Hannah Tomlinson is the designer and art director for a growing cafe/bakery in South Manchester, working on all aspects of their brand and product line. Previously she was working at a small studio in the city centre, designing digital tools for music and fashion clients.

What influence does music have in your life as a creative?:

I almost always listen to something whilst I work. I can get easily sidetracked with silence and can just drift into staring into space! The radio is usually on in the studio, so I’ll listen to that until the talking gets too distracting, or I’m not enjoying the music, and then I’ll switch to headphones and listen to my Spotify. Sometimes I switch to headphones just because my ears are cold (ha!), or I have something urgent I need to focus on straight off the bat. I usually gravitate to instrumental albums, Nils Frahm and Brian Eno are long-time favourites. I find the lack of lyrics/voices better for my concentration, time seems to fly by and I come out of my ‘trance’ having got loads of good work done.

At home I tend to listen to something upbeat whilst I’m cooking, something I can dance around to a bit and lift my mood if it’s been a long day – I think this is also important for my general creativity/happiness. My boyfriend is a musician so I listen to a lot of his warbling and guitar/piano playing from the spare room too! Recently I’ve also been listening to music to help me sleep – namely Max Richter’s ‘Sleep’ album – which has really helped me drift off and stay snoozing , which is, in turn, great for my creativity. My right-brain simply doesn’t work without a good 8 hours ! The more rested I feel in the morning, the quicker I manage to get into ‘work mode’ and get going on my to-do list.

On another note, on my cycle to work, I love the silence. I never plug my headphones in. I am lucky to be able to get to work via a nice tree-lined cycle path now instead of through the city centre and the 20-30 minutes of quiet is becoming valued head – space time .

Tell us about your playlist:

A mix of songs that instantly lift my mood and some favourite tracks from the albums that I love to listen to whilst working to aid concentration.

@hannah_louise_t
http://www.hannahtomlinson.com