You Are Not Just a Creative, You Are the Creative.
To start, let’s attempt the brief below:
Create a campaign that will help sell Clojizkal Shoes to aliens in Galiosolo.
Creatives often think the creative process begins when they are given a task or when there is a problem to solve. The truth is, the creative process starts long before that. It starts the day you are born.
Every idea you come up with is drawn from the repository of your experience: what you have seen, what you have heard, what you have felt, and what you are currently feeling.
From the previous example, you will realise that no matter how creative you are, it is difficult to solve something you have no reference for. Clojizkal and Galiosolo are made-up words, so there is no experience to draw from.
Creativity comes from your ability to observe, think, analyse, and interpret your experiences. As a creative, you need to expand that experience. Visit new places, learn new things, and most importantly, pay attention while you are experiencing them.
Your ideas are made from what you are made of 🍪.
This is why two people can look at the same challenge and arrive at completely different solutions. They are not drawing from the same internal library. They are not shaped by the same exposures, curiosities, or memories.
Which also means that improving your work is less about constantly searching for “better ideas” and more about becoming someone with richer input. Better ideas are often just better-fed minds expressing themselves.
So the question is not only “how do I solve this?”
It is also “what am I exposing myself to when I am not trying to solve anything?”
Because that is where the real difference is made. Not in the moment of creation, but in everything that feeds it before it begins.
The more intentional you are about what you see, read, hear, and experience, the less you struggle when it is time to create. The challenge stops feeling like a starting point and becomes more like a trigger.
And at that point, creativity stops being something you chase. It becomes something you recognise.
