Creative thinking doesn't disappear. It just gets suppressed.
By deadlines. By briefs. By knowing what works. Open Studio is thirty exercises to clear some of that out — and get your creative thinking moving again.
Why it exists
01
Creativity isn't a talent. It's a practice.
The people who seem naturally creative aren't wired differently. They've just kept the muscle working. Most of us let it go quiet somewhere between school and a career.
02
The work gets smaller when the thinking does.
A narrowed creative mind doesn't just make worse art. It makes worse decisions, weaker ideas, and work that feels like going through the motions.
03
You already know how to get it back.
You just need the right kind of resistance. The same way a gym builds a body — not by explaining muscles, but by using them.
A little about me
Mike Zaengle
Designer + Author
I've spent over a decade designing across healthcare, finance, transportation, and startups — the kind of work where creative thinking isn't decoration, it's the whole point. Somewhere in there I noticed how easily that thinking narrows without you realizing it.
Open Studio came out of that. So did Form Follows Nature, a newsletter where each issue explores one thing from the natural world that changes how you see something in yours — the way you design, decide, build, or just pay attention.
Form Follows Nature — free, bi-weekly newsletter
What if the best design ideas were already out there — just not built by humans?
Each issue takes one thing nature figured out — how termite mounds stay cool, how slime molds route networks — and asks what it means for how we live, build, and create.