Be honest: Are you in a creative rut? Is a sameness creeping into your work — because you’ve been successful? Because it’s profitable? Because both your existing and incoming clients love it?
In a new white paper, “The Creative Unflattening: Breaking Free From the Age of Average,” New York-based trend forecasting and consumer insights firm Future Snoops, argues that by focusing on what’s working today instead of looking ahead, businesses are stifling creativity. (The company will host a webinar on the same topic at 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday, April 15.)
“The irony is clear: In trying to make creativity ‘safe’ for business, we’ve made business unsafe for creativity,” according to FS. “The crisis of creativity isn’t a failure of imagination; it’s a failure of process. In the pursuit of certainty, we’ve created systems that systematically eliminate the very things that drive innovation. In our relentless quest to quantify and automate, we’ve also lost the joy and human spark that makes creation not just productive but purpose-driven.”
The result is a safe sameness — in design, in branding, in products.
“When data trumps intuition and timeliness prioritizes output over ideation, we turn imaginative creators into production machines,” FS argues. “The people who should be shaping the future? They’re stuck replicating the past.”
Jenna Guarascio, FS’s head of content and innovation, says, “this isn’t happening because companies lack talent or resources. It’s a direct result of how we’ve chosen to approach the future. What we’ve optimized for efficiency, we’ve lost in distinctiveness. What we’ve gained in predictability, we’ve sacrificed in possibility.”
The white paper is focused on retail, but it raises issues that affect all types of businesses, including design firms.
FS asks: “What if, alongside financial performance, we measured:
· How much joy did your projects bring to your customers? (Or, how much joy did your designs bring to you clients)?
· How true did you stay to your brand and community?
· How much did you dare to challenge the status quo?”
I love those questions. What if, along with assessing whether a project was finished on time and within budget, you included those questions in your post-project evaluation?
The world has felt uncertain for a while and, for many people, even more so lately. It can be scary to take risks in uncertain times, but it can also open new opportunities and take you in new directions. Perhaps now is the best time to take some new risks.
And that requires four things that will help drive creativity-fueled long-term success:
1. A distinctive point of view
2. An authentic connection with consumers (and clients)
3. The ability to shape rather than follow market dynamics
4. The space for contemplation and breakthrough thinking
FS has “the space for contemplation and breakthrough thinking” listed last but I’d move it to No. 1 because the others flow from it.
Which brings us to looking for ways to “unflatten creativity,” as the paper’s title says — to think creatively about your mission, your opportunities, your clients, your designs.
I’ll suggest two starting places:
1. Use AI for menial work, not creative work. This quote attributed to author Joanna Maciejewska pops up frequently in social media: “I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.” Setting aside the fact that we do have machines that do our laundry and dishes, her point is that creativity is fulfilling for us as humans.
Artificial intelligence tools can do all manner of “creative” work, from designing fabrics to writing novels, but we excel at creativity. There’s nothing wrong with using AI to get started on an idea or concept, especially if you’re blocked creatively. But you are a uniquely creative human being, bringing your eye and experience to projects. Let AI do the rote grunt work and let your imagination soar.
2. Set aside time for deep, creative work. Productivity and time management expert Cal Newport popularized the idea of deep work, or regularly setting aside time for uninterrupted work focused on a specific problem or project. Deep work isn’t just for working on a strategic plan or going over financials, although it’s great for that. It also applies to creativity.
It may seem like creative work flows from inspiration — and it does. But creativity is also a mental muscle: The more you sketch, the better the sketches. And because creativity is a muscle, you’ll benefit from setting aside time in your schedule each day or week for creative projects, just as you do if you want to keep your physical muscles in shape.
If you need more motivation to make time for creative work, consider this call to action from FS: “This moment isn’t just a challenge, it’s an opening. When everyone else is trapped in fear, the boldest move it to break free, to declare a new direction.”
