It tickles me a little that when you Google Image search the word “creativity”, you are served with variations of pretty much the same—dare I say tacky—image: a brain or a lightbulb overflowing with all the colours of the rainbow.

Go ahead. Google it right now.

Ironically, we’re not very creative when it comes to depicting the word in the form of an image, albeit one that serves the purpose of instant recognition. Thankfully, however, we’re not living in a constant game of Pictionary.

On the contrary, you’ve decided at this moment to pick up and read a Koktail Magazine. Our examples for “creativity” in this issue are a tad bit more sophisticated than “rainbow brain” or “rainbow bulb”, even if they will take you more than the time Pictionary allots to come to a conclusion. As I have always said about this magazine, it has been designed to be consumed at a slow, comfortable, and leisurely pace; you don’t chug a cocktail.

As you may have noticed on your way here—if you’re in some degree versed in the local art scene—Nakrob Moonmanas has lent his endless imagination to the front cover. Depicting the new hybrid Ferrari 296 GTB zipping through the City of Angels, the artwork showcases Nakrob’s signature for blending so sensibly various art motifs that theoretically don’t go together. You’ll be able to read more about the vehicle as well as the artist’s design process inside.

Also in this Creativity & Innovation issue, expect to find a number of stories on new technology scattered throughout the sections. If there’s any generic field out there, where creativity and innovation are occurring at the most intimidating speeds, it’s tech. More than ever before, the reality of the Metaverse taking over as our primary plane of existence is (worryingly) likely. But beyond what’s going on with virtual dimensions, there are innovations happening in the tangible world that are bringing us closer to the cooler future imagined by films like Back to the Future. If you’re like me and you straddle the line between being tech support for someone in your life and being a late adopter compared to others, you might appreciate the stories in here offering the lowdown on the virtual fashion world, the gaming industry, intimacy robots, and electric vehicles.

Ultimately, however, this issue of Koktail is an ode to the people who get creative in their field, whether or not that field is typically associated with creativity. That’s the beauty of creativity: it can occur anywhere; it’s a limitless resource; and no one is entitled to it more than anyone else. It can present itself in the form of engineers and designers problem-solving in a stylish or unprecedented way, or veteran journalists who have such a special way of conveying their ideas to an audience. It can also look like Instagrammers and YouTubers finding an unoccupied niche, educators who have had to recalibrate their curriculum due to unforeseen obstacles, or simply anyone who cooks and makes the effort to not be too repetitive.

Celebrate creativity in all its forms, no matter how big or small, or else all we’ll have are multiples of the same tacky image, over and over again.