What Is Enrichment Time?

I already know what you’re thinking… Why is a creative agency writing a post about something a 1st grade teacher infuses into their weekly lesson plans for their students? It’s pure and simple: creatives and 1st graders have a lot of the same needs! No, really. 

Enrichment is defined as an experience that makes something more meaningful, substantial, or rewarding. In the context of a 1st grade classroom setting, an enrichment activity is a fun lesson that allows children to develop new skills. It fuses creativity and learning and allows the brain to work effortlessly. 

If you're a creative, you probably know what the Land Study is by now. It is basically engraved into our brains by our professors from day 1. But for those who aren’t familiar, the Land Study was a creativity study conducted by George Land in 1968. During this study, he compared the levels of creativity of over 1,000 adolescents ages 3 to 5. He tested this group of children every 5 years to assess whether they became more or less creative as they grew up. The results showed that their creativity and creative thinking took drastic decreases within each 5 year period. When tested on adult subjects, it was found that there was barely any creativity left in them. 

The explanation is pure and simple. Children are conditioned to lose their creativity at a young age. They’re taught to not ask questions and are advised to explore cautiously. Color inside the lines and seek approval from others. You guessed it, these are all the things you should not do when being creative. 

So basically, every creative professional has to pay for a degree just to be re-taught all the skills they already had at age 3. I sure bet my parents wish they didn’t hold me back from asking 1,000 questions now!

What I am trying to get at here is that creatives and children are a lot alike. So, we need a lot of things children need. One being enrichment!

Along with children, zoo animals also need enrichment time. Weird connection.. But let me prove my point here. These animals need time to engage different parts of their bodies since they are not in their natural habitat. These enrichment activities are broken into three categories: social, sensory, and feeding. And what do ya know, creative enrichment also falls into these three categories!

Our computer screen acts as a creative zoo cage. Were locked in all day, away from our natural habitat (that being the outside world). We need enrichment activities throughout our days to make sure other parts of our bodies are being engaged, giving our creative brains a rest. Just like the zoo animals, we need social, sensory, and feeding (lunch) enrichment for those creative breaks. 

Here at Ape Forge, our very own Allie coined the term ‘enrichment time’ within our office after the first few weeks of her internship. She found that she couldn’t be creative throughout the whole day if she didn’t get up, step away from the computer, and interact with something other than her projects. 

Enrichment time looks different every day. Some days it's getting lunch or office shopping with the team, other days it’s doing a tactile craft on the office floor or re-arranging your office space. We have taken it to some extremes. We’ve gotten on flights to New York and Portland, moved into new offices, gone to the Toledo Zoo, and started a new podcast. Because, why not?

A lot of these needs stem from a much needed creative break. Enrichment time still takes creative thinking, but the kind that takes much less effort. It's the fun things, the things that spark inspiration for our work. 

When hiring creatives onto your team, it's important to educate yourself on their creative needs. This means that you can’t suppress your employee for taking time away from her desk to talk to coworkers. They need that social interaction! 

​It is especially hard for creatives who work as in-house designers. These types of designers are typically a party of 1 within a company. They are the go to person for every single graphic design project within typically very large corporations that have the funds needed to compensate a designer. Which isn’t cheap, we go to school for a reason. Our logo is worth way more that 20 dollars and a coffee, contrary to popular belief. 

These large corporations have absolutely no idea what a creative person needs. The rest of their employees can get through an 8 hour day sitting at their desk (or so they think…). So, yes, we feel for our in-house graphic design besties. We hope they’re okay and know how to properly communicate their needs. And if they can’t, well now they can send their boss this article (: 

I guess all we are trying to say here is that creatives need time at work to, well, not work. They need to go out and play, let their hair down, and be free like the wind.

So, next time you see your designer ‘slacking off’, let them. All they’re trying to do is let their little creative brands take a rest so they can, in return, produce better quality work for you. 

That is all we have for this blog, but don’t worry! We are already obsessing about next week's topic: ‘What Sexy Packaging Design Does to a Designer’. Until then, stay wild!

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WRITTEN BY ALLIE

Graphic Designer & Project Coordinator