Top 5 Ideas to Maintain and Increase Creativity from Aaron Johnson

Aaron Johnson

is the artist who creates the popular What the Duck cartoon strip. I’ve been following his work for years, and have found myself regularly consuming his sense of humor – the central character being a duck photographer (a “shooting duck?”)

Johnson comes up with a new cartoon strip 5 days per week, rain or shine. As much as I appreciate all the fun photographer humor, I also respect his ability to come up with a continuous supply of new creative ideas.

How does he do it? I decided to ask. I think photographers, like any creative individuals, can benefit from his answers.

Grover: How did you come up with the idea for the strip? Are you, or were you ever, a photographer?

Top 5 ideas on maintaining and increasing your creativity

5. After you get one good idea – force yourself to come up with four others. Don’t settle.

4. Don’t spend too much time trying to get ideas from of other people’s work. It’s a good idea to study and analyze, but too much will turn you into ‘an audience’ and not ‘the creator’.

3. Do not concern yourself with what other people will think. You’ll never please everyone, but you can please yourself.

2. Break out of your comfort zone (or zones). One easy way is by doing the opposite of what you would normally do.

1. Force yourself to do it – everyday. Think of creativity as a muscle. The more it’s used, the stronger it becomes.

• Did it say something?
• Can someone else relate?
• Did it make me laugh?

About the author

Grover Sanschagrin
Grover is co-founder of PhotoShelter. He is a frequent contributor to the PhotoShelter blog. He loves tequila, Frank Zappa, and avocados. You can follow him on Twitter here: @heygrover

3 Comments

Miserere 7-26-2010

I’m a bit let down by this interview. I was really hoping Aaron would outline the Voodoo potion he’s been drinking all these years…or that he’s actually one of a set of sextuplets working on the strip…or that he has a time-stopping machine…or that he outsources his work to artists in Duckistan for $1/strip…or…just about anything but the fact that he’s a human being who has come up with over 1,000 hilarious cartoon strips, daily, on his own. I just don’t believe that. Aaron, we want the truth! :-D

pholange 7-27-2010

#95! thank you thank you thank you!

Sergio 7-28-2010

I love his 5 ideas on maintaining and increasing your creativity! Good post! I will practice this.

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