I am always astounded by the amount of pressure to be creative I am as a “Design Professional”. In my schooling I found myself painting, drawing, doodling, in a seemingly endless bank of creativity. However with deadlines and a variety of clients, I’m constantly challenging my creativity and left to wonder where my inner creative lives. I compare creativity to a bank - sometimes you make deposits – and sometimes you make withdrawals; finding that beautiful balance of more deposits then withdrawals is rare. However here are a few sound techniques I find that help the creativity flow:
Meet the Audiobook:
If you like to listen to music while you work, a nice change of pace may is the audio book. Now you don’t have to treck down to the bookstore and spend 40+ dollars for 6 cd’s of ( insert book title here ) sites like “www.audible.com/ can bring you everything from romance to suspense. Listening to these while creating - help me think of new concepts and idea’s otherwise not apparent. Sometimes hearing a description in a book can stimulate your brain to visualize color, placement, variety, and perception. Not only are you partaking in the arts, but your adding variety and learning at the same time - a little multi tasking that will not only help expand your brainpower, but also jump start your creativity.
Here are a few of my favorites:
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Outliers: The Story of Success
Both by Malcolm Gladwell
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across
Middlesex
Water for Elephants
The Last Lecture
The Podcast Prevails: Tune in and listen to a variety of creative podcasts, news, music, and stories. Staying informed and an open mind is key to creativity. Podcasts are a series of digital media files, that can be in either video or audio form, which are released through web syndication. The vast market of podcasts can bring you creative inspiration from a variety of angles.
Here are a few of my favorites:
This American Life: You can download each episode for free weekly on itunes or stream it directly from their site http://www.thisamericanlife.org/ where you can also listen to a library of their older episodes.
Radio Lab: Hosted by WNYC this podcast gives an interesting look into science – everything from sleep to the afterlife. http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/
The Accidental Creative: http://accidentalcreative.com/ solutions to creative problems, and several unique perspectives on creatives. This is the best blog to keeping your creative mind healthy and taking responsibility for your work.
