Making room for creativity in business

We tell businesses to be distinctive, then encourage them to create everything through the same tools, templates and processes. What happens when we make something different, simply because we want to?

I've been thinking a lot about creativity lately. It's not just in my business's name; it's the driving force behind what keeps me going.

And with AI tools becoming part of everyday working life, I've been wondering whether visible evidence of human creativity is becoming more valuable.

I know I'm not the only one who finds themselves glazing over while scrolling through Instagram and LinkedIn, confronted by an endless array of sameness.

There's no shortage of Canva templates, AI-generated imagery and posts filled with unedited advice, information or promotional messages. Sometimes, there's barely a hint of the business owner's voice or personality.

In trying to speak to everybody, we risk connecting with nobody.

I've noticed that it takes something extra to make me stop scrolling. Often, it's a handmade object, an unusual illustration or an unexpected creative choice that catches my attention.

Recently, I had the chance to test that instinct for myself.

Making custom critters

I was working with a web developer, Danny at Cahillbrand, on a magazine feature he'd landed. When we discussed the imagery, we decided to create a little crew of characters to illustrate what happens behind the scenes of a working website.

We wanted to show that a website is never really a finished product. There are constant processes taking place in the background, from hosting and maintenance to security and updates.

The trouble was, these processes aren't exactly thrilling to most small business owners without some explanation. Enter the Cahillbods.

I'd been itching to get back into crafting, and there happened to be a pile of coloured felt sitting beside me on my desk. I reached for it and began cutting out the body of a character.

I decided to make five. This was an experiment, after all, and I didn't want to get too carried away.

Soon, I had a little gang of hand-sewn tech bods. They had their own personalities, slightly wonky details and visible stitches. They felt real, which was rather the point.

I was surprisingly nervous about sharing the first one. It was the first time I'd presented my sewing as something of a professional standard, rather than a hobby.

But you only find out by doing. So I set up my lightbox, took a few photographs and got the effect I'd been hoping for.

Then we posted the first character.

What happened next made all the effort worthwhile.

A fellow business owner sent Danny a message: “We love the felted character. In a world of AI slop, it’s great to see something that wasn’t made with a prompt!”

Why that comment stayed with me

As any content creator knows, a compliment is always welcome. But this one struck me because it recognised something I'd deliberately tried to communicate.

I wanted the hand-sewn critters to bring a sense of the real into an overwhelmingly digital environment.

I liked the irony of bringing a digital character to life as a physical object. I wanted people to see the stitches, the imperfections and the evidence of someone's time and attention. Not because imperfection is inherently better, but because those details were part of the idea.

Someone had noticed the act of making, not just the finished result.

That single message doesn't prove handmade content performs better than digital content. But it told me something useful about what one person had valued enough to comment on.

It also made me think about how I want to approach content at Christabel Creative.

If a custom illustration, a handwritten detail or a physical object can help express something about a business, why not make room for it?

Are we becoming too concerned with efficiency?

We've never had more ways to create content at our fingertips.

AI and accessible design tools have made it easier for people to produce things they might never have attempted before. That's a genuine benefit, particularly for small businesses with limited time and resources.

We can learn new skills, test ideas and create work without needing a large team or an extensive budget.

But the sheer number of possibilities can be overwhelming.

I realised I'd been experiencing a kind of decision paralysis in response to the pace of technological change.

There's so much to learn. So much we could be doing. And with tutorials, tools and software available for almost anything, it can feel as though there's no excuse not to be doing more.

At some point, the question becomes: what do I actually want to make?

After finishing the Cahillbods, I found myself wanting to try another three-dimensional craft.

I'd never successfully cast off knitting before. My previous attempts had consisted of knitting increasingly long scarves until I ran out of wool.

This time, I decided to learn properly.

I watched a few tutorials, replayed the difficult bits and made a pair of handwarmers in a day.

YouTube has been around for years, so I'm not entirely sure why I'd waited so long.

But I think the Cahillbods had reminded me of something important: I didn't have to be brilliant at something before I could enjoy making it.

The deadline for the characters had forced me to accept good enough. They weren't going to be perfect, and I didn't need them to be. Some of their appeal came from the visible effort involved. And that experience gave me the confidence to try something else.

What does this have to do with brand strategy?

Quite a lot, I think. Bespoke details, personal interests and creative experiments can reveal something about a business that a generic template can't.

They can show how someone thinks, what they care about and the effort they're prepared to put into their work.

That doesn't mean every business needs to start sewing characters or commissioning illustrations.

It means paying attention to the creative choices that could make your communications feel more recognisably yours.

We've seen more luxury brands use embroidery, stop-motion animation, hand-drawn illustration and physical materials in their advertising lately. These approaches can create interest precisely because they introduce textures, processes and details we don't always expect to see in digital content.

When I was crafting this very website, Christabel Creative, I wanted to include hand-drawn details rather than relying entirely on standard icons.

Not because icons are bad. They're useful, familiar and often the clearest way to communicate something.

But the hand-drawn elements express part of my approach to client work: taking time to understand something, thinking independently and creating details that suit the individual business.

That's the distinction I'm interested in.

There's a difference between content that looks different and content that comes from a different way of thinking.

You can commission a beautiful custom illustration that says very little about your business. Equally, you can use AI to help develop a thoughtful, distinctive idea.

The tool isn't the whole story.

What matters is the intention behind the work and whether the result communicates something meaningful.

Small ways to bring more personality into your content

You don't need a workshop, an art degree or a large marketing budget to experiment with more individual creative elements.

Here are a few ideas worth trying:

• Draw something. A simple cartoon, diagram or doodle can communicate an idea in a way that feels personal to you.
• Use your own handwriting. Try a handwritten note to a customer, a caption or a short message incorporated into a social post.
• Experiment with physical materials. Felt, paper, clay, ink, dried flowers or textured surfaces could become part of a photograph or campaign.
• Make something move. Stop-motion animation can give ordinary objects unexpected character.
• Use your own photography. A photograph from a walk, your workspace or your creative process might say more about your business than a stock image.
• Bring in another skill. Music, illustration, sewing, sculpture or even cooking could offer an unexpected way to communicate something about your work.
• Revisit your written voice. If you've used AI to help draft something, read it aloud. Would you actually say those words? Then what would you change or say instead?
• Make something without worrying about its performance. Experiment with a short film, illustration or creative format because you're curious about what it could become.

The important thing is to choose something that makes sense for you and your business.

A handmade detail is automatically meaningful because it took longer to produce but that doesn't guarantee it connects. It becomes useful when it helps communicate your personality, values or ideas.

Permission to experiment

I'm not suggesting that running a business now requires a craft workshop, or that every creative experiment needs to become an editorial campaign.

Some ideas earn their place simply because they make your business more interesting.

And some don't need a business purpose at all.

Making the Cahillbods reminded me how much I enjoy working with my hands. It also reminded me that stepping away from a screen can change how I approach a problem.

When you're absorbed in a different creative process, you have an opportunity to think differently. You might discover an idea you wouldn't have reached by staring at another document or asking another tool for suggestions.

If you take anything from this, I'd encourage you to think about something you enjoyed making as a child. Drawing? Building things? Playing music? Making up stories?

What would happen if you gave yourself permission to try it again, without worrying whether it was productive?

You might discover something worth bringing into your business. You might simply enjoy yourself.

Either outcome seems worthwhile to me.

And if you're thinking about how to make your business content more distinctive, I'd be happy to explore some ideas with you.

At Christabel Creative, I help founders and small teams find clearer, more individual ways to communicate what they do. Sometimes that starts with a conversation about messaging. It could also start with a long-awaited creative dream! Get in touch to talk about your content and creative ideas.