I’m on a bus right now. There’s a fat, sweaty man snoring beside me and taking up ¾ of the two seats. Across the aisle is a really thin man, with dark eyes and a twitch. He’s cleaning his teeth with a knife.
Behind me is a pregnant woman, carrying a two year old who is howling and kicking the back of my seat. Oh, and we’ve just stopped in traffic; there is no air circulation; and strangely, it’s over 30 degrees C (or 100 F) in this bus…..
Nah, I’m joking.. it’s a ½ full bus with commuters going from TO to KW and I’m perfectly comfortable, listening to Nick Lowe, Pavement, Miles Davis, M.I.A, Tchaikovsky…. (I love shuffle, who knows what you’re going to get) .
Thank you, Greyhound.
As I sat down and began to get all of my crap situated, I was struck. First with a guy’s bag (he wasn’t paying attention) and then, more importantly with an idea. A really great idea for a client’s brochure that has been giving me some problems. Was it this guy’s overly large bag (is it dripping red stuff…..?) or just my situation that gave me such a wonderful solution to my design problem? I really hope it didn’t have anything to do with getting hit in the head with a sack full of arms (I swear he’s looking at me funny now…. Is that a twitch?!?). What gave me such inspiration?
I’ve talked to a number of designers, artists and other ‘creatives’ and this happens all the time. It’s probably happened to you. There is something about being out of our normal context that sparks something in our brains (I hope this guy doesn’t try to take mine). It’s why so many people work at coffee shops or in the park. A change in scenery or environment is often what the creative doctor ordered.
In my particular instance, I’ve been locked in my home-office working on a tonne of stuff (including some crazy projects). I’m on my way to the KW branch of Big Time for some meetings and painting, but now I’m on my way to so much more. Could I actually be excited about design after feeling so low-down for the past few days? Yup. I can. After quickly sketching my brochure idea in my trusty Moleskine notebook, I got out this here laptop and worked a quick layout digitally…. I’m on a bus, with a murderer…. And I’m designing!!
We all have creative juices in us… even if it’s stuff that isn’t considered ‘creative’ (I’m talking to you science and math nerds). Get out of the cubicle, office, dank basement or hole and find someplace new, a new dank hole for example, and BAM! Creativity will hit you…
or maybe it’ll just be a sack full of arms.
