The Sid Lee creative director punks her office in the pursuit of better work
“I really like absurd stuff,” says Eva Van den Bulcke, Montreal-based creative director at Sid Lee.
That goes for her taste in humour but also for how she finds creative inspiration. It’s hard, she says, to be creative on command.
“Sometimes you think you can control it, but really you can’t. You can just provoke some unusual situation that will allow you to create the links in your mind that you wouldn’t if you were over-thinking stuff or being overly rational.”
People often think they are free to consider new ideas or think about things differently, she says. “But when you start to explore that freedom, you realize that you are really stuck in certain ways of thinking.”
And so she loves truly free-flowing brainstorming sessions where no proposal is ever rejected out of hand. There’s nothing that frustrates her more than people who instinctively say no to original ideas, no matter how absurd. “I get into tremendous fights with those people,” she says.
But she also knows it’s not a natural thing for people to work that way. In fact it takes extra effort to make it possible when you work in an office day after day. “You have to find ways to challenge your mind and do something out of the ordinary to open your space to your imagination.”
She fondly recalls the days working as a creative team with her copywriter partner Jessica Ghersi, who has since moved on to Anomaly in New York. “Every day we would do something stupid. It was mandatory,” says Van den Bulcke.
The objective was to push themselves, and their co-workers, out of their comfort zone or at least force them to see things from a new perspective.
“One day, we put the whole office upside down, we put everything upside down. We were literally sitting in our office with our legs up. It provoked some interesting reactions.”
On another occasion, they convinced a “funky” writer and a straight-laced account manager to switch clothes for a day. “They really turned into each other,” she says. “Playing is a very creative process.”
Creative Tool Kit: Eva Van den Bulcke’s sources for creative inspiration
Voyeurism: I love walking through Sid Lee’s office and peeking at other people’s computer screens.
Coffee: I get really high on it. It makes me silly and a bit rude but it can also get ideas flowing. It can also make me want to punch people in the face so I have to be careful with this power drink.
Artist websites: Sites like Behance.net and NetDiver.net. It really excites me to see all the talent and thinking of projects to work on with them.
People-watching: I can’t help but picture what people do behind closed curtains. Just watching people is very productive for me because it helps with character-building.
My boyfriend/lifestyle curator: He has an amazing ability to discover the most interesting exhibitions, movies, artists, concepts and people.
Photo credit: Jocelyn Michel
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