Creativity in a beige world

Let’s face it, beige is not inspiring.

It was never meant to be. Beige’s prime purpose is to blend into the background and not to be noticed. So if you’re trying to be creative in “beige-zone”, you may need a little help.

If you’ve ever visited a design studio or ad agency (the work space, not just the nice meeting room with the enormous plasma screen), you’ll notice that the walls (and often the desks, floors etc) are covered in images and other items that catch your eye. There’s a reason for this. It keeps the designers inspired. Anything that they have come across that is interesting, in form, shape, image, colour, humour etc is bound to be on that wall (desk, floor).

Of course, if there are certain standards of professionalism and tidiness in your workplace, you may not be able to plaster the walls, so in lieu of this, why not prepare a portable inspiration board? It can tuck under your desk or behind the bookshelf when you are more concerned about making impressions.

Start with a coloured background, 2 sheets of A2 or A3 board that can be taped together and fold in on themselves for storage are ideal, and paste images, quotes, photos, magazine headlines etc as you find them. It may take some time to get a board you are happy with. You may even need several boards, depending on the type of project you’re working on.

Then pull it out and pop it on your desk or on the wall when you need to generate some new ideas.

Voila, begone beige!