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Color Me Inspired

Key Takeaways from the Adult Coloring Craze

7/26/2016 | Aubrey Collins, Creative Challenges

Considering you can’t go anywhere without bumping into an in-store display filled with stacks and stacks of adult coloring books, it should be no surprise that an estimated 12 million adult coloring books were sold in the U.S. last year – an incredible 11 million increase over 2014.

Adult coloring isn’t just on the rise, but, rather, these black and white intricate mandalas and geometric patterns have exploded into one of the most popular pastimes of modern life.

But why? What can you and your business learn from the popularity of this latest trend? It turns out quite a lot, actually.

Stress is a Problem – We are working longer hours. We are taking less time off. We stare at screens and devices for nearly 11 hours a day. Almost everyone, (including the formerly calm, cool, and collected among us) is stressed. If stress wasn’t a problem for our modern society, there would still be coloring for relaxation. But since we are in the middle of a stress epidemic, everyone and their mother (and brother and sister and best friend) are turning to the simpler pleasures of childhood as a stress-relieving outlet.

What does this mean for your business?

Your employees are almost certainly stressed, and it is costing you a lot of money. The American Psychological Association estimates the cost of job stress to be around $300 billion per year. Encourage ample downtime within your organization. We are so concerned with maximizing our time that we’ve almost forgotten the power of downtime. Promote an atmosphere that that values the quality of life within the workplace and outside of it.

Mistakes Are Okay – The other day, when I was coloring a page in a new book, I messed up the order of the pattern I had created. I instantly felt a wave of anxiety and regret. A coloring book designed to encourage stress relief and relaxation had stressed me out!

Once I allowed myself to have a more “free spirit” approach and accept that mistakes might happen during my completion of the design – and that some might say those mistakes actually added to the beauty of it – I started to focus on the beneficial fun of the act itself.

In a work context, we need to remember that when it comes to creativity, we should encourage our employees to make mistakes. We need to give them the freedom to test out a new concept even if it flops. We need to give them to confidence to understand that we will support them if they make an error – especially if they learn from it.

Slow Down – When coloring, some really detailed pages could take a week or more to complete. At first, I was really impatient, jumping from page to page trying to find one that could be finish more quickly. I wanted to feel the satisfaction of completion. But instead, all I ended up with was a bunch of pages with 20 percent colored and the rest unfinished. Even though it was only coloring book pages for a leisure activity, I ended up feeling unaccomplished and unproductive.

At work, we need to remember that rushing from project to project and deadline to deadline stifles creativity. It can make what we produce boring, ordinary, forced and stale. Whenever possible, we need to give our employees enough time to think and contemplate the possibilities.

Adult coloring has increased in popularity due in part to the ability to offer a creative stress outlet at a reasonable cost, but they have a lot of benefits beyond relaxation. They can also promote mindfulness, inspire creativity, and help us stay focused. Plus coloring allows us to return to simpler pleasures of childhood, and gives us a quick hit of creativity that many of us crave.

So next time you have a brainstorming session or team meeting, bring some adult coloring books, colored pencils, and markers see what comes of it.

Chances are you’ll walk away with a more relaxed staff, lots of laughs, and plenty of ideas.

Aubrey Collins is the director of marketing and communications at MediaTree, a supplier of branded digital entertainment cards. She fell in love with the promotional products industry in 2011 at her first PPAI Expo. She shares her perspective on everything from the industry, what parenting continues to teach her about business, to what marketing campaigns make her cry on her blog. Connect with her on Twitter or email her atacollins@mediatreegroup.com.

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