Making room for creative thinking

Last week we took some valuable time out of the studio for two reasons.
The first was to analyse feedback from our recent sessions of face-to-face client research. Our business is built on long-term relationships and it’s vital that we continue to learn from areas in which clients value us and, more importantly, where there is room for improvement.

One of our values is To have heart; this means we want to ensure we are continually working to strengthen our relationships and listen to our clients. The research revealed a fascinating snapshot of their viewpoint and provided some important pointers that will make a difference.
 
We then looked at the creative process and how we can ‘throw open the creative gates’ (a little phrase we coined during the discussions!). In a world where we are constantly being overstimulated and interrupted, it is vital to disconnect, recharge and gain perspective.
 
To help us do this we turned to Surrey Art School, where we found ourselves in an old converted dairy, brimming with character. Once Arts and Education specialist, Ellie Green, had helped us clear our minds and reconnect with our bodies through meditation, we were ready to start our creative visualisation task.
 
Tearing up magazines to collect imagery and text that we were drawn to was unexpectedly cathartic. We sorted this information into a past, present and future map. This was surprisingly challenging, but effective and helped us to re-connect with our personal goals and future aspirations. At the end we had a sharing session where we talked through our newly created 'vision boards’ and analysed them together, it was an eye-opening experience, looking into the inner thoughts of the team!  
 
And then the final crescendo - mono-printing from nature!
 
Working with seasonal natural materials, such as leaves and feathers, we experimented creating prints on different types of paper. The prints were stunningly detailed and rather abstract in their composition.
 
The only problem now, is whose do we display in the studio?