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For some people, it’s hard to find the freedom to make creativity part of everyday life. For others, who are expected to be creative every day, it’s hard to keep creativity fresh and exciting.
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But whether we struggle to find a creative outlet or we struggle to produce a creative output, we all need inspiration, change and challenge to keep us going. Looking at the world in a different way allows us to find that inspiration in the simplest of places.
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When FLAD Architects, of San Francisco, entered a competition to design a rug pattern for a non-profit group working for the women of Afghanistan, they found themselves in need of some inspiration for the assignment.
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They began by making lists of words, sitting around a table in the usual meeting mode, but they found themselves feeling serious instead of excited and enthusiastic.
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Then, someone noticed a pad of Post-it® Pop-up Notes, and started to experiment. Because the notes were attached to each other accordion-style, they had movement and life all their own, and the group was surprised to find that soon, they were all playing together. They were testing ideas, trying new things and thinking differently about what design could mean – how it felt, how it could change, and how something extremely simple could become something profoundly beautiful.
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Here are just a few of the incredible images they created together.
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While they didn’t get the prize from the contest they entered, they got something much better – a new way to think about the process of creation itself.
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What they learned was that the creative process doesn’t have to feel like work – in fact, when it feels like play, there can be something almost magical about creating. All we have to do is stop and change the way we look at the world.
