happier.com is attending the Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit in Philadelphia.  Sally Augustin, Ph.D. is a guest blogger for happier.com and a member of the Positive Psychology Practitioner Directory.

The place that you’re in physically influences the space that you’re in psychologically.  Psychologists and other sensory scientists have found links between features of the physical environment and creativity.

10 Tips to Set Your Scene for Creativity:

1.  Brightly light spaces when you want to think creatively — warm light is particularly effective.

2.  Keep the environment relatively simple — moderate cognitive and sensory stimulation are best.  A couple of pieces of art are great, a jumble of images, toys, and knick knacks is just that, a jumble.  Clear them away to clear your mind for creative thinking.  Don’t make a space for creative thought too “machine-like” — use both rectilinear and curvilinear elements in the architecture, furnishings, and ornamentation

3.  Link to nature.  When people look out onto nature through a window, they restock their mental batteries and have more energy to be creative.  If a nature view isn’t possible, install a fish tank in plain view.  Indoor plants also have been associated with creative thought — but just use a few (5 or 6 regular sized plants) in a space — an indoor jungle is a good idea carried too far.

4. Paint walls with cooler colors — particularly relatively bright ones that aren’t very saturated — more saturated colors are purer versions of a hue — apple red is a more saturated red than maroon is.

5.  Eliminate red or orange-red in a space; mental performance and persistence decrease when people see these colors.

6.  Incorporate natural materials into the design — but heed the cooler colors rule — use birch type stains instead of maple ones, for example.

7.  Make a place smell like lemons; the scent of lemon improves mental performance.  Diffuse this odor into a space for creative thought, or serve lemonade, lemon drops, or lemon frosted sponge cake.

8.  Provide the right technology to do the task at hand.

9.  Use a round table, or one without a short side that could be seen as the table’s head, to encourage everyone at a meeting to participate.

10. Eliminate audio and visual distractions.  Being creative takes concentration — and a feeling of control over the physical environment helps also.

Use design to set the scene for creativity — put the space you’re in to work for you.

Learn more about creative spaces by contacting Sally Augustin, PhD.

happier.com is blogging today from the Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit in Philadelphia.  The Summit is a two-day conference which promises to embrace the same values it champions: innovation, creativity, collaboration, shared learning, technology and open source thinking.  The Summit will explore the complex ecology that makes up creative economies. It will examine all aspects of what creative ecologies need from physical space, to funding, to access to talent, to emerging technologies, to infrastructure and the policies necessary to create that ecology. The Summit will explore how open source models of collaboration and innovation are changing the dynamics of organizations and how the next generation of leaders, both traditional and non-traditional, are making things happen in their communities.

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