Creative Ecosystem workshop with Emmi Salonen

I spent a couple of hours this morning on a really inspiring workshop. The Creative Ecosystem with author and designer Emmi Salonen.

What better way to spend time on a Sunday morning on International Women's Day than with a bunch of lovely women for a creative wellbeing workshop?



Emmi is warm, encouraging and very authentic. Her work centres on Positive Creativity – the idea that design can connect people, foster wellbeing and support sustainable choices. After experiencing burnout, Emmi developed the Creative Ecosystem model to help herself and others stay inspired without running on empty.

As a result, she designed and wrote The Creative Wellbeing Handbook.



The workshop was hands-on and interactive. Taking themes from the book, we each received a printed concertina (see photo) and worked through various exercises, filling out our own, which we took home. Such a lovely idea and a great souvenir to remind us to take some of the actions we noted down during this coming week.

A group of like-minded women, many designers and/or those in the creative fields. It was easy to open up and talk to each other. Even after just two hours, we connected. Something some of us mentioned was a reason we came in the first place.



The workshop was held in the beautiful L.F.Markey shop in Dalston.