THE PRINCIPLE

The images and items around you can stimulate your creativity

Have you outfitted your creative space with pictures, items and colours that encourage creativity?

If not, what would do the job?

Usually we think of zany stuff and I have my share of it in my home office: a Frankenstein head, a large rubber statue of Homer Simpson carrying a doughnut on his back, some figures from The Nightmare before Christmas, and a plaster sculpture of Uncle Scrooge diving into a bathtub full of money.

Here are some other ideas:

• plants and flowers
• posters or postcards
• a rear-view mirror attached to your computer
• inspirational quote cards you make yourself
• a symbol of something you hope to achieve.

Colour is important, too. My office is two-tone: red and yellow. You might prefer something more restful.

For visual stimulation, I like to collect the kind of postcards you often find in racks in cafés, bars and gyms. Most of them have some kind of interesting image and every day or so I’ll put a new one on my desk. If you prefer, you can buy postcards of great art at a museum shop or book store.

Changing the items is important because even the most inspirational pictures or objects lose their power when you get used to seeing them every day.

One option that adds an element of surprise: set up a trading arrangement with a creative friend, so that every month each of you lends the other half a dozen pictures or other items you find stimulating.