Journal

Where to find Creative Inspiration

One of the things that I talk a lot about in The Studio Club is how everyone is creative - how it is a basic human characteristic, and one that you can deliberately develop.

And one of the things I get asked about most is where do I find creative inspiration, how do I come up with ideas, how do I work with them, how do I organise all the mental clutter.

Once upon a time it would have been very easy to be intentional about where you found creative inspiration. You would have had to actively go out - for a walk, to an exhibition, to a library, a museum, a gallery.

But now we are bombarded.

Now, instead of the seeking out we get swamped. Instagram, Pinterest, online shops, magazines, exhibitions, lectures - all vying for attention with bright, beautiful images.

It is very easy to get sidetracked, distracted by shiny things.

It has taken me a long time to work out a system that lets me save the things that insipire me, without becoming overwhelmed.  Its also taken a while to find  a way of being able to locate images and as importantly to pot them into different combinations.

You can see how I organise the things that inspire me in this film.

And here are my top tips about looking for inspiration.

Get off social media

Don’t look on social media (I know! contraversial!).  Lots of creativity courses suggest that you screenshot images from Instagram or make a board on pinterest to find the things that attrract you.

The problem is that these social media apps have algorithms so they will be working as hard as they can to show you as many things that are like whatever it was that you chose originally.  It isn’t a neutral space - it is one that is working to narrow your tastes down to the perfect match (in the hope that you will buy something).

If you want to use Pinterest to make a board then I would suggest you look outside the app and load up manually onto your board.

I also think that you should unfollow or at least mute your peers on Instagram - seeing images of other people’s art scrolling by dilutes your own originality and, without ever intending to, you can start to create art just like everyone else’s.

Take photos of everything that you see.

Use your phone like a collection device - when you are out and about take photos of everything that you are drawn to - lichen, cakes in a shop, old doors, grafitti.  Take photos of images in books, postcards, at exhibitions.  This collection on your phone is going to be original to you.

Use a free printing service.

There are a number of free printing services that will allow you to print 45 or so photographs and just pay for postage.  I use Freeprints which also allows you to buy a duplicate set for 10p a print.  Each month I choose 45 photos from my phone and get two sets printed. I choose white borders and matte paper.

Paste one set into a scrapbook with the date.  You can add in any details that you might need later, the exhibition, the city, the cake shop etc.

Write the date on the back of second set of prints, tie it into a bundle and store somewhere safe.

Use the scrapbook like an index - then use the loose photos to pin up on a board or spread out on a table, shuffling, putting together with other things until you feel that spark of creativity.