The Art of Teaching, Designing, and Thinking: A Cross-Disciplinary Lens on Creative Intelligence

In a world that increasingly demands innovation, adaptability, and clarity, we often forget that the most powerful solutions come from the ability to think across disciplines.

Over the years, I’ve come to realise that my most meaningful work doesn’t live in a single domain. It lives in the spaces between where psychology meets art, where teaching becomes design, and where coaching becomes a shared language of learning.

This is what I call creative intelligence in motion: a dynamic, living process of transferring insights across art, education, and psychology to create deeper, more human-centered knowledge.

Teaching, Designing, and Thinking Are Not Separate Acts.

They are all part of the same dynamic dance.

When I looked back over my professional path some years ago, it became clear to me that it had never been linear. And yet, everything had led to the same strong foundation: creative intelligence and emotional connectivity in the auditorium.

I am an artist and graphic designer, an educational psychologist, a lecturer in storytelling and cross-cultural learning, and a coach for educators navigating complex academic systems. My art (below) is collage art that merge culture, psychology, and storytelling. It's just as much part of my academic skills as all the other things.

At one point, these roles felt separate. Like different hats I had to wear depending on the context. But then, as I looked deeper into my journey, something clicked: these identities weren’t in conflict.

They were part of the same conversation, heading in the same direction, seeking the same truth. And they spoke a common language. A language of curiosity and movement (just like different colours). And when these colours interact, they don’t clash. They create a rainbow of meaning, highlighting the potential and power in each other.

Helping Knowledge Speak Across Contexts

What I’m really doing (across all of these roles) is helping people communicate their knowledge, complex insights, and passion for their fields. I support them in expanding their language, trusting their intuition, and becoming stronger, more relatable educators and communicators.

Because knowledge is not a static thing. It’s a living, sometimes fragile object that must be handled with equal parts care, curiosity, discernment, and respect.

Teaching isn’t just about transferring facts. It’s also about showing students what knowledge is, how it’s made, how it can be questioned, and when it must be protected.

Many of the thought leaders I work with don’t just want to teach. They want to share their insights beyond the walls of academia. They want their work to matter to people outside the institution. They want their expertise to reach, to resonate, to help.

This is a beautiful, but often frustrating, crossroads to stand at. And that’s where I come in.

What Is Creative Intelligence really?

We often reduce creativity to artistic flair, and intelligence to testable metrics. But creative intelligence is neither of those things.

Creative intelligence is the ability to:

• Recognise patterns and see relationships between unrelated ideas.

• Translate complex concepts into meaningful, human language.

• Hold ambiguity, contradiction, and nuance without retreating into oversimplification.

• Approach challenges with curiosity instead of control.

• Resolve conflict and solve problems with emotional maturity.

Whether I’m designing a brand and business voice, coaching an educator, or developing a research-based workshop, this intelligence is the thread that ties it all together. It allows me to move fluidly between the intuitive and the analytical, the visual and the verbal, the emotional and the structural.

Cross-Disciplinary Learning: Why It Matters

In academia, there’s growing recognition of the value of cross-disciplinary work. But in reality, the landscape is still highly siloed. Artists are placed in one corner. Psychologists in another. Educators in a third.

And yet, the real breakthroughs come from those who can move across these boundaries and translate between them. In my work with scholars, lectureres and higher education professionals, I’ve seen this challenge firsthand: brilliant minds, deeply rooted in their fields, who feel blocked when it comes to communicating their passion, designing their learning environments, or engaging creatively with students.

This is where cross-disciplinary thinking becomes not just helpful, but essential.

From Studio to Seminar Room: Insights in Motion

Let me give you an example.

When I sit down to create a collage, I’m not just decorating. I’m composing meaning. Every texture, shape, and colour is part of a narrative. I’m asking: What’s the emotional tone here? What story wants to be told?

That same process applies when I coach a senior lecturer on how to restructure a course, or guide a team of educators in reframing their communication strategies. I’m not just offering advice. I’m helping them see differently. Helping them connect visual language, emotional intelligence, and strategic clarity.

This is design thinking at its most human. And it’s born from creative intelligence that flows between art, psychology, and education.

The Emotional Layer of Learning

One of the most overlooked aspects of both education and design is the emotional dimension. We talk a lot about outcomes and standards—but rarely about how students and educators feel while they’re learning or teaching.

As an educational psychologist, I know how essential this is. Learning doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens through connection, between ideas, people, and experiences.

In every role I play, I aim to create emotional safety and curiosity. Whether I’m designing a workshop poster, coaching an academic through frustration and fatigue, or writing a lecture on narrative structure. My goal is to create space for clarity, engagement, and inner motivation.

For me, creativity is a form of language. Through collage, writing, and design, I’ve discovered new ways to communicate, to translate feeling into form, and to build relationships where logic alone might fall short. This is the emotional architecture behind creative intelligence.

I would love to hear your reflections on this topic. Join the conversation on LinkedIn, where I share more insights and invite dialogue with educators, creatives, and leaders worldwide. Connect to LinkedIn here.

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Louise Sommer (MA, Educational Psychology) is the founder of Louise Sommer Studio. She specialises in creative intelligence, learning design, and leadership communication across cultures. Through her writing, consulting, and workshops, Louise helps educators and leaders build learning cultures that think, feel, and grow.

Louise Sommer Studio Blog is a free space for learning created for educators, leaders, and creatives exploring the intersection of psychology, culture, and creative intelligence.

Louise Sommer (cand.pæd.psyk.) er grundlægger af Louise Sommer Studio. Hun er specialiseret i kreativ intelligens, læringsdesign og ledelseskommunikation på tværs af kulturer. Gennem sit arbejde med undervisning, rådgivning og workshops hjælper Louise undervisere og ledere med at udvikle læringskulturer, der tænker, føler og vokser.

Louise Sommer Studio Blog er et frit rum for læring, skabt for undervisere, ledere og kreative, der udforsker samspillet mellem psykologi, kultur og kreativ intelligens.