James Adams is the founding principal of 5IVE CREATIVE. He has an extensive background in retail planning, brand strategy and environmental design. He has lead design efforts for Polo Jeans Co., Bank of America, CVS, Armstrong World Industries, B. Dalton Bookseller, Esprit; Porsche and Starbucks to name a few. You can get tickets and more info for his January 15th talk right here.
How do you define creativity and apply it in your career?
If insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results then I think creativity can be defined as doing something for the first time and getting the desired results. Doing something different by itself isn’t creative, at least not in my work world. Doing something different to achieve a specific result, a planned result, that is creative.
Where do you find your best creative inspiration?
Everybody is a creative inspiration. Collaborating with people in any and all areas of expertise generates ideas. Always. I’ve never known anyone locked up to a desk in a nicely isolated room to maximize creativity. They may be highly productive in that setting but creativity is people fed. Talking to people always inspires creativity and if no one is around, I can always talk to myself.
What’s the one creative advice or tip you wish you’d known as a young person?
Failure is just part of the process. If you aren’t taking enough risk to fail then you aren’t going to succeed in a meaningful way either.
Who would you like to hear speak at CreativeMornings?
Lauren Weedman, she applies a creative twist to everyday life events and she’s from Seattle.
How would you describe what you do in a single sentence to a stranger?
We connect companies with their customers through 2 and 3 dimensional design.
Who has been the biggest influence on your life? What lessons did that person teach you?
Tom Calvey, he was a general contractor I worked for over a 4 year period. He taught me that schools mostly taught us to memorize information but the real lesson was in how to apply the knowledge.
