What would you define as your perfect room? When I was an undergrad architecture student, the idea of “physical space” was all-encompassing. It not only meant the physical constructs of space, but it also took on a whole other set of principles: light, air, social interaction, culture, history and the list goes on. As students trying to define our perfect room, we began to realize how physical space can serve as a catalyst for one’s unique creative process.

I once saw a short film that portrayed how the simple space of a desk can be a reflection of the person who sits in the chair beside it. Is it cluttered? Does it have a million stickies? Is it spotless? Does it have ripped out pieces of inspirational images? Is there a family picture? The desk ends up being one of the more defining features of someone’s little creative world.

My creative world, as Journey Group production designer, consists of one desk in a space called “the ski lodge.” A quick scan of the other desks in this room reveals several unique spaces.

The co-worker next to me has a spotless and fastidiously organized desk containing only the essentials: a small stack of papers layered neatly to the right, his computer dead center and a picture of his family to the left.

In contrast, at any moment the person next to him has between one and four coffee cups in residence, a medium-to-large stack of books/magazines and an assortment of other knickknacks.

I am somewhere in between, and my little world may seem scattered to the untrained eye. Dangling from my monitor straight ahead is the most important element: a fluorescent purple post-it note — a record of my mother saying “I am so proud of you!” with a small smiley face in the bottom right-hand corner and squiggles around the head, illustrating my crazy hair. Below that, gently tilted next to my screen, is a picture of my little niece and namesake, Norah Rose, smiling at me every day with her simple joy.

Just to the right of my monitor is a stack of sketches and papers underneath the notepad that is my daily to-do list. Below the date I have between four and 10 check boxes that are, I hope, checked off by the end of the day. To my left is a whiskey jar holding four bunches of dried hydrangea, a typography flash-card game (nerd alert) and a box of exquisite letterpress cards, in hopes that one day I will be able to design something so beautiful.

This critical desk description is just to say that no two of us work in the same way. We all require a variety of ingredients — whether that’s cleanliness, high doses of caffeine or reminders — each one serving as fuel for creativity. In one way or another, we are all in the business of creating our little spheres within the bigger world.