Cannes starts next week, as I'm sure you know, so I've been thinking about creativity, and what that word really means. Many of us position ourselves as professionally "creative", as if we have access to supernatural powers that the rest of humanity has been denied. But the fact is that everyone is becoming more creative. Five minutes ago, I saw a tourist on a café terrace rearranging her dessert and coffee cup until they were perfectly Instagram-friendly. I'm sure this woman does not think of herself as "creative", but here she was - an instinctive food stylist. Instagram itself has just launched a new range of tools that will give us access to an even wider range of artistic effects.
But this is not just about technology. Recently I've noticed more and more people drawing: on the métro, outside cafés, in the park. It's as if an old-fashioned sketching craze has sprung up to counterbalance the creative tools provided by the digital world. OK, so you can use a filter - but can you draw the person sitting opposite you? In theory, professional "creatives" should be worried about this democratisation of creativity. But I don't think they are. That's because they have the ability to turn on the tap. Professional creatives can create to order, without waiting for inspiration or even the right tools. What they don't have, they invent. And that's true creativity.
