Our beloved industry is host to a delightful spectrum of creativity. Designing labels? Creativity. Throwing delicious martinis? Creativity. Finding ways to keep your co-packer happy when you keep changing their schedule (sorry and thank you Dev!). That’s right, creativity. Even the teacher’s pets of the proverbial professional school playground, HR, get creative when solving their problems. This is what I love about creativity in the drinks industry: it ranges from the more traditional design and art to thinking up and implementing supply chain solutions. You don’t necessarily need to be a “creative” to create. To me, creativity is simply the act of turning ideas into action.

To explore a little more about what successful creativity in the drinks industry looks like, I spoke to Jared Brown. Not only is he the Co-Founder of Sipsmith, but he is also a master distiller, writer, bartender, painter, gardener, weaver, potter, carpenter, sculptor, historian, and chef.  In short, he’s a man who knows a thing or two about turning ideas into action. I visited him in his Cotswolds cottage on a sunny bank holiday Monday and asked him some questions as we picked and juiced the first apples from this year's harvest.

Do you have a first defining memory of creativity entering your life?

I know creativity was there before, but the first defining memory of it was my first book, a cartoon series which I wrote, illustrated and bound myself at the age of six. That year I also remember building a racetrack for hotwheels cars out of scrap wood and nails, and hammered it together, actually maybe I was age 5… but I remember a huge mound of top soil across the street from the house and found not only could we build great car tracks and caves, if we burnished would become smooth as tarmac and so we made roads and a whole village from this huge mound of dirt. Yeah, that’s probably it.

And do you think… 

Wait. There’s also the kitchen.

The kitchen?!

My mother would buy lots of odd and random ingredients, and there was a toaster oven. So at age six, I was creating all sorts of things in the kitchen.

So cool. And was there a moment where creativity went from being play to a passion?

It still is play and it was always a passion.

Can you think of specific things that hinder creativity?

Well, it’s a really contentious one, but cannabis can be a double-edged sword. It can heighten people's creativity, but it can also reduce anyone's motivation to get anything done. And creativity is effort. You may be more likely to come up with ideas, but you’re far less likely to remember them.

With intoxicants in mind, what do you say to those who claim things like “I write better after I’ve had a drink?”

Have a drink. If you CAN write an article after you’ve had one, by all means.

What is the most effective action one can take to foster creativity?

Take notes. Even the most brilliant ideas can and will be forgotten. Diaries, notebooks, notes on the phone or photographs. Whatever memory cue works for you, use it and use it a lot.

The creative process, particularly in a corporate environment, often involves many stakeholders. How do you keep the integrity of your ideas with so many people getting involved?

I’ve long since lost my ego. Writing is great for teaching that because great writing does not happen in complete isolation. Great writing requires more sets of eyes. And that extends to most creative endeavours; at some point, you will be blind to mistakes, so accepting feedback is very important. And in our world, making drinks, you’re always making a drink for other people, and their opinions are vital.

It's no secret that the industry is currently facing headwinds. In times like these, how important is it to keep thinking creatively?

There will always be room for creativity when you see flat sales on an existing product. It has long been recognised that consumer interests change and that people will eternally search for “what’s new?” or “what’s different”. The big challenge is to answer that question well, and it’s far more important in tough times to get it right. “What’s new?” doesn’t have to be something wildly different; sometimes it may be something safe, something assured.

So the creative choice isn’t necessarily the innovative choice?

No. Sometimes being creative means not innovating.

How do you keep creating?

What truly keeps me in the right direction is that quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince. He said, “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but there is nothing left to take away.”