Why splitting my studio made me more creative (not less)

That creative chaos was exactly what I needed

“The studio is a not a factory, its a laboratory”

— John Cage

The fastest way to kill creativity is to treat your studio like a factory.

I illustrate picture-books for a living, and there is an element of it that is all about producing. I rent out my skill to brilliant clients and it’s a factory like process. Piece after uniform piece on a factory deadline.

But I developed this skill by playing in a laboratory.

Having a place to play and practice, makes the day job feel more like a match day game, rather than a factory line. The goal is to bring things from practice into the game.

A Home for Creative Chaos

Trying to force creativity doesn’t work, but if you have a laboratory, you are creating a place for creative discovery to emerge.

For years I kept my studio perfectly orderly, factory like.

But recently I extracted what I needed for work and moved it to the corner of the reading room. An iPad and Laptop, a few notebooks some stationary and a box of references.

What I left behind in the small studio was a shelf curated books and inspiring objects, drawing and painting materials old sketchbooks and notebooks, ephemera and the coffee machine.

So I work in the reading room, and I go to the studio to get coffee.

I go for the coffee, but I stay for 10 minutes to an hour in this laboratory to play.

And I reliably come away with creative ideas and inspiration, creative seeds that I can use. You can’t force creativity but you can create environments and rituals for it to emerge.

The physical transition itself creates creative momentum.

Where are you going to experiment with creative chaos today?

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