Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Creative Modus Operandi

It's 1.00 am at night, we're waiting for a creative check in with our ECD's – is there a better time to write a blog post? I don't think so.

I stumbled upon this interesting post today about what circumstances make someone creative. It's an interesting experiment that asks you to think about your environment and what influences your creativity. Here are the factors that I think make me more creative:

  • Clothes – Very comfy, ideally no shoes
  • Sound – For thinking music that's not too disruptive, for writing as loud and energetic as possible
  • Light - As sunny and light as possible, even at night
  • Time of Day - 9am - 11am and 6pm - 8pm
  • Location - Outside, in a cafe, or an empty meeting room, preferably not at the desk
  • Directionality – Not looking outside a window
  • Routine/spontaneous - Spontaneous
  • Long periods or short bursts - Somewhere in between
  • Carry something to capture ideas on the fly? - Never leave the house without my notebook
  • Squeaky Clean or Squalor (setting) - Clean and organized
  • Clean or dirty - Clean in the morning
  • Solo or surrounded - Surrounded by only a few
  • Digital or analogue - Analogue for concepting, digital for writing
  • What fuels you? - Conversations, lots of water
  • Leaded or unleaded? - Only one cup of coffee per day
  • Breaks – No, but sometimes yes
  • Mindset practices that fuel creation - Concentration, or thinking about something else
  • Movement practices that fuel creation - Walking around a room in circles, going for a walk, after sports

What about you?

3 comments:

Techno Ludite said...

Wal, a question for you! what did you use make the
the videos on your website. is it flash? imovie? a combination of both? they're really nicely done.

lydia marsh said...

'How's it going?' Your ECD must be Irish mo buachaillí?

Lydia

scotd said...

Cheers for the link - interesting.

I guess mine are:

Clothes – anything blue,

Music – different types depending what I'm doing, e.g. contemplative chillcore or get-stuff-done fast beats

Place - I like slouching in our office block's cafe sofas with a hot chocolate having a bit of a muse, or working at my dining table at home looking through floor to ceiling windows into garden. Sometimes a claustrophobic space can be a good way - I started to invite a colleague into our office elevator to generate ideas. It's a cliché, but in the shower and bunched up on the commute often work - when I'm defocused from a thinking challenge.

Time of Day - about 7-8am, whilst I'm still sleepy-confused, or mid-afternoon and early evening.

Capture - my Android phone is great for capturing inspirational things - the camera to grab photos, the text and photo select to snatch pieces of writing or online imagery. Notebooks in various sizes (pocket to A3) and a fisher space pen for writing upside down, if you, uh, feel the need.

Everyone seems to have their own thing - The Social Network writer, Aaron Sorkin takes around 6 showers per day and drives for miles to shake ideas out.