A Practical Look at Innovation and Creativity

A warm, sunny December morning brought a full house to our special location at Make Santa Fe and plenty of new faces to the CreativeMornings community. The unique setting amongst humming machines in the industrial maker space was a perfect stage for our speaker James Johnson, Executive Director of Make Santa Fe, as he framed up his experiences as a designer, fabricator, nonprofit leader, and maker. And we all had the chance to be MAKERS by creating finger-drawn digital designs that later became laser-etched keyrings for all to take home.

James opened his talk with a surprise – failure is his favorite thing! It’s the way we learn, the way we get better, and it leads to real innovation. He shared his view of innovation as the practical implementation of creativity. And for creativity to happen, we must differentiate between “creative mode” - where exploration and play surround an idea - and “work mode”- which is about producing.

James outlined his five essentials required for creativity:

Space - Whether a corner of the backyard or fully-fitted studio, creativity needs a space apart from daily life;

Time - Setting aside lots of time for your creative practice isn’t a realistic goal for most, but putting some parameters around it can help. Set a start and also an end to your creative time - enabling you to block out interruptions and other must-do’s for that set time. Even 2-3 hours once a week is a great starting point;

Resilience - Set aside fear of failure and decide to tolerate discomfort while you figure out a way forward on your project;

Confidence - Allow yourself to gain confidence from your microsuccesses. It’s that confidence that allows you to move forward despite making mistakes;

Humor - James shared lovely and funny pix of his beloved dog who helped him remember not to take things too seriously. Humor keeps everything in balance.

With many heads nodding in agreement throughout, James wrapped up with a reminder that community is key to creativity and success - community like Make Santa Fe and CreativeMornings. We agree 100%!

We’re also deeply grateful to Michael Garfield, who layered musical innovation into the morning and expanded the theme beyond words, and to Jeshaka, who created our very first CreativeMornings Santa Fe Sketch Notes, capturing ideas, moments, and energy in real time. Both additions brought new texture and creativity to the experience, and we loved seeing innovation expressed in so many forms.

A heartfelt thank you as well to our December partner, The Santa Fe Biscochito Company, for sharing a taste of local tradition and sweetness with our community. And to all of our 2025 partners—your generosity, collaboration, and belief in CreativeMornings Santa Fe make these gatherings possible. We’re incredibly grateful to be building this creative community alongside you.

You can watch James' talk here.

Check out December's Flickr Album.

Photos by Ivan Barnett and Marisa Gjurgevich.

Video by SpaceHelmetPictures.