lives, it gets overridden by other stuff." Petrula Vrontikis.

Stay up late: "Strange things happen when you've gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you're separated from the rest of the world." Bruce Mau.

Dedicate 15 minutes to completing a free-association exercise. In the middle of a piece of paper, write down one word, any word. For five minutes, write down everything that comes to mind wit that word and branch off from there. "Restaurant" may lead to "greasy food" to "heart-burning" to "burning heart" to "falling in love." Once the five minutes are up, look back at everything you've written. Are there new connections you have missed before.

Create themes for workdays. The same Monday through Saturday routine can lead to a creative rut. Celebrate each day, whether it's Bad Food Friday or Movie Madness Monday.

Start a story and route it around the studio with each person adding a line before she passes it on. At the end of the week, call a brief staff meeting and read the tale loud.

Be culturally literate, because if you don't have any understanding of the world you live in and the culture you live in, you're not going to be able to express any thing to anyone else.

Go to a concert, see a play, check out a local exhibit or lecture. By widening your horizons, you'll expand your creative possibilities.

"Eliminate something superfluous from your life. Break a habit. Do something that makes you feel insecure." -Pierro Ferrucci, psychologist

Challenge your creativity. Using only the supplies you have in the studio, create a new office decoration. Can you make a lamp with what you find? what about a new picture frame or bookend?

Design an apple 20 different ways. Only one rule stands: Don't impose characteristics or images upon the apple; re-create it.

Build a Creativity Kit. Keep a box on hand filled with toys, silly putty, markers, blank paper and games to loosen up our brains during long brainstorming sessions.

Each time you experience the new, you become receptive to something different, you let the universe know you are listening. Trust your instincts... Respect your creative urges. if you are willing to step out in faith and take a leap in the dark, you will discover that your choices are authentic. what is more, you will discover that your life is all that it was meant to be.

Express Your Thoughts!