Ten Surprising Ways to Spark Creativity in Your Design Team

Creativity is the backbone of great design, yet even the most inspired teams can hit creative roadblocks. When deadlines loom and pressure mounts, finding new energy and fresh ideas can feel daunting. But what if creativity could be engineered?

Most design leaders rely on brainstorming sessions and mood boards. However, today’s high-performing teams are going further—embracing unorthodox tactics that reach the hidden wells of innovation within their members. This article explores ten surprising ways to spark creativity in your design team, loaded with real-world examples and practical techniques you can start today.

Table of Contents

1. Change the Environment
2. Cross-Pollinate with Other Disciplines
3. Embrace Constraints and Challenges
4. Gamify the Creative Process
5. Host Failure Celebrations
6. Unplug to Recharge
7. Reverse the Brief
8. Encourage Idea Ownership, Not Ego
9. Inject Playful Competition
10. Spotlight Hidden Talents and Passions

Introduction

Design teams are the engine rooms of innovation, shaping how we see and interact with the world. Yet, even the most talented designers are at risk of creative stagnation. According to a 2022 Adobe Creativity Survey, 78% of creative professionals stated they felt ‘stuck’ at least once a month. The culprit? Routine, isolation, and a fear of failure.

But what if you could inject new perspective and excitement into your team with a few surprisingly simple strategies? Below, we dissect ten science-backed, tried, and sometimes counterintuitive approaches that have helped leading companies tap into new realms of imagination. Whether you supervise a nimble in-house crew or a sprawling agency, these ideas will invigorate your team's creative muscle.

1. Change the Environment

It’s easy to underestimate how much your physical environment shapes creative output. Research from the University of Minnesota found that people working in messy or unconventional spaces produce more innovative ideas than those in neat environments. This isn’t a call for chaos, but rather a nudge to break away from sameness.

Practical Example: At Airbnb, teams swap workspaces every quarter, rotating between rooms adorned with eclectic mementoes. This movement exposes team members to new stimuli and disrupts creative routines. IDEO, an innovation consultancy, uses movable furniture and whiteboards that let teams reconfigure their space instantly for greater ideation.

Action Step: Try holding your next brainstorming session in a park, art gallery, or patio. Consider a flexible office setup with standing desks and a variety of seating. Even simple changes—like bringing in plants or rearranging wall art—can make the space feel energized and new.

2. Cross-Pollinate with Other Disciplines

Creativity thrives at the intersection of disciplines. IBM’s Global CEO Study revealed that the most successful organizations nurture teams with varied backgrounds, spanning engineering, art, business, science, and more. Exposure to unrelated fields generates unexpected connections.

Practical Example: When the Google Doodle team wanted fresh animation perspectives, they recruited guest illustrators from the world of street art and experimental dance. Their input fundamentally shifted how the Doodles moved and interacted. Similarly, Apple’s famous design ethos draws inspiration from calligraphy, architecture, and music.

Action Step: Organize monthly cross-department “curiosity lunches” where designers, engineers, and marketers collaborate on fictitious problems or personal passion projects. Or create mini-internships, allowing team members to shadow colleagues from other industries for a week.

3. Embrace Constraints and Challenges

Paradoxically, limits are often the seeds of the most revolutionary ideas. The book “A Beautiful Constraint” by Adam Morgan and Mark Barden positions limitations as catalysts, not cages. Knowing you only have two colors to work with or must complete a project in 24 hours forces resourcefulness and unconventional problem-solving.

Real-World Insight: The design of Twitter's 280-character limit forced brevity, propelling a culture of concise wit and unique communication style. The London Underground map, famously designed by Harry Beck in 1931, turned the chaos of railway lines into a simple, color-coded schematic because geographical accuracy had to be sacrificed for usability.

Action Step: Challenge your team with intentional constraints—set surreal time limits for ideation, or launch a one-day competition: “Design a logo using only circles.”

4. Gamify the Creative Process

Injecting game mechanics into creative processes increases engagement, motivation, and group cohesion. Video game elements like points, timed challenges, and badges aren’t just for entertainment—they also supercharge productivity and excitement among adults. Stanford research demonstrates that gamified tasks can double idea output versus conventional meetings.

Example: Advertising agency Droga5 runs in-house design “quests”: small teams rack up points by pitching offbeat concepts, with top scorers earning coffee vouchers or a bonus vacation day. The friendly competition creates a buzz and removes the fear of sharing wild ideas.

Action Step: Use an app like MURAL or Miro to turn brainstorming into a digital board game. Or, assign teams pop-up missions like "Design a product you'd want as a child"—with hilarious, judgment-free presentations.

5. Host Failure Celebrations

Most workplaces quietly mourn failed projects. But companies like FuckUp Nights and Scandinavia’s Supercell have built cultures where failing (and learning from it) is cause for communal celebration. When risk-taking is embraced—even applauded—creativity flourishes.

Quote: As inventor Thomas Edison famously noted, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Real Example: Spotify’s “Fail Wall” displayed stories of failed launches. These honest accounts, paired with lessons learned, reduced shame and encouraged bolder thinking.

Action Step: At your next team meeting, allocate time for “failure stories.” Reward teams for sharing the riskiest ideas—regardless of outcome—to nurture creative resilience.

6. Unplug to Recharge

It may sound counterintuitive, but some of the best creative breakthroughs happen when you’re nowhere near a screen. A Psychology of Creativity report suggests that short walks and unplugged downtime allow the brain to form new connections.

Practical Insight: Stefan Sagmeister, renowned designer, closes his studio one year every seven. During these sabbaticals, he's produced some of his most acclaimed projects. Similarly, teams at Patagonia are encouraged to spend time in nature, believing that active disengagement is fuel for next-level ideas.

Action Step: Institute “creative recesses” where teams leave devices behind for localized field trips—window-shopping, or visiting local exhibitions. Or implement tech-free lunch hours, when casual conversations take center stage.

7. Reverse the Brief

Instead of always following the client or manager's brief, try flipping it. What’s the opposite solution? What if you answered the wrong audience, or solved the inverse of the stated problem? This approach—known as contra-thinking—forces a break from the obvious.

Example: When tasked to design a user-friendly website, pose the question: “How would we intentionally make it as difficult as possible to use?” Exploring such anti-solutions sharpens the team's grasp of what truly matters, often leading to more meaningful design.

"Anti-briefs" are common at creative agencies like Anomaly, where teams sometimes write what not to do as a pathway to what should be done.

Action Step: At kickoff, invite everyone to outline the worst possible version of the project. After plenty of laughter and contrarian ideas, extract positive insights and turn them into to-dos.

8. Encourage Idea Ownership, Not Ego

Too much individual ownership can breed competition at the expense of collaboration; too little, and people disengage. The best creative teams strike a balance: everyone contributes, but no one “owns” ideas to the point of inflexibility.

IDEO’s cultural principle, “All ideas belong to the team,” removes envy and amps up willingness to diver deeper. Pixar’s Braintrust meetings operate similarly: directors and animators critique each other’s ideas frankly, making work better—no credit hoarding allowed.

Quote: Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar, wrote in “Creativity, Inc.”, “If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something better.”

Action Step: Highlight stories where group input transformed initial ideas. In regular check-ins, ask who helped strengthen teammates’ designs, spotlighting “creative assist” moments, not just solo stars.

9. Inject Playful Competition

Healthy rivalry can push performance, generate fun, and break monotony. Yet, competition works best without ego-driven stress—with the focus, instead, on manifesting as many solutions as possible.

Real-World Example: Advertising agency BBH runs annual “Lab Rats” tournaments. Teams submit absurd, out-of-scope concepts (e.g., “future shoe made from jelly”). No real client, just wild invention! Winning groups then get seed funding to turn one idea into reality.

Action Step: Initiate optional “hack days,” where teams split up, pick any brief (even fictional), and are scored by improv judges on creativity, humor, and daring. Prizes can range from quirky trophies to a team pizza party.

10. Spotlight Hidden Talents and Passions

Just knowing your colleagues outside their job titles can ignite newfound respect and unlock hidden creative talent. Double Blind, a design studio in Berlin, hosts quarterly talent shows, from breakdancing to painting. It helps people surprise each other—and themselves.

Employees' hobbies often shape stunning designs: BMW’s auto UX team includes an amateur magician who uses illusion principles to craft smoother dashboard interactions. Whole Foods’ in-store graphics were recently enhanced thanks to an employee’s calligraphy passion, discovered in a side project share.

Action Step: Encourage team members to host skill-share sessions—whether baking, DIY crafts, or urban sketching. Consider creating a virtual “talent wall” where achievements and passions outside work are celebrated.

Conclusion: Courage to Be Unusual

While creative tools and brainstorming tactics have their place, it’s the unexpected strategies—reframing workspaces, crossing boundaries, welcoming failure, or flipping the brief—that open the door to a more imaginative team culture. Whether through play, competition, or borrowing awe from unlikely places, fostering a climate where your design team can safely experiment is the single most impactful thing you can do.

To spark real creativity, make daring choices habitual. Invite accidental genius by designing serendipity into your process. In a world that desperately needs better ideas—and more courageous ones—why lead any other way?

Take Action:

• Pick one idea from this list and introduce it to your next team meeting.
• Gather honest feedback; adapt and iterate.
• Watch as your team’s creative spark becomes a launchpad for bold, original work.

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” – Albert Einstein

Further Reading

• Creative Confidence by Tom Kelley & David Kelley
• Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull
• The Medici Effect by Frans Johansson