Are you in the midst of an artistic dry spell and require help mastering your creative potential? In the following article, I'll share various methods that I have found useful when tapping into my imagination and generating interesting and compelling ideas. I'll speak to the benefits of meditation, listening to music, visiting virtual museums and art galleries as well as holding brainstorming sessions with friends and family members. By implementing these practices, you will hopefully learn to harness your ingenuity and unleash your creativity. This skill set is extremely useful particularly when participating in Ideation Projects hosted by Tongal which involve the production of concepts for the marketing and advertising campaigns of Company Sponsors.
Meditation
Meditation, the exercise of focusing the mind through silent contemplation, is believed to have originated in India several thousand years ago and has subsequently been adopted by numerous other countries. Many individuals involved in the creative arts have attributed their success to this practice and its ability to expand their consciousness. For example, David Lynch, one of the most influential filmmakers of our time, is a strong advocate of transcendental meditation and its ability to inspire creative thought. His enthusiasm for this application is so strong that he has started the David Lynch Foundation, where you can watch interviews with creative personalities that have used mediation to enhance their artistic capabilities. In order to meditate, you will want to find a quiet and controlled environment in which you are able to focus on your inner thoughts for a few minutes each day. There are numerous apps designed to help users practice meditation, and you can find a list of some of them here.
Listening to music
There are numerous studies that have found that listening to soft classical music while studying can improve test scores by putting the listener in a better mood and thereby enhancing their ability to concentrate. In my personal experience, I have found that music has had a similar effect on me while trying to generate creative ideas by providing a calm backdrop as I channel my inner thoughts. Furthermore, I select the genre and style of music based on the type of project I am working on so that it will provide the appropriate atmosphere and elicit the right mood. For example, if the task is focused on generating a tagline for a toy company, I will turn on some peppy and whimsical tunes whereas if I am creating a logo for a horror movie, I will play something creepy and dark. Overall, music is the grease that gets the creative motor running by providing inspiration and sparking innovative thought. I would therefore suggest that the next time you wish to hold a brainstorming session, you bring along Mozart, Bach or Beethoven to accompany you on your creative journey.
Visiting virtual museums and art galleries
I have found that one of the most productive methods for stimulating creativity is viewing the artistic works of others. However, given the current climate it may be unsafe and too costly to visit an actual art gallery or museum in person. Thankfully, Google has created a platform named Museum Views that allows a user to visit 4,249 cultural outlets from the comfort of their own home (No VR hookup required). These virtual museums and galleries showcase artistic works from all over the globe completely free of charge and you can even filter the results based on historical time period, geographical location and artist. If gazing upon Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” or Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” does not get your creative motor running - nothing will!
Holding brainstorming sessions
Most of the suggestions listed above are solitary activities, but tapping into your creativity should be a communal undertaking. Engaging with others can be a stimulating and fruitful experience that results in innovative and thoughtful ideas. For example, inviting friends and family to take part in a brainstorming session can help expand the boundaries of your creative potential and offer the opportunity to generate unexpected ideas. Ideally these individuals should be from different socio-political backgrounds in order to allow the broadest range of perspectives. In fact, when preparing to participate in an Ideation Project hosted by Tongal, I will often invite friends to engage in a word association game. I will select specific terms from the Project Brief that are closely associated with the product or service being advertised and ask each participant to say the first thought that comes into their mind upon hearing the word. This practice allows me to tap into my subconscious mind and generate ideas that I would never otherwise have conceived.
The goal of these activities is to reach a state of engagement that will allow an individual to channel their inner creativity and bridge the gap between the mind and the spoken word. Clarity, joy and playfulness are deeply interconnected with creativity and it is important that you feel stimulated in order to generate innovative thought. At the end of the day, whatever methods help you get in touch with the inventive facets of your psyche are worth pursuing. The journey to creativity is just as important as the destination - good luck!
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Note From Tongal: This blog is part of a series of Tongal Community-written blog posts that were originally sourced in the Tongal Blog Open Call Project. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Tongal. Read more Tongal Community-written posts here!
