How To Release Creativity, Pixar Style

Photo by Max Cortez on Unsplash

Since wooing the world with Toy Story in 1995, Pixar Animation Studios have produced over 24 feature films. In 2018 they averaged a box office average of $650M per film, the highest take per film of any studio in Hollywood. Pixar has perfected its art, so what can we take from its ethos to help release creativity in our own ventures?

When the pandemic hit, Pixar was bang in the middle of its latest animation, which, like all other films, required a tremendous amount of collaboration and feedback, alongside a studio full of high-tech equipment.

There must have been a ‘do or die’ moment with all of the creators.

Because in the absence of these norms, each member rose to the challenge of overcoming the circumstances. For example, one of the leading actors, Jack Dylan Grazer, recorded his entire dialogue from his mother’s wardrobe, covering the walls with blankets.

The team came together under one unifying vision, the Pixar way.

From the early days of conception, the company’s focus has always been to provide conditions conducive to peak creativity. And creativity believes founding Pixar founding member Ed Catmull is simply the art of problem-solving.

But he admits that there’s no fast or tidy way to creative problem solving, hence the importance of…