Member-only story
Bounding Creativity.
Paul Fairweather 2020
“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” Douglas Adams
This was our mantra when we were at university.
For me, though, it was more of a case of the sound of deadlines hurtling, seemingly out of no-where, towards me.
I recently had a conversation with Dani Venn, a celebrity chef who holds the dubious honour of been voted out of the Masterchef kitchen twice, both times whilst holding an immunity pin. Dani’s journey in becoming a self-taught chef gave me great insights into her creative process under pressure. I loved that Dani’s secret sauce was to be a bit quirky.
Our discussion was a catalyst for me to think about boundaries in creativity. In a self-directed creative process, or when you are leading a team, boundaries for time, scale, medium and theme of the project are essential. It is time, the deadline, that is one of the defining boundaries in Dani Venn’s Master Chef experiences.
I think of creative boundaries as the Goldilocks and the Three Bears of creativity. The boundaries need to be not too broad or not too tight. They have to be just right.
