How do you keep learning and improving your creative skills in a fast-changing and competitive environment?

A great example of this is visiting other countries. When it comes to stepping outside your comfort zone, there are few experiences that compare. You can read a book written by Dan Brown, or watch ‘Midnight in Paris,’ but when it comes to expanding your horizons and feeling inspired, you’ll learn more about yourself by navigating the challenges of international travel and feeling the tiles of the Louvre under your feet.

Creativity takes time, and it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s important to make time for the magic of creativity to happen. As the principal at my creative arts college said ‘go on an artist date’ - a time where you purposefully put yourself in a stimulus rich environment for your creative soul to flourish. This will be different for everyone. Give creativity time and space, and you’ll be surprised at what happens.

I had been using CAD and Adobe Illustrator for a number of years to complete various passion projects after work. When it came to starting our own business and needing creative design software, we instead opted for an open source platform (Inkscape). We loved the concept of user-initiated, iteration, features, and community. Looking back it’s been three years and using open-source software has been one of the best decisions we have made in our journey thus far. The designs we are able to create for products we sell are unparalleled in our industry. Our competitors can’t even figure out how to duplicate our original designs, let alone our newest ones.

Yes, I agree that we can co-create wonderful things and grow more outcomes in a lot more effective way if we get together with like-minded/skilled people.

Collaborating with people outside of your specific artistic or creative field can be a great way to learn to think differently, and get out of a rut. If you’re a pianist for example, try taking drum lessons or working with a drummer on a collaboration.

Creativity is in some ways a form of iterative problem solving. Try something, refine and try again. Keeping a journal/diary is a great way of being able to reflect on areas for improvement. Looking back on previous work is also a great way to see growth and development of skill. If you post regularly on social media, past posts can form a dynamic diary of sorts - and past/present comparisons can be engaging content itself.

Creativity can be a great way to relax and destress. Plateaus in creativity are inevitable. When a plateau happens, the joy in creativity can quickly be replaced with frustration at lack of progress or a feeling of ‘sameness’. Collaboration with others can help, and sharing with others can spark fresh ideas as well as make it more fun.

Creativity isn’t an exclude gene reserved for those who hold a paintbrush. There are the messy creatives, and those who are more structured - the artist and the architect. Curiosity is a cornerstone of creativity as is the ability to see things differently to others. The business person who thinks out of the box is just as creative as a graphic designer. Creativity is as much an attitude as it is a learned skill. Start with curiosity and see where you end up. When you’ve completed a project, do it again - iterate and refine. Many creatives are highly critical of their own work. When you’re up close to the detail of ‘your baby’, it can be difficult to stand back and admire the beauty when all you see is the flaws. Good enough is done.