The Emperor: Why rules are essential for creativity

In early 2016, I left my journalism job to work in the grants office at the local community college.

The grant “writing” is the easy part.

The real challenge is planning projects constrained by time, money, and booklets full of policies and procedures.

Grant compliance can be soul-killing, but I cheer myself up by approaching the grant proposal process like it was “Project Runway.”

I love this fashion show — I’ve been a fan since the first season and actually went into labor with my daughter while watching an episode. 

I love “Project Runway” because it embodies the power of creative constraints. 

(Also, I just adore Tim Gunn.)

“Project Runway” contestants are challenged with extreme limits. Not only must they design for a specific client or type of garment, but they are usually constrained by their fabric budget, sewing time, and sometimes, “unconventional” materials. 

If you’re a fan of the show, then you know these constraints can bring out the best in the designers. I’ll never forget when Austin Scarlett made a dress out of corn husks.   

Anyone considering a grant proposal should see themselves as a project designer who must follow all of the rigid grant rules, and then get as creative as possible within those boundaries. 

Dave Morris, in his TEDx talk about “The Way of Improvisation,” said he considers anything with rules a game, including Monopoly and even filling out a job application. Rules “free us up to improvise … by giving ourselves these constrictions that guide our impulses, they funnel our creative process into some kind of product. … Rules help us create something.”

Rules and order and structure may seem the antithesis of the free-flowing, organic process, but these hard boundaries are essential to creativity. I like to think of this balance as “controlled chaos,” which is how magic is defined in “The Witcher” — another of my favorite TV shows.

The Emperor card — the father figure of the deck — represents these rigid boundaries of life. You can tell from his stone-cold throne and Aries warrior vibe. He is all about authority, organization and rules.

Which can feel stifling and bureaucratic to us creative types, for sure. 

But here’s another way I embrace the Emperor’s energy.

I was searching for the perfect birthday gift for my niece, who was turning 7.

Other parents will understand the constant struggle with toys. Hordes of small plastic figures will take over your home if you let them. (I swear my daughter’s stuffed animals are replicating like Gremlins during the night.)

Of course, I want to be the cool auntie … the one who gives the perfect gifts my niece will cherish forever. Or at least during the moment she opens the box. So I asked her what she wanted, and she specifically requested: More tiny Shopkins (she’s already collected hundreds), more L.O.L. Surprise dolls, and … makeup. 

*Cue her mom’s eye roll*

So, channeling both the beautiful Empress and the rigid Emperor, I committed to sending a more balanced gift. At first, I thought maybe … a plastic organizer for all of her Shopkins? So practical! So pink! 

But I knew that wouldn’t spark joy.

I finally decided to send her a small, kids makeup kit as she requested, along with a retro Caboodles organizer — essentially a pastel tackle box, to help keep her growing makeup collection organized.

Controlled chaos.

As a Montessori parent,  I’ve learned the value of Caboodles and other useful containers.

I spent the first month of the COVID pandemic ruthlessly purging and organizing our home, including our creeping pile of craft supplies.

We separated all of the colored pencils, markers, crayons, and sidewalk chalk into their own buckets. Like, actual metal buckets with handles, for easy transport. All of the paper — the construction paper, the white printer paper, the coloring books, the stickers — they each got their own, labeled drawers in a rainbow rolling cart, which we now call  “the craft tower.”

The organizing was immediately satisfying to pand-anxious me, but the long-term goal was to create enough order so that my daughter actually USES the craft supplies. She will also know exactly where to put them away when she’s done.

The order and organization actually inspires us to be MORE creative, because we know and appreciate what we already have. 

Questions to consider if you draw The Emperor:

• Where are you feeling out of control in your life?
• What would “controlled chaos” look like?
• Are you feeling oppressed by rules? How might you reframe the situation as a game?