June 6, 2024

If you are a Creative, what is it that inspires you? When you have a new project where do you go to look for ideas? As you may have heard back in school studying physics “Nothing is created, nothing is lost, and everything is transformed”. This is also true for ideas and creativity, when having a brainstorm, what you are going to bring to the table is nothing but the result of everything that you have experienced in your life up until that moment. Here we are going to talk about ways to enrich your brain library and how to train your creative mind to be even more creative.
Nothing is created, nothing is lost, and everything is transformed
Antoine Lavoisier
Follow Artists on Socials
We work in social so one easy piece of advice would be to be active on social, especially in the design and marketing community to check what your competitors are doing, but also, simply check out other designers or artists that work in fields different from yours to see what are their observation and outputs on solving their problems. What I mean is, spend time trying to analyse what they want to communicate and what method they use to do it, because understanding their methods of solving problems can help you solve yours. Keep an eye out for accounts like Creative Lives in Progress and D&AD.
Engage in conversation with strangers
Look out for people that you think may be interesting at a party, people just walking in the park or taking the train to go to work, it may be a random person who wears an item of clothing that you find interesting. Engage in conversations and try to understand the other perspective on the topic.
Observe what’s around you
You don’t need to climb Kilimanjaro to observe outstanding natural beauty, you can observe the lives of three in your garden or even better observe your urban surroundings. Look closely at the simplest gestures that people do, at the basic social conventions, and look at the functionality of objects we use daily. Especially pay the most attention to the obvious things and try to give them new meanings. Like this beautiful illustration realised by Pâté on a Toast to express the love for art that is not Ai generated, where the lead of the pencil has turned into a heart.
Another nice example of a design inspired by observation is the rebranding done by DutchScot for The Future Factory when the company’s new branding is strongly inspired by its conveyor belts.
Be Playful
Remember to be creative outside of working hours, make time to produce art besides your job, and try to be as playful as possible. Look for the absurd, take things away from their regular contest a give them new meanings, or pay around with scale: make something very big or very small.
At this point, you may say that you are not an artist, but you don’t need to be one, you just need a bit of imagination… maybe a pen or maybe your phone camera and go with it. If you don’t know where to start you can inspire yourself by looking at Christoph Niemann’s series Abstractsunday where the famous illustrator weekly ‘forces’ himself to play with ordinary objects.
Go to things!
Ok well, at this point I am sure you are following all the right accounts on social media, starting spontaneous conversations with interesting people on the streets, and you are observing everything with different eyes forming a lot of theories about what you believe to be good creative practice. Now it is the time to challenge your creative thoughts by exchanging ideas with other creatives: going to exhibitions, talks, or workshops. Doing it in person is for sure the best way, but if live in a very remote zone surely you can access online events that are perfect for you too.
If you live in the London area and you don’t know where to start here are some suggestions:
- You can go on the app Meet Up and find several creative events to meet people who share you same interests.
- You can join once a month the free event Tate Modern Late, with DJ set, social space and workshops.
- You can attend graphic design talks in Blackfriars thanks to Typocircle
- You can join the discussion of women in the creative industry by attending the events organised by Ladies Wine and Design.
- You can go to any place art is exposed or celebrate and again start a conversation with a stranger. And if you really can’t find anyone to start a conversation about your creativity you can speak with us!
The wheel is fine
At the end of the day talk with everyone, look at everything, and steal everything you can. I am obviously not saying to anyone to copy other people’s work but after all this analysis and confrontation you would have realised that we all share common values and experiences. Your goal is not to create a once-in-a-century masterpiece but to create something unique that resonates with people. Originality becomes a concern only if you are imitating or appropriating someone else’s work.
Your work inspired by other people’s work will still be unique, because each of us is unique, with our own experiences, contexts, and viewpoints that deserve expression. Remember everything you can think about has already been done by somebody else, and that is ok, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, the wheel is fine. If you are drawing from your own experiences, you will be fine. Focus your energy on being authentic, and stop worrying about being original, and you will create some truly interesting things.
You ain’t got to reinvent the wheel… The wheel is fine gurl!
RuPaul