Getting creative with pumpkins

As a freelance creative, it’s important to have time to ‘play’.

Staring at a Mac screen and thinking about serious business problems all day will eventually suck the very soul out of you. Imagine only ever eating dry crackers. Oh how you’d long for a bit of cheese or the odd pickled onion now and again. Possibly a bit of an extreme analogy, as many of the projects I work on allow me to be very creative, but you get the gist.

Several moons ago, we were coming up with ideas for a Halloween-themed mailer. The final solution involved delivering pumpkins to prospective business owners, asking them to carve them and send in photos of their finished masterpieces to enter a competition.

What better way to persuade them to tap into their inner Henry Moores and Barbara Hepworths than having a go myself.

I spent the best part of a day up to my elbows in pulp and seeds. It was the perfect excuse to let my imagination run free and be creative for creative’s sake. No wonder nursery-age kids spend so much time smiling and laughing.

My advice to every freelance creative; switch off your computer every once in a while, get the plasticine, sticky-backed plastic, glitter and paint brushes out, and go for it. The work you do in your day job will be all the better for it.

Happy Halloween.

For more on creativity, check out this series of posts, ‘Probing the Creative Mind’, starting with Mick Sands

Jonathan Wilcock (that’s me) is a Senior Freelance Copywriter.
You can drop me a line here, or email jonathan@sowhatif.co.uk