With the rapid improvements in AI, it’s more important than ever to keep your creativity alive as it’s one of the best defenses against the rising trend of automation. Even if you don’t buy into all the hype around AI, keeping your creativity alive has always been a challenge and as so we’ve connected with some of the most creative folks in our community to discuss tactics and strategies for keeping your creativity alive.
Ashlie Crystal
I enjoy nurturing my creativity and expressing my vision to the world. While I sometimes face challenges, I approach them with resilience. When I am not feeling that creative energy, I use that advantage by taking breaks and returning to my projects with a fresh perspective and renewed clarity. When I encounter creative blocks, I seek inspiration in various ways to reignite my creativity. Read more>>
Noah Bauer
Variation is the key to keeping my creativity alive. If I’m doing the same musical styles, techniques, and patterns routinely, I tend to get very bored and uninspired. It makes me feel like I’ve hit a plateau musically and am neither growing nor creating anything of interest. To counter this, I’ve taken to a policy of always branching out. I try to learn as many different styles and techniques as possible, and to keep expanding on my knowledge of chord progressions, key changes, rhythms, and harmonic possibilities, so that there’s a larger pool of creativity to pull from. Read more>>
Sonja Alper
I was an only child with lots of time to dream. My family lived in an apartment with high ceilings adorned by intricate plaster moldings where walls and ceiling met. A treasure trove for my mind! Leaves and vines and blossoms intertwined in a way that transported me into an altered reality whenever I looked up. I saw faces of animals, real or imagined ones and sometimes people. Depending on time of day and my mood, they changed from being friendly, playful and inviting to scary and threatening. Read more>>
Kenzi Taylor
Music is inherently a creative hobby! I work as a Neurologic Music Therapist (NMT)®, which means I use specific elements of music within evidence-based techniques that activate various parts of the brain. While this approach might seem limiting, I believe it actually provides a solid foundation for adding creativity. Read more>>
Kristina Daduryan
This is an excellent question because, from my perspective, everyone should explore and discover the areas where they are naturally creative. Creativity is such a powerful tool—it shapes our thinking and mindset in ways that can influence every aspect of life. Creativity is not just a hobby but a way to meditate and reset. Often, when I’m stuck on a problem or issue at work, taking time to engage in a creative project in a completely different area clears my mind. By the time I’m done, I’ve often found the solution I was struggling to see. Read more>>
Sarah Gautiere
For photography, I keep my creativity alive by setting up model calls where I am able to bring a creative idea to life. This is a chance to practice different lighting conditions, weather conditions, or even a different style of shooting and editing. Getting the opportunity to try out new gear or props. Shooting something outside your usually niche can be exciting and a new challenge as well. Whenever I feel like I’ve lost a bit of that spark, I plan a model call like this to get my creativity flowing again. Another way I keep this alive is by working with other creative artists and attending styled shoots or workshops. Read more>>
Key
I think keeping and maintaining creativity can be hard, especially as an adult. The most important thing for me to do is try to keep a childlike outlook on life. What I mean by that is, when i’m outside walking to the metro or just around DC, I’m always looking at life with a sense of wonder. Wondering how a graffiti artist got so high to make their artwork, looking at the architecture of buildings and the shape of them and asking myself “how can i use something like this in my own designs?” or “what function does this serve and how can i simplify it or make a way to use it in designing clothing.” whether it be a certain shape of window/door etc. Read more>>
