RESOURCES | 10 TIPS
IMPROVE YOUR CREATIVE PRACTICE IN 2025
From Jerry Saltz, Rick Ruben, Forbes to Daily OM, everyone has an opinion on how to nurture your creativity. As artists of any kind it's easy to get bogged down in everyday admin, feel stagnant and stuck in a rut, or even just forget that the best artists (or the ones just having the best time) are the ones who keep on evolving themselves and their practice. So to keep developing on our artistic journeys we've picked out some of our favourite advice on the ways to improve your creativity. Give these a go to be your most creative self in 2025.
Without further a do, and in no particular order here's our top ten things you can try to improve your creativity.
1 EXPERIMENT
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Some artists can fall into the trap of being rigid and prone to the mindset of "it's been working so I'll keep doing it". And this can be great, you've got your style, your medium you're happy as Larry. But this can lead you to get a bit stagnant, to repeat yourself, and even become a little boring - for yourself more than anyone else, there's nothing worse than an artist who is visibly bored with their own work!
This is where trying a little experimentation comes in. Allowing for some spontaneous creative expression can disrupt your habitual thinking patterns and allow you to explore alternative perspectives or even push you outside of comfort into some unexpected ideas.
This doesn't have to be drastic, if you're happy with your mediums and style, don't go throwing out the baby, but just see what scope you have to play. Try a incorporating a new subject matter, mix up the surfaces you create on or with. By being a little curious you can find joy in new things and keep your creative practice evolving.
2 CURATE YOUR WORKSPACE
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You might not have a studio, you might have a studio that looks more like a nuclear waste facility. The first one is not a problem, the second one really is. Whatever space you have, be it a separate studio location, a spare room, a shed, a kitchen table, or even just a specific part of your living room floor; any space can be a creative one, but give it the respect it deserves and optimise it for your best results.
Everyone may find this looks a little different. Someone might love their very neat table top, with every ruler lined up on a wall mount, bright light and a water filter. For others, they might need a little more chaos, a Wendy house with some friendly paint splatters, pot plants and '90s garage.
Whatever your area; fill it with things that inspire you, or clear it of distractions, it's all about creating a space you want to create in. A tidy aesthetically pleasing space can help to reduce stress and encourage productive habits, a visually enticing space can be inspiring and motivational helping to reinforce your creative goals. By curating your space to reflect the artist you are, you set yourself up to make your best work the way you enjoy making it and enhancing your creative output.
3 LEARN FROM OTHERS & COLLABORATE
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Need a boost in creative energy or want to shake things up? Add more brain. Different creators have different opinions, ways of working, ideas, all these good things; and by putting heads together or hearing a different perspective you're always going to see a boost in your creative thinking.
This could be as simple as watching a video interview with an artist you admire and finding inspiration or motivation you can take back into the studio. Or this could be a full human interaction on a piece or project. Think about reaching out to another artist, maybe someone who does something completely different to you. Is there scope to try a collaboration? To work with someone directly, together on one piece, sharing ideas and skills. Or maybe to create an exhibition, to create and curate a selection of works as a collaborative response.
Any chance to learn something new from others, gain constructive feedback and perspectives in a supportive environment can lead to innovation in your work and greater creative output.
4 REFLECT, CREATE HEADSPACE
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Take a minute to walk away from what you are working on. To take stock of where you are at and to create space to evaluate. This might be from an individual piece you are working on or from a whole series, collection or way of working even. It's easy to get lost in the work and loose perspective. Taking time to reflect can give you some much needed mental clarity to connect back to your intensions and refocus.
Sometimes all you need is to take a step back and take a deep breath, a moment to reflect on what's right in front of you. Are you making good choices? Are things working for you? Have you followed your intention and created something with the meaning you wanted to convey? Other times this might be a bigger zoom out, going into a new space or taking a longer break. Giving your mind time to process your ideas.
The American Psychological Association and Stanford University have done studies which suggest that walking for just 20 minutes can increase your creative output by 60 percent, and that after walking we see a significant boost in creative ideas. Even Nietzsche wrote that “All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking".
Whatever your way of reflecting, you could try writing down some thoughts about what you are making, or things you think are going well or aren't, and why. Be honest and self aware, just create some space to see where you're at. It's easier to keep creativity moving forward if you know where you are.
5 PRACTICE
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There is no getting around the fact that to improve at something you have to repeatedly do it.
It's called a creative practice.
So you'd like to improve your creative practice?
Then do it, practice practice practice.
Have we said it enough yet?
6 FAIL
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Don't panic. But if you don't know already, this is going to be hard to hear. You will fail. Often.
As a creative person you are putting a little bit of yourself out into the world whenever you make something, and everything isn't always going to connect with people the way you hope. The thing is, that's completely ok. We can get very valuable knowledge from failing.
Firstly, never do you learn more than when you fail. Analysing things that go wrong can teach you the right way for you to do things going forward, or things you want to avoid. There is a whole lot of very successful humans out there who will tell you they didn't find success until after a grand couple of fails. And these fails helped to refine their skills, build resilience and push their limits.
Secondly by noting our failures we can better see our successes. There's nothing like making a piece of work nobody responds to, to make you see how great it is when something works. And by understanding what a fail means to us, we can really understand what success is.
Failure is a hugely powerful catalyst for creativity, it drives our personal growth and creative freedom once you embrace it.
7 KNOW YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH
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This might sound a little salesy, but this is not a horrific buzzword idea aimed at your social media 🤮.
All this is, is a great exercise in distilling your thoughts about your work in a concise and thoughtful way. Having your own clear "pitch" can improve your communication when meeting new people, helping you to articulate your ideas and make meaningful connections. If you can express yourself in a concise manner that helps people to understand you, you can engage in much more interesting dialogue with other creatives, rather than waffling on and on until the poor hostage backs away slowly and grabs the nearest drink. Ahem.
But also, more than anything this can be a great way for you to clarify for yourself your purpose, and where you are with your work. When you are clear on what you are doing and what it means to you, you can have room to open explore new ideas and see where your creativity can grow.
8 ASK QUESTIONS
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This is an age old answer of how to improve anything. Any good teacher of any subject, any guru, any expert or leader (barring maybe cult or dictatorship) will encourage questions. To do so encourages curiosity, the exploration of new ideas, challenges assumptions and promotes your critical thinking; all of which cultivate a mindset of innovation and creativity.
So ask other artists what work their making, what inspires them, how they use their clay, why they mix their paints that way, what that short film is about, what paper they use, really anything you are inquisitive about. If you don't understand something, find someone who does, maybe it's a friend maybe it's a stranger on the internet (I really cant stress enough about cult leaders, it's mad out there, be careful) and ask them questions to improve your skill set or knowledge. Embrace your curiosity and reflect on your own and others reasoning, allowing yourself to analyse information and redefine the parameters of your practice.
9 LOOK AT A LOT OF ART - GET INSPIRED
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Nothing exposes you to new ideas and perspectives and sparks your imagination like looking at what others create. Viewing the work of others can enrich your own creative expression by evoking new thoughts or feelings, inspiring you to create work for yourself.
Being cognitively flexible and allowing others viewpoints and connections or even cultures and histories to broaden your own understanding of the world, can not only make you a better creative but probably person as well.
We live in an incredibly interconnected world, and one of the ways that's great, is it means you have access to surround yourself with artwork you find interesting and find inspiration from all different places. And not just visual art, maybe it's songs maybe it's movies or nature that inspires you. Any way in which you can allow your mind to be open and invite inspiration fosters the perfect environment for your creativity to flourish.
10 FOCUS ON YOUR CRAFT, BE OBSESSIVE
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