Think different

In the last few weeks I've been on a few 'artist's dates' with myself. I've taken myself to galleries and exhibitions and I tried to change up my experience each time so I didn't just end up following the herd. I also find I get amazing ideas when I'm on these 'dates'.

I popped into the National Portrait Gallery on a whim on the way home from a meeting. Usually I would head straight to the modern stuff but this time I took a right at the top of the escalator and headed to see the Tudors. In the first room I was struck by the number of portraits of women there were. I'd never thought about it before.

Inspired, I had an idea. I'll hunt out all the portraits of women across the gallery. It will be a way of making this visit different and unique. Yes!

I discovered images of opera singers, queens, princesses, mothers, mistresses, wives, nurses, campaigners and suffragettes; all with fascinating stories of tenacity, loyalty, expertise, courage and love. It was a magnificent way to make my trip to the gallery distinctive.

The Bridget Riley exhibition at the Hayward Gallery was a true inspiration. The most fascinating part of the exhibition was the behind the scenes look at how she created her works. She took simple forms and pushed them to their limits to see what they could do. She calculated, challenged and played with the forms and the results are sometimes pretty trippy and quite magnificent.

Sometimes we need to take the simplest, everyday form or idea and look at it with a fresh perspective to make it more playful, fun and engaging.

A cool thought for all communicators.