Host Sam J leads an interactive session exploring creative exercises to unlock new thinking patterns.

This episode covers:

• The 9-dot puzzle challenge: Classic "thinking outside the box" exercise demonstrating how we create invisible constraints—the solution requires extending lines beyond the perceived square boundary, revealing our mental limitations
• Expanding creative boundaries: Progressive variations of the puzzle (folding paper, rolling into tubes, creative material manipulation) show there are always bigger boxes to escape beyond our current thinking
• Bauhaus composition exercise: Using only three basic shapes (circle, line, triangle) to create varied compositions—forces creative problem-solving through extreme simplification while exploring scale and arrangement
• Gesture drawing and timed exercises: Quick 30-second to 1-minute sketches help overcome perfectionism by forcing completion under constraint, expanding definitions of "done" and reducing overthinking
• Physical creative play: Kinetic sand, Rubik's cubes, paper snowflakes, and improvisational origami as tactile ways to exercise creativity without digital undo buttons—building commitment and spatial reasoning
• Community game recommendations: Gartic Phone for warm-ups, Exquisite Corpse drawing, squiggle games, and the Relocation Game (silent object arrangement exercise) as collaborative creativity builders

Upcoming:

We'll be continuing our "Creative Inspiration" theme next week!

Open call for 2026 hosts and volunteers—reach out via Discord if interested in contributing.

Visit MondayMeeting.org for this episode and other conversations from the motion design community!

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• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MondayMeeting Newsletter⁠
• David Judelson’s Nine Dot Square Exercise
• Jen’s Creativity Worksheets
• Dixit Game
• Abstract Pokemon Artist “8th Project”