« Diary of Miss X: NYC 17-03-10 | Main | Miss X Vicious Streak Eyeliner Packaging »
Cultivating a creative environment
By Destroyx | March 18, 2010
When I finally decided to seriously start working on my new range of jewellery a week ago, I sat at my desk and in front of me loomed an imposing stark white wall. Since I pretty much live out of my suitcase these days and can’t really call any place home, my work space has consisted of friends’ coffee and dinner tables, cafes and beds. So doing some interior decoration has never been high on the agenda.
As I sat and stared at the white wall, I realised that my working environment was not conducive to creativity in the slightest. Armed with a pair of scissors, I spent an afternoon collecting images to create a giant inspiration/mood wall. I gathered up ephemera I’ve been accumulating such as flyers, stickers, postcards and CD covers and I poured through some books and magazines that inspire me. Then I went to Staples and photocopied lots of images out of those books and bought 2 packets of blutack (or poster putty… or whatever you call it) and got to work. I proceeded to plaster my wall with this hoard of visual material, so that when I’m sitting in front of my desk, all I need to do is glance around me for instant inspiration.
My giant ‘wall mood board’ consists of a bevy of imagery that stimulates me at the moment, including a Bauhaus print from the Moma exhibition, Victorian wallpaper samples, Viktor and Rolf editorial fashion spreads, anatomical drawings of horses and wolves, bird engravings, bold typographic prints, pictures of pretty naked ladies from Dazed and Confused magazine, Sonic Youth stickers and ornamental scroll motifs. From a practical point of view, I would say that it is very useful having the images surrounding me, as they provide a good point of reference to keep in mind while I am designing.
Does your workspace inspire you to action? Perhaps you might like to try improving your chances of artistic output by cultivating an environment that stimulates you creativity? If so read on, as I’ve come up with some ideas to help you make your workspace or home a little more inspiring.
Tips for cultivating a creative workspace
- Choose visual stimuli that inspires you to action. Find imagery that fills you with delight and triggers off feelings of excitement. Wouldn’t you want to surround yourself with these kind of images, especially considering how much time you probably spend at your desk every day?
- Pick images that remind you of your goals and aspirations, or relate to your current project. Every time you look at those images, you are mentally reminding yourself of what that image represents. For my mood wall, many of the images are an affirmation of what I’d like to achieve and constantly glancing up at them keeps me on track. Perhaps if you were writing a screenplay for a film, you might put pictures up around you which represent the characters you are writing about. Or if you were trying to come up with a range of makeup looks, you might stick up beauty editorials from magazines or photographs that feature colour prominently.
- Don’t forget to change it up! It’s always worth changing your images and work space orientation every few months as it prevents your environment from stagnating in your mind. I try to change up my pictures every few months because after looking at something everyday for a while, I feel like I have already digested the material and need something new!
- Organise your ephemera. If you have lots of little items that inspire you, such as ticket stubs from great rock concerts, bumper stickers and postcards you might like to buy a large poster frame and stick everything to the frame to keep the bits manageable instead of throwing them away.
- If you’re stuck for exciting visual material… Here are some of my favourite sites of the moment to get inspired by FFFFOUND!, Haute Macabre, Design Boom & Dazed Digital. If you have any good sites, post a link in the comments section to share it with others.
- If you’re curious about other creative peoples’ work spaces… Check out the Selby for some cool glimpses into the working environments of creative people around the world.
Topics: Amelia Arsenic, Design, How to, Inspiration |
March 18th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Thank you so much!!
This is my first year as a design student (it’s been just four days, ha!) and this really helped. I already have things that inspire me on my walls (TONS of pictures I’ve taken, faerie wings I made, a butterfly display case, X rays, etc) but my desk is facing a window with white blinds (’cant open them; my neighbours are kinda nosy)
I always thought I just had a ‘messy’ room, but you’re right: it’s great inspiration!
I’ll use some ribbon and clothes pins to hang stuff on my blinds, too :)
March 18th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
I love your creative environment, really it reminds my workspace so full of photos, papers, polaroids, paints and film poster! :)
March 18th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
aaa!! what a coincidence, today I was admiring your poster on my red wall and thought about my creativity! It’s weird, every time I sit at my desk and see it, I get hit by creativity… XD Yeah, nice advices you have there. “Organise your ephemera” - I simply adore to collect little things, have a whole bunch of some stickers, tickets…
March 18th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
I don’t have a huge mood board like you, but I do have a little bulletin board I pin some things to sometimes: http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/ac193/PseudoGeisha/bulletin4.jpg. There’s usually lots of books (I just got Juxtapoz Dark Arts), pictures, and crap around that all inspire me. I stick pictures and writing on my desk, too. Your place looks really cool and organized.
Do you ever miss having a stable home, if you did back in Australia?
March 18th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Flopitron- yeah I have stuff lying around all of the time… it helps me to have it around because as you say.. it’s inspiring!!! Sometimes you just need to make some order out of the chaos.
Rak- Ooo.. I’d love to see a photo of your workspace. It sounds like my kinda thing =)
Natan- Yay.. that’s awesome. I like to keep these little things because they inspire me and remind me of happy times.
Disposable Darling- Ooo.. I love your mood board. I also have a lot of books lying around too. My desk is not normally as neat as it is in the photographs.. it starts neat, and by the end of my designing phase.. it’s usually super messy with heaps of cans and food packets lying around. I can be a bit of a dirtbag sometimes.
I often miss having a stable home, but I feel like I have to make some sacrifices to do what I love! I mean I can’t collect shoes or clothes any more so I don’t shop much and that’s difficult!
March 18th, 2010 at 10:08 pm
If you keep things chaotic you don’t even have to organize things like stubs. Just don’t throw them away. They’ll eventually make it from your pocket to a book as a book mark, or on a shelf, in your wallet, and random little places where you’ll come across them. You’ll give them a second look, and remember something from that night and smile.
March 19th, 2010 at 12:08 am
I love these photos! I feel the same way about creativity, you can never get any work done in a a dull and dreary place. This is my creative niche: http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/CyanidePoproxxx/004.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/CyanidePoproxxx/005.jpg
=) everything that inspires me goes on that wall, now I just need to get my hands on more angelspit stuff to go up there!
March 19th, 2010 at 12:19 am
Thanks for replying on my 30-day challenge comment c:
Before I even finished reading this I started on making a portable inspiration board. I wanted to make a small one because I was kind of reluctant to put tons of images on one board. I chose make-up and wanted to put it next to my bathroom mirror! So, I looked around in a few places that I kept some make-up related stickers and business cards of two EPIC ladies(I think you’ll know who!!!) and one well-known brand.
http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm214/tenraishukumei/FxCam_1268974969431.jpg
It’s not near as awesome as yours, though~
March 19th, 2010 at 12:32 am
I moved to a new apartment a couple months back, and I still have a huge pile of clothes on the living room floor that the cats play in and wreck. I don’t know what to do with it, I don’t even know how I managed to fit it all into my old closet.
March 19th, 2010 at 8:03 am
Queen Titania- That’s a cool approach too.. I just end up with so much crap I have to organise it otherwise I really have to end up throwing it away!
Cyanide- It’s so great to see your creative space…!
Elphey- Teeheee… so awesome! awww.. you put shrinkle up there.. I love her!
Disposable Darling- I have a pile of clothes too.. I was thinking about getting some cool looking storage boxes. I’m not going to be here forever though, so… I don’t know if it’s a worthwhile investment.
March 19th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
I wish I had space to put up photos to inspire me. I tend to be a minimalist when it comes to putting things on my walls. I have a giant poster of Tyler Durden next to my bed along with some Kill Bill posters and that’s enough stuff on my walls.
I collect photos and save them in folders on my computer. Problem is I never went through the folders. But a couple of weeks ago Nubby Twiglet posted how she made private sets on Flickr of all her inspiration photos and I did the same thing which 1) cleared up space on my computer and 2) made me more interested in looking at all the photos I’ve collected.
I’m a fashion photographer and I think it is important to have things around that inspire you. I’m still learning and having those visual aids around definitely helps me get better at what I do.
March 22nd, 2010 at 12:25 pm
[...] Cultivating a creative environment – I want my creative environment to look like that! [...]
March 27th, 2010 at 1:46 pm
The first thing I do when I redecorate/moverooms/move house is create a huge collage of stuff that really inspires me, and makes me happy to looks at - then I put my desk under it :)
I have all sorts of little cards, promotinal pictures, stickers, posters, cards, tickets, adverts, photography (mine and photographers like Charles Peterson who seriously inspire me), MAC and Perfume ads, and a bunch of Angelspit stuff :)
Whenever I look at it, I get really motivated to do art, as well as creative writing :)
xx
September 2nd, 2010 at 7:53 pm
I’m so jealous of your macbook! I wish my creative poster looked like all that! I’ve attempted to make a poster of images that inspired me.
Just wonder but what kind of programs do you use when designing?
:)