With a degree in media and communication studies, and about 20 years of experience working in-house with web and digital channels, Irene has a solid background in content production and strategy. Moving from more traditional editor roles to the field of content design consulting, was something that felt natural to her:

“It felt like the perfect match for me. In content design, I get to work with both human behaviour and writing, which are two of the things I’m most passionate about”, says Irene. She adds: “Being able to use the design approach for user insight and user centricity, adds a missing layer to traditional content production. I feel like I’ve found my professional sweet spot in content design.”

A fascination for people, behaviour and the written word

Irene’s interest in behaviourology and anthropology becomes apparent when asked about her take on creativity: “A lot of people claim that they’re not creative. That’s a real shame, especially since it’s not true. We are all born with an incredible capacity for creativity, but unfortunately, we are often 'deprogrammed' from being creative as adults. We're taught to be serious all the time and we stop to play, sketch or sing. That's how creativity dies.”


So, how can we find our way back to creative joy? Irene believes one of the keys is to dare to be bored. “We need to find time to be bored. When we allow our brains to rest from the constant input, and the demand for productive output, we give it a chance to experiment. Our thoughts can wander, and we can come up with ideas and connections that we wouldn’t have, had we been focused on solving a specific task, or been mindlessly scrolling on social media.”

Boredom and play are necessary for creativity 

However, it’s not only doing nothing that can get our creative juices flowing – spending time on hands-on, but pressure-free, activities are essential to boosting your problem-solving capacity. “Doing things with your hands or body, whether it’s sculpting, painting, walking, drawing, dancing, writing, theatre or music, can have such a positive effect on both your mental well-being and your creativity. But it’s essential that we remove the 'musts' and the 'achievements' from these activities – it should be fun, relaxing and pleasant. Then art and physical activities work like food for the brain, soul and mind.”

Irene herself plays in a band, together with her husband. To her, the hours immersed in beats, riffs and melodies are indispensable. “When I play, I enter a zone where there is no space for anything else other than music. And that’s incredibly relieving. That pause gives me positive energy to do other things, to think other thoughts afterwards. Like problem solving at work, for example”, she comments.

With more tools available than ever, generative AI solves a lot of our work for us. But can we really become more creative with technology, or is it making us less creative? “If we use tools like Chat GPT just for the sake of being more productive, but without any real thought behind the why, I think we will run into problems. Take writing as an example. If we use AI for all our writing, we end up in an endless loop of just reproducing what has already been written before, in a way. There’s nothing creative about that.”


So, should we completely discard tech when it comes to creativity? “No, not at all. I think a lot of tasks that give us no pleasure at all, things that are very time consuming and maybe are even demotivating can be helped by using AI. We can also take help from AI for idea generation or making first drafts for things. Then we can use our human skills, like empathy, contextual interpretation and experiences to develop and refine. In the end, I believe that the big challenges, the ones that really matter, will have to be solved by us as humans. We need compassion, collaboration and imagination to take those on.”

Both! But if I have to choose – creating music. 

Scrolling, if I have to choose. But I’d rather read.


Works in EGGS, Part of Sopra Steria since:

 Master in media studies, University of Bergen

 Music, and making miniature worlds. I love to create worlds in small bottles or glass bubbles.

Meet Irene – the philosophising, synth-playing content designer