Lacking inspiration?

Inspiration, the muse, creative juices… whatever you call it, here at AKIN we need it. We can’t simply wait for inspiration to arrive.

We are dreamers and thinkers. But, as commercial creatives we also need to shake ideas out of our brain down our arms and onto the canvas, page or screen – to meet deadlines. We can’t simply wait for inspiration to arrive.

So, how do the creative minds in AKIN give inspiration a helping hand – or a bloody great shove?

Web designer and digital marketer Karl Salter walks his talk. “I spend most of my working life in front of a screen – indoors. Sometimes, I just need to move my body, to get outside into nature. I wait until I have a few phone calls to make (not just one), then I go for a walk, which really helps if I feel my brain has shut down.”

Karl also fuels his brain with podcasts, on everything from digital trends to history. And above all he hangs out with the most creative minds he knows. No, not fellow AKIN members, his children… “I spend time with them, eat with them and read to them, they are so creative and it rubs off on me.”

As for me, when I am wearing my commercial copywriter hat and my brain gets tired it tries to cuddle clichés for comfort. That’s when I need to fill up with words. So, I read. Anything I can get my hands on, from free local magazines to the books gathering dust on my bedside table. It’s as if by absorbing other people’s words I can then create more of my own. If that doesn’t work – I walk by the sea. Which never fails.

For AKIN’s chair, the brand consultant and creative director Dana Robertson, feeding his creativity also works. “Whenever I have a quiet work period I fuel my mind with exhibitions.”

“And I’m a firm believer in the simple discipline of sitting at a desk with a pen and a pad, no distractions, and sweating an idea. If my mind really doesn’t want to play, I jump start ideas. I create 10 ideas, however outlandish or initially dumb, in 10 minutes, on sheets of A4. I stick them to the wall, then review those and do the same exercise with the best ones. Or if I really can’t see the beginning of new rivers of thought, I start all over again.”

Finally, Dana uses smile tactics, “When you are smiling you can achieve anything!” Which is why he’s embracing his new hobby - the ‘nature bomb’ of cold swimming in the mornings. “It blows my mind, puts a massive smile on my face and gives me a huge life buzz. Then I go to work and nail it!”