About

What is Squiggla

Developed in Aotearoa New Zealand, Squiggla is a hands-on creative visual thinking programme. We increasingly know the importance of creativity for well-being and no matter what age you are, you can exercise and train to think more creatively. After all, learning is what our brains and bodies do all the time. Squiggla mark making activities tap into the senses, our hands, eye, mind and heart. Squiggla does not seek meaning from familiar, recognisable images. So we encourage all to break from familiar habits, disrupt barriers to creating in the moment and relax into the process of playful exploration. Ask yourself the question: What if? Then there is no longer the need to reproduce something else 'out there in the world'. Using research about the creative process has helped Squiggla develop ways to bring these dimensions into the programme.

The benefits of
mark making

Enhance your creative potential

Through inventive mark making, start to know yourself as a creative person. Watch your own creative thinking emerge.

Nurture the world's most valuable skill

Creative thinking exercises problem-posing and collaboration skills, idea generation and flexible thinking.

Become more aware

Let your senses guide you to be alert to looking, to feeling and thinking as you generate new compositions.

Gain a new perspective

With your focus on mark making, relax into the process and gain awareness of the generation of new ideas.

Why is creativity important for everyone

Now more than ever, creative thinking skills have been recognised as among the top skills people will need to navigate and create a dynamic and rewarding future. Squiggla develops creative thinking skills through non-judgemental, intentional, direct and inventive mark making. It is more ‘visual brain gym’ than ‘art’, the more you do, the better you’ll become as connections are strengthened in your creative brain. So bring a visual thinking mindset into your everyday, develop a sense of awareness for the world around you.

Joy without judgement

Why Squiggla works

Squiggla acts like a gymnasium for visual thinking. It is a programme that exercises creative thinking through free-flow mark making and is all about visual exploration and creative discovery. In the world of Squiggla, you will experience mark making in action. Make it a joyful part of your daily exercise routine. Squiggla uses the mark, dots, and lines in infinite variations as its fundamental visual elements. It encourages people of all ages to explore spontaneous, inventive visual discoveries. For Squiggla, it is more 'trust and relax' then 'define and judge'.

Learn more

"What we're hoping to do is break down the idea that you're either creative or you aren't. It's for everyone - we've all got a brain… We can all be creative and lively and our brain will be better for it if we do.”

Professor Cathy Stinear, Clinical Neuroscientist,
interview:  University of Auckland Brain Day 2013.