Interview #1: Edwin Bax
How better to gain knowledge than directly from the source? In this serie of interviews we ask creative minds what makes them creative and how they trigger creativity.
Edwin Bax, 47. Creative Director / Founder of Only the Brave
Hobbies: Karate, kickboxing, running, whisky’s, cigars, painting
Favourite music: Reggae
Hates: People that are not critical towards themself, people who don’t think by themselves, that do not make an effort to work on themselves.
Where do you find inspiration to become creative?
To me inspiration comes by opening up myself and absorbing the world as a sponge. it is often triggered by small things. What I have also noticed is that the older I get the more experience I get to trigger it more. What works well for me is to work together with young people and watch what they watch. With me the best ideas and innovations always come to me during vacation. I always take some subject related book with me on vacation that trigger me deepen my thoughts on a particular subject.
Is there a pattern to when creativity comes to you?
It seems that creativity comes when I take my mind off things. Like taking vacation of simply taking a day off. Surprisingly enough it also helps being under pressure, I am amazed how create ideas are forged last minute when you are about the hit a deadline. Almost a sort of survival instinct. What also helps me a lot is doing sports, letting off some steam is always good.
How do you document creative ideas?
Under normal circumstances I would use pen and paper however for large ideas and innovations I work with an web and mobile application called Asana.
In order to create creativity what super tip would you give our readers?
Make sure you surround yourself with the right people. Let them inspire you, watch how they work, analyse this and see what you can learn from this. Read books! During these corona days I have set a goal for myself to read at least 30 minutes per day, no matter when, just read. This has already helped in numerous occassions as this can help you gain so much knowlegde it is almost unimaginable. Give it a go.
What exercise would you recommend our readers to kickstart their creativitiy?
Surround yourself with creativity as much as you can and make this a part of your life. Think about practicing art, walks in nature, other peoples work. There is so much creativity around to enjoy, inspire and give you energy.
To wrap up the interview I want to ask the readers a question, to what end are you seeking creativity? Are you an artist of are you in advertising? There is a huge difference between the two. From a business perspective I see myself as someone who helps companies to help them achieve this markting and communication goals. And with this creativity is only 1 of the means to reach our goal. As a person I see creativity as a way to deepen and enrich my life and something that brings joy.
