Jan
27
Break the Creative Mold
Can you imagine yourself as a turtle? An object? A person of a different nationality? A fictitious character? A version of you in a completely different climate? What would you look like? What characteristics would make it clearly you? Now … imagine you have to mold this image into clay. That’s the task we were challenged with in this month’s Creative Caffeine session at FMS.
Leading the session was Nick Long, the agency’s design director and a longtime artist whose focus is on contemporary realism. While many of us who gathered together have creative roles here at the agency, I can tell you that molding clay is not necessarily our forte. Nick implied that no experience was necessary for the task, and that the point was to express our creativity in a different medium than we traditionally use, like the trusty pen and paper, or computer programs.
Nick proceeded to show us some impressive clay figures created by his son when he was very young. Several of us were thinking, and Amber shared, “Nick, you could have shown those to us after we’re done.” He told us there was only one rule: to create some kind of version or alter ego of ourselves. How it manifested was up to us. With a spread of clay and utensils before us, not to mention our vivid imaginations, we began tearing pieces off, shaping them and bringing our creations to life.
The Creative Caffeine group working diligently on their individual claymations.
A little time later, the focused silence lifted and we looked around in amazement at all of the unique claymations (see pictures below). It was great fun breaking out of our typical routines to create in a different way. We walked away with a refreshed perspective on being creative, and the energy resulting from the experience spread throughout the agency. No matter what your challenge—whether it be creating an ad, a website or some kind of guerilla marketing—the boundaries of creativity are only as confined as we make them.
Nick created a claymation of himself somewhere in the cold. He is all bundled up!
Laurie created our very own FMS mascot!
Bill created a neat little character that represented him when he was growing up - big ears, fro in high school, washboard abs, and no arms intentionally (because he said he wasn't perfect, but he really is!)
Amber created "Super Amber." Enough said.
As our copywriter, Jen created an erasable pen with characteristics that reflected her own personality - red hair, green eyes, Florida Gator color, and a little sass/personality reflected her her arms.