This morning’s Creative Chaos question over at RagamuffinSoul.com was “Where it is that we go to find our personal creativity?”

The first ingredient necessary to initiate my creative process is a good cup of coffee. Nothing gets my creative juices flowing like some fresh-roasted, freshly-ground, fair-trade, french-pressed coffee!

I have several places I go outside the office for ideas and inspiration. I love watching people and one of the places I do that is at local coffee shops. Nothing against franchise stores but you get a much better slice of community in a local hole-in-the-wall place.

The next ingredient is good music. There is no one good mix, style or artist for creative inspiration. It really depends on how I feel and what I’m working on. If I’m writing or need to concentrate I like more ambient stuff like The Album Leaf , Yael Naim, or Sigor Ros. If I need some energy to my designs I like upbeat, fun stuff like Moby, White Stripes or Foo Fighters.

One of the best things for me is to just disconnect for a period of time from what I’m working on and refocusing my attention on something completely different. If the weather’s good I love walking outside – especially if I can walk downtown where there’s lots of people. I’m really looking forward to moving to Carmel because they have an awesome Arts & Design District with tons of cool art galleries and boutiques.  I love that kind of stuff!

What about you? What helps you to be creative?