Opposites Collide

What happens when two completely different creative styles collide?

This week, we’re inviting you to partner with someone whose creative approach is nothing like yours. Maybe they work in a different medium. Maybe their style is louder, softer, messier, or more structured than yours. Either way, the goal is to blend your differences into something new.

Collaboration doesn’t always mean similarity. Sometimes, the most powerful creative breakthroughs come from contrast—from tension, friction, and unexpected combinations.

Let’s find the magic that happens when opposites meet.

The Challenge Prompt

Your challenge: Team up with a creative whose style or medium contrasts your own, and co-create a piece together.

• Combine different perspectives, tools, and techniques

• Allow space for both styles to exist—don’t try to match, try to merge

• Let the tension between your approaches guide the work

This is about honoring contrast, celebrating difference, and seeing what emerges when two creative worlds overlap.

Creative Examples to Inspire You

Here’s how you can explore this challenge through contrasting collaborations:

Visual Artists x Writers 🎨✍️

• Illustrate a poem or short story, letting the text inspire mood, color, and form

• Turn a written scene into a visual narrative, or vice versa

• Design a zine together, with text and visuals intertwined

Musicians x Designers 🎵🖥

• Create an album cover or poster that reflects the tone and energy of a song

• Build a visual identity for a music project, blending sound and style

• Compose a short piece based on a visual mood board provided by your collaborator

Painters x Sculptors 🎨🗿

• Create a mixed-media installation that plays with both surface and form

• Use sculptural textures on a painted canvas—or paint directly onto a 3D object

• Contrast 2D expression with physical space in a shared piece

Photographers x Poets 📸📖

• Pair a photo series with poetry that mirrors or contrasts the emotion

• Write a poem based on a single photo prompt, or shoot images inspired by a single line

• Display the visual and written work side by side as one cohesive story

Optional Add-On: Document the Process

Take some time to reflect together once your piece is complete:

• How did your differences shape the final work?

• Did you find it challenging to merge your styles or media?

• What did you learn from working outside your usual comfort zone?

Consider documenting the process through notes, photos, or short videos. Sometimes the way the work comes together is just as powerful as the work itself.

Closing Encouragement

When you bring opposites together, you make space for something unexpected. This challenge is about trusting the creative tension, listening to each other, and letting your differences be your greatest strength.

📢 Share your collaborative creation with us by tagging @SimplexCreativeClub and using #SimplexChallenge, we want to see how your worlds collided.

Find a creative who’s nothing like you—and make something only the two of you could create together. Let contrast guide you. Let opposites collide.