Un-stack and De-pile
When in the middle of a project, piles and stacks seem to bloom and grow almost spontaneously throughout your creative environment. The biggest offenders are the magazines that apparently spawn new additions while sitting in the corner unread. Periodic filing or trashing of things that you won’t get to can decrease stress and increase happiness during projects. When you have stack and stacks of things sitting around, it appears subconsciously that there is far more to do than really exists. Eliminating the backlog can actually increase your productivity, plus it just looks better.
Beautify
Its hard to stay innovative when your space has the look and personality of a slug. Adding art can make your space cozier, more inviting and, most importantly, less like a cold war office. While our studio has some very cool art, it definitely doesn’t have enough. We are on the prowl for pieces to fill a couple walls.
Pick your art carefully with regards to color scheme and feeling (a couple Cassatt prints aren’t what I’m talking about) and choose pieces from people you know if possible. Besides being über-cool looking its fun to know something about the things you are decorating with. I have a series of letter-press pieces from a local designer hanging up, and it always surprises her when she sees them.
Setting up your space in an elegant way sometimes requires thinking differently. I recently read an article about someone who was renting space and couldn’t paint or hang things on the walls. Their solution was to make large cutouts, paint, and set them against the walls around the room.
Arrange and Simplify Your Creative Environment
Staying creative can be greatly augmented by arranging, and maintaining, a creative environment. One way to keep it creative is to keep it organized. Smart, easy containers and storage solutions are another great way to clean up your space and keep it fresh. This is also a great way to ditch the tendency to dump things in piles during busy times.
