This Week's Tip: Find Your Inner Creative Rebel

As a creative, you’re a rebel by nature, but it’s easy to feel trapped under a boring, non-risqué cloud where it rains isolation and discouragement. iStock wants you to banish that stormy disposition with a furious hurricane of risk, creativity and exploration.

1. Take Risks – Rebels don’t follow rules, so start by admitting what habits you retreat to when you’re uninspired. Introduce alternatives to those habits, which will throw off your routine. Try a new cafe, change your haircut or leave your house more.

2. Invite Creativity – If you’re a photographer, take your camera somewhere unfamiliar. You never know what you’ll see on a trip to the dump or a walk through the neighbourhood on the other side of the train tracks (iStock’s HQ is on the other side of the tracks, for inspiration purposes, of course). If you’re more of an illustrator, take your sketchbook everywhere, from a garage sale to the aquarium, you just never know when inspiration might strike.

3. Seek Inspiration – Whose art baffles your mind or arrests your soul? Not sure? Well, now’s the time to find out. iStock’s Design Spotlight, Article of the Week and Artist of the Week are a good place to start. Branch out to the ultimate rock stars of your genre who you dream of one day competing with. Take a tutorial you've been avoiding.

4. Scrapbook it – No, not quite like your mother used to do. Gather artifacts like photos, ads, concert tickets, articles, lucky shoelaces or fabric samples. Whatever floats your boat and stirs your imagination.

5. Surround Yourself with Creativity – Pump up the volume on your stereo or iPod, rent that old Alfred Hitchcock flick or play a little music to get into that creative space.

5. Challenge Yourself – Test your skills in one of iStock's friendly competitions: Vector Challenge or Cage Match.

With creativity, those who add more risk and adventure will find more creative rewards. Now, go mix it up!