Sometimes one of the best ways to be creative is to put the laptop away and start playing and making. And this really hit home recently with a student workshop.

For the past year or so I have been doing some part-time teaching at Bath Spa University on their Graphic Design degree course, at the fantastic Locksbrook campus.

The initial part of the 2nd year Commerce module I’m teaching consists of a series of workshops and includes introducing the students to the idea of authorship, the connection between business strategy and design and what happens in the commercial world.

During one of the activities, a typographic study, I noticed that many students, working on their laptops, were moving quite quickly into detailing. Something that I suspect many designers, myself included, do without realising sometimes. And when that happens, without the ‘play’ stage, the outcomes can suffer. Often the best ideas come from play, when we stop trying to ‘solve’ the problem.

One example of this comes from my early career when I was very fortunate to work at Pentagram, at the same time as Alan Fletcher. I remember a poster he did for the National Portrait Gallery. He had been ‘playing’ with crops of different parts of a face – nose, eyes, ears etc – from paintings by different artists. Shuffling the different images around, he suddenly noticed the assembled pieces of paper resembled someone famous. He showed it round to different people in the studio. Prince Charles (it was 1989) they replied. And that became one of Alan’s most memorable posters. All from play.

So, I decided the next workshop session should involve something far more playful and something where they used their hands. Laptops put to one side, out came the scissors, glue and lots of magazines. After folding a few A3 sheets of paper in half, I gave them 20 minutes to cut, draw, tear and experiment with images and text, to make a cover. The ‘zines’ were passed round so different people worked on different ‘zines’ – a real collaborative effort.

The students responded to the task brilliantly and after an hour or so we had over 20 ‘team zines’ on the table. The fast and furious session resulted in fun, surprising and innovative ideas and layouts, creative typography and great use of imagery.

For me it felt like one of the best parts of the day. It demonstrated how quickly you can develop ideas and produce something original. That sometimes the best thing is to not worry too much. That making stuff can really help in the creative process. And that if you put the laptop away and just start playing and making, it might lead to something far more creative.