Use Community to Power your Creativity: Hypercreative Michael Kusumadjaja

Are you familiar with the expression, “He/she can make friends with a rock”? Well I’m pretty sure whoever created that phrase had my friend Michael Kusumadjaja in mind when they came up with it. Michael, or Mikey as we call him, actually plays a strong role in my creative journey. He helped catapult me into a burgeoning Atlanta creative community when I was a lone intern uploading product photos to Wish Atlanta’s ecommerce site in college.

As an introverted creative, it can be hard to reach out to others to ask for advice, get inspiration or collaborate. But as I learned through years of friendship with Mikey, community can be the accelerant to light your inner creativity ablaze. I sat down with him to talk more about it:

List your slashes.

“Photographer/Art Director/Brand Consultant.”

What do you actually do for a living?

“Senior Photographer at HYPEBEAST.”

So I know you didn’t go the “traditional” route of college or a portfolio school. With that being said, how’d you learn?

“I learned through friends and peers that I admired. I think if you want something bad enough and if you’re curious enough to care, you can learn anything you desire.”

What’s your favorite way to be creative?

“Conversations with strangers and friends/family. Listening to great music/albums. Traveling to a new place, eating somewhere fresh and trying new things keeps me inspired.”

When did you know you were going to do something creative for the rest of your life?

“After a realization that I hated working in a sushi restaurant and made the transition to make less money moving boxes in a sneaker stock room [at Wish Atlanta], but happy to be surrounded by a group of creative people. Two years later I had the opportunity to design a sneaker collaboration between Vans Vault and Wish with the same group of creative friends. I got a tattoo in the campaign video on the back of my ear as a stamp of never going back to working corporate or something I don’t want to be doing.” (Check out the tattoo at :29 of the below video).

What’s your dream job?

“My dream job looks like creating with people I love and getting paid for our ideas. Motorcycle shop in Bali with my best friend Hayden and my uncle Juju. Opening a creative studio in Atlanta and Indonesia is another big one on the list.”

What’s the biggest misconception about the way you work? Do people think you’re messy, scatterbrained etc.?

“I think the biggest misconception about my work as a ‘photographer’ is being mislabeled as only one thing and that is to only take photographs. I create bridges to connect with other talented creatives.

I sat in the back and studied the streetwear/art community to understand the culture. I grew up from a city [Atlanta] where its now at its highest peak of creativity, not only music but art as a whole. I’m very protective of my work and how I want to portray art especially when it comes from a city where corporate brands doesn’t really know. A lot of times I’m consulting ideas to companies and bridging the gap between the streets and bigger companies that want that ‘cool’ factor but doesn’t necessarily know it or care about it.”

Has being too creative ever got you in trouble? i.e. too many ideas, ideas too often, or being a perfectionist?

“Yes, most definitely. To be honest I don’t really care though. Because at the end of the day I just want the best work to be out in the world and you have to challenge your peers.”

Last question. Obviously your community has played a huge role in how you’ve learned and grown creatively. Do you have advice on how to build a creative community?

“I would say reach out to people and spend some time with them creatively and find how you guys can work together on a project.

I think the word community is very similar to family. It’s an extended version of your family, so you should treat them like one and put people together and invite them to your home or events/trips so you can create a bond greater than just creating together.”

Community can teach, inspire, and challenge. Look no further than Michael Kusumadjaja. In the book The Hyper-Creative Personality, author Blaire Palmer writes, “Unless you bring other people into your circle, it is likely that no one will know you even had an idea, let alone assist you in turning it into something tangible.” So who do you have in your circle? Are they inspiring you, teaching you new techniques, or putting you on ideas you hadn’t thought of before? If you’re looking around and the answer is no, then you still have more creativity to unlock.

Check out more of Mikey’s work over on his Instagram.