I Draw.

Usually, If I don't hit the notebook before jumping on the Macintosh, then I come up with only miserable, bang-my-head-against-the-wall results.

must. always. start. with. sketchbook.

if that does not work, a walk through the river valley. Or maybe a peek at some of my kitchen tools. It's amazing how much inspiration you can get out of a collander.

I read comics, comic books, graphic novels, and visit related forums. To me, comics are just designed sequential illustrations. They inspire me. :-)

This is where its great to work in a team environment. Throw the problem out on the table and do a group brainstorm. That is if you have other designers within arms reach. When I used to freelance I would come across the same problem, then I realized that I usually wasn't inspired because I really didn't understand the task at hand. I found the more I understood the problem, or the clients goal then the ideas can flow as you begin to explore how to solve.

I also find that sometimes the more creative freedom you have the more difficult it became to be creative. You need some boundries - to be as creative you can be within the limitations makes it a challenge. That is why its always so hard to design for yourself. No rules means no rules to break, no lines to cross, no challenges...

I use something that I call a HeadPad�

It's always with me and gets a ton of usage right before sleep, early in the morning, while I'm in the shower, and when I do chores. This implies that there is some time for the ideas to ferment. Then I also do alot of back and forth between computer and paper.

The HeadPad is great if you have a good head start on a project. I don't know if having time is always such a good thing.... sometimes it’s better to fly by the seat of your pants.

This has never happened to me. Maybe you're nuts.

Har Har. I kid, I kid!

Well, I'd love to say I start every project with a sketchbook. But I don't. Let's be honest here. But when i'm stuck, truly stuck. I try to recruit some help. Some designer friends to give me some juice. But late at night, when it's too late to call.... It's tough stuff. Lots of times I try changing up my situation - grabbing my favorite food, beer, coffee, etc. Some good music. Then I just sit down and design something simple. Simple usually works for me in tight spots. Alas I confess I've recycled some old ideas - expounded upon them, made them better, i hope.

Designer's block is a legitimate concern, and people deal with it in tons of ways. People end up gravitating toward their passions though - putting themselves in their element - beit music, exercise, drawing, etc.

I normally take a break and get out of the office. If weather permits, I head down to the soccer pitch or bike to the beach. Nothing like fresh air, exercise and the perfect color balance of nature to get those old wheels a'turning.

*c

i used to just work through it. it might take a while, but eventually you'll break out of it. and because of the battle, you should eventually stumble upon some design that you otherwise would not have thought of. but recently, since we bought our place, i go ouside and sweep, or go for a walk. that seems to trigger plenty of ideas. i don't believe in using design mags as a source of inspiration.

and yeah, i carry a sketchbook around and doodle and rough out concepts. but i'm not against working on the mac from the beginning. there is no reason why not to sketch on a mac. unless the mac is not as comfortable to you as the sketchbook. as long as the technology does not hold your ideas back.

how long do your designer's blocks last for you guys? are we talking hours? days?

i'm pretty lucky that i barely have them, but the start of this year included one that seemed to go on for days. something i'm really not used to. but once i got out of it, i realized it was more of a struggle to get to another level in a couple projects, and i think i was just challenging myself to do better.

Ohh yeah, Tracy and I are also implementing a thing we are calling "Non-Creative Days". It's almost the same concept as a personal day, but made specifically for creatives. It's for those days when you know that if you have to look at one more typeface you are going to puke.

The deal is that you get a week of "Non-Creative Days" to use whenever you want to during the year... but there is a catch. When you take a "Non-Creative Day" you have an assignment that you have to complete and present in front of the studio the next day. Your assignment is that you have to find inspiration in some way. If it comes from a movie, cd or water fountain you have to tell everyone about the experience and what effect it had on you... in that way it helps everyone else find that daily inspiration that we need so badly. Sounds a bit cheesy when I write it out, but think of it as a sort of designer show-and-tell.

*c

Somewhere, i used to have a deck of these: oblique strategies. yeah, somewhere in the 80s is more like it. now it's online. and somewhere you can find if for Palm (that's for you Tan... you beautiful,handheld god.)

Last Friday I was entirely stuck on some ad concepts (or lack thereof) all the way up to quittin' time. An utterly, utterly frustrating way to end the week.

But later in the evening I was kindly washing the dishes and an idea of fantastic brilliance slipped into my head. Even better, this morning it still looked decent.

One of my best ideas ever came when I was popping a pimple in front of the bathroom mirror.

Time away from the desk helps (especially cleaning and grooming, apparently). When I'm sitting here there is a pressure to Do, which is not great for conceptual stuff. However, when I get to the making it pretty stage, actually building it, I find that sitting here and banging and banging away gets me where I want to be.

1. i think that the best way of all to overcome a creative block is to simply work really hard as quickly as you can. if i come up with several bad ideas and feel stuck, i usually kick myself in the ass until im coming up with 20 or 30 bad ideas in the same amount of time — doing quick sketches or rough comps on the computer (whichever is appropriate). once my brain has been emptied of all the cliches, the better ideas start to come to me. also, i dont think its always important to have a complete concept before you begin a project. so many times i've found that concepts suggest themselves as im working.

2. ive found that what they preached in school is very true: that the solution is in the problem. the more you define the problem, the easier it is to strip away all the obvious solutions and arrive at something unique.

3. looking at the work of others often makes me feel inspired enough to come up with an idea of my own. i ask myself, "how did the designer come up with this? what was going on in his mind?" it starts my brain working in a creative way.

4. someone once told me that if you have a big task facing you that seems overwhelming, tackle a smaller task thats much easier to accomplish instead (something small, like organizing your desk). the psychological effect

it has on you is that you now feel capable of accomplishing things. you're much better mentally primed to take on the bigger task.

of course, when i worked out of my apartment, i did this to the point where it was just procrastination and no longer productive. but hey, at least i had a nice clean apartment the whole time.

sleep

Goodbye creative block. I get up from the computer and leave behind the cathode rays. With my yellow notepad in hand and favorite pen, I leave the studio. Eight blocks away, The Continental Greek Restaurant will help clear my mind. Its solitary environment (free of telephones, fax machines, keyboards, and coworkers) shifts my creative energy from neutral to fifth gear in a matter minutes. My mind opens.

Go to the airport and watch planes take off/land. I swear to god this works wonders.

I think the big, scary monster of designer's block is a mouse in compared to the fear that a designer's work actually hurt their client's business.

Sketchbook -yes, definately. But here are some others.. some days - different things work, some days - nothing works :) and I do errands or something.

1) - Get my hands dirty... I make a book... silkscreen.. something artsy-crafty.. anything not related to the computer.

2) - Go to my box of treasures.... I keep old ads, napkins, pens, anything with any thing graphic and on it and perhaps I will get inspired.

3) - Eat. Sounds funny. But if I am hungry I cannot sit still - and I wont want to work... so if I eat, I might want to get something done.. and wanting to get it done sometimes is half the challenge.

4) - Read a design book/idea book.. but honestly, this doesnt work all that often....

5) - pick up the novel I am reading.. let me mind be in that other world for a bit... and then come back, hopefully refreshed and clear!

> how long do your designer's blocks last for you guys? are we talking hours? days?

I have gone 2-3 days at some points. It is quite frustrating. Most of the time they are little 3-4 hours spasms of brain failure. For me, the subway ride home helps a lot. I get to completely space out, peek out the window or over my seat companion's shoulder and just let my mind wonder. Usually that will snap me out of it. Or I'll get home and watch 5 hours straight of the dumbest TV programming I can find. I could conclude that when I give my brain a rest I snap back.

Other times, when I'm truly, deeply desperate and under a tight deadline I will have to admit that I open up a design annual and copy the first thing that looks cool. Wait, wait, wait… before you call me names. That usually just gets me out of the funk and can move on to my own thinking.

And, as a last resort, I will binge on chocolate. No, it doesn't help with designer's block, but it is so goddamn tasty.

I surf cable TV.

I read magazines, not just design ones, but trashy stuff like Entertainment weekly, MS Living, Car & Driver, Saveur, whatever's in our house at the moment. Nothing wrong w/ perusing design mags for inspiration either -- I can quote a Bruce Mau manifesto regarding this, but won't. I find it to be most helpful to expose yourself to as much media, news, and culture as you can. The best design ideas are never born from forced brain labor. They usually come when your brain is just running, whether it's in a brainstorming meeting, blogging, or watching an episode of Trading Spaces. You have to just lead yourself to the opportunity.

Cooking sometimes works for me too. Doing something methodical that you enjoy can unwind your mind. Plus, you can enjoy the results afterwards (which I've done maybe a little too much of lately).

And lastly -- like david, I clean and straighten up things when I'm blocked. Though I do this mostly when I procrastinate. Btw, I've read somewhere that perfectionists are usually the most notorious procrastinators. I know lots of good designers who procrastinate. It's not a fault to be fixed necessarily -- you just have to learn to work with it.

Everyone gets creative blocks now and then. It's only human.

Maybe a creative block is just a pure intuition that you shouldn't be doing the job, being a designer, or participating in the charade. Maybe it means that there is nothing there, so don't bother.

Maybe a creative block is nothing at all, just a fiction created by bad artists, writers, and designers--an excuse for sucking.

i'd dispute the notion of a 'creative block'; has anyone ever actually not been able to make a piece of work at all and had to say, 'sorry, i can't do it' ?. that's a block.

ps: how long do your designer's blocks last for you guys? are we talking hours? days?

Hours for me, 5-6 being the longest that I remember.

By the way, Eric, thanks for posting your oblique solutions suggestion. I now have it installed on my palm, just in case.

I take a stroll to the restroom with the day's newspaper in hand...

Never fails.

graham...

no, that's giving up. i dont see how anyone who's creating something new (or trying to push themselves to the limit of their abilities) can avoid being intimidated by the thought of failure. I've learned to actually enjoy that feeling — like i'm about to jump off a cliff into the ocean. when I started out, though, I would be so confidant in my ability to do a project. then, once I started and it didn't immediately come together, i'd panic. "oh my god...what if I CANT DO IT?" — but it usually worked out fine.

for me, group brainstorming sessions are about the worst way to come up with ideas. i once worked for a small ad agency that was big on doing that, and i could never stop feeling like it was a competition (which it is, in a way — eventually you're going to look bad if you just sit there and don't come up with anything). i just feel nervous in those situations, and distracted by what everyone else is blurting out.

i agree with tan that ideas happen when you're brain is in low gear (taking a shower, watching tv, driving to work, etc.), but for me that only happens AFTER i've put in the work and tried to force my brain to solve the problem.

>graham...

>no, that's giving up.

most (if not all) of the responses on here (including yours, david) sound like what one does when one is working, the natural course of things, thinking, not-thinking, trying and trying again-not a block.

a true block is when one can't work for weeks, months or years on end, caught in an almost catatonic state that is very, very serious.

> i'd dispute the notion of a 'creative block'; has anyone ever actually not been able to make a piece of work at all and had to say, 'sorry, i can't do it' ?. that's a block.

Yes, you're right -- I think your definition of a true "creative block" is much more serious. True creative blocks for writers and musicians can be periods of years, if not decades.

But what everyone's talking about here is not the inability to create -- just a period of creative difficulty, and how to get through it. Design constipation looking for a laxative, if you will.

You know, this also has to do with methods of how designers create. One of those Briggs-Meyer's type of learning/productivity theories I've read.

For example, I'm an extroverted person, but a very introverted designer. I ingest information, brew on it a while, think about it some more, then when I'm good and ready -- I spit out a sketch and create a design that's pretty much done from the start. I form most everything internally, before putting it down on paper externally. So I don't believe in generating a hundred sketches when two will do. I sketch errantly only when I haven't done enough research or am too lazy to analyze the problem thoroughly. But that's how I work.

My business partner Jeff, on the other hand, is completely the opposite. He calls his method "design by discovery". He starts by doing something -- sketching, noodling, drawing, making forms, after forms, after forms -- almost immediately. He has to sketch a hundred times -- because that's how he thinks, by seeing it on paper. To him, solutions reveal themselves through trial and error. His method is very extroverted, and to him, also very productive.

So I'm guessing that's maybe how you work, Graham. You're able to dive straight in, and go until you get there. So the notion of a creative block is equivalent to just hesitation and a lack of commitment. Again, just a guess mate.

tan-in terms of working, for me, anything goes, and always has. i really really enjoy it, and after that-it's almost unsayable, like a great unexpected night out, or just sitting with a film and a cup of tea and quiet.

i suppose my questioning of the nature of a 'block' is to do with two things-for one, i've seen (and almost experienced) what you call a true black and it is heartbreaking, and one is powerless even as a good friend to do anything but watch someone (yes) 'give up', but really give up, like the last breath, all heart and energy gone (and one hopes for a limited time, no matter how long that time is); and also, because it would be really interesting to hear if people have experienced anything like this-a life changing experience, if you will-and found the will or strength to start again.

should read '. . . what you call a true block . . . '. sorry.

First, I'd like to comment that Armin optioned to use his sketchbook to help inspire a new idea for his current project. So I think from that he's trying get beyond the analog side of idea development.

I'd also like to say that admitting you had a block is huge considering that there's a potential for people like Tom Gleason to try and create a dark and complacent spin.

Invidious and insecure people can themselves cause creative blocks among groups, partners, and overall society.

Back to the acute topic.

If you have the time, turn off all media. Go to a comfortable place. Get off your feet, and get horizontal. Relax. Chill for awhile - if your mind is too busy you'll never find what your subconscious tells you.

I know that sounds very step-by-step, but whenever I think about my projects while horizontal (and clearing my thoughts) ideas come one by one building on each other. It's easy, and it takes like a half an hour.

If you don't have any time, I'd say be proactive and create a game or some type of system that relies on your past ideas that were never printed or approached. Maybe you can create a chart that cross-references industry, style, format, etc....

I'm always pressed on time in the design group and i hate that, so if you have time use it.......you may even impress yourself.

Graham - I think I prefer "true black." Because that's how it feels. I went for a year without being able to paint. I just couldn't do it. Eventually, one day, I just sat down and it was there again.

We're looking at design block with short deadlines and tight turns. What about design block when you have a very open project, and a deadline that looms far far into the future? Is this better or worse? Does procrastination help? Do you have emergence through emergency?

Another word I like to use for designer's block is forced creativity. I used to be a one man in-house creative dept. with an extremely demanding marketing dept. and forced creativity happened more times than I care to recall.

What works best for me is music. Music always gets my creative juices flowing. Yes, sometimes I spend 80 bucks on new cds to get those juices to flow but for me it really works. Get out of the office, grab a cup of coffee, hit the bookstore or music store and bingo I come up with something.

I open up Safari and come here.

I was quite serious in suggesting that a creative block might be a suggestion to go elsewhere. Allowing influence to flow into the void from outside is the only way to fill it. And the nothingness has no stability; it is not a nothingness where a particular project should be. When it dissolves and becomes something, what it becomes is not determined by prior projections of its nature or location.

It is this desire to focus our creative energies, to secure a place for them as a visual product, which can keep creativity from flowing. We want the security of knowing that our creative process will be in line with social and economic demands. But no such security exists. True creativity cannot be afraid of insecurity. No one is really secure.

Creativity in groups in fact depends upon this lack of security. It is the profession of graphic design that keeps it from being truly creative. It doesn't allow the taken-for-granted to be made problematic. It brackets out the world and focuses on a kind of forced creativity which discourages real human creativity.

We focus on the world of visual form to the exclusion of a more integrative creativity. In the process of being uncritically influenced by form, the ideologies inherent in the dominant forms reproduce themselves within us without our consideration. To open up spheres of argumentation which reach beyond the realm of mere form will allow new forms to naturally take shape. These new forms will be truer, more human, and more meaningful because they emerge out of a more intersubjective, communicative process. Out of abstract division will come an encounter with real sincerity and agreement; out of complacency and homogeneity will come nothing but the imperatives of an inhuman system.

graham wrote:

a true block is when one can't work for weeks, months or years on end, caught in an almost catatonic state that is very, very serious.

Actually that was me after September 11. We live within two miles of the World Trade Center and over by Chelsea Piers -- where the ambulances, triage, morgue and memorial services were based. We saw it burn, saw it fall, smelled the fires, heard the sirens, saw the morgue trucks for several months afterwards, saw thousands upon thousands of average New Yorkers walking over with donations and supplies, saw the constant flow of emergency workers getting free coffee at the Empire Diner, saw the lines of police and fire department personnel attending memorials, and so forth.

I had work due on September 12, and on that day the New York-based client actually called to ask where the job was. Needless to say...

After several days of not picking up the phone, I found myself freaking the 'fucking fuck' (a direct quote) out on this person. Not good.

It took almost a year (and on some levels, two) for me to be able to work at full potential. Only the constant camaraderie of friends; loved ones; and fellow non-working designers, illustrators and photographers slowly brought me out of the funk.

Since then, I find myself a few pounds heavier -- but I'm working on that. The music industry which used to feed us is dying -- so we had to reinvent our business. Our country has been taken over by a breed of ruthless imperial bastards -- so I'm studying French out of defiance. I find myself rejuvenated and have regained the original joy of the creative process. Oh, and we no longer work for the Sept. 12th client.

In the wake of that shit storm, a little creative block ain't nothing. I'm happy to have them. It means we have work.

I'm sorry Tom, but you shouldn't lie when people can scroll up and find your exact quote and intention.

As far as your last entry, I haven't read something so contradictory, chaotic, and obnoxiously ignorant in a long time.

It was almost disturbing.

I wasn't sure if this was just me, so I went ahead and shared it with a few writers here and there. Let me tell you, my words are kind.

But when you do actually flush out your thoughts, please share.

> True creativity cannot be afraid of insecurity.

...so I just have one question. When you "cannot be afraid of insecurity", do you mean that you can feel safe in your insecurity? In other words -- you're actually very secure about your insecurity.

Just checking your words of wisdom here.

I won't make an apology for sharing my thoughts, but it is true that my entries here (and in some other posts) have been very exploratory. I write like that sometimes to see what will come of it. Sometimes new concepts or links emerge. Besides, someone HAD to mention that if you aren't getting anywhere on a project, you might suck. (We can't ignore that possibility). Or it might be the wrong project, which is more like what I am saying.

Tan makes a good point. Semi-mystical writing acts as though these contradictions aren't problematic, when in fact they are. It does bring such problems to our awareness, though. All thought rests on some form of contradiction or another. It never goes away, but maybe as an act of rebellion we should insist on making our existence make sense.

Also I'd like to thank Armin for creating this site. I've been looking for something like this for a long time, and finally found it on designwritingresearch.org .

I disagree with the notion that it's mandatory to take on a "devil's advocate" position. I tend to think most people on this forum are past the point in their design life where they feel they're not doing the right thing with their time.

...............................

Or it might be the wrong project, which is more like what I am saying.

...............................

You never mentioned that there is a possibility that this was the wrong project, nor introduced the idea of getting around a project that a designer may not be best suitable for. Delusional.

Anytime someone contradicts themselves, more than once in a paragraph let alone in a sentence, which you apparently like to do, it ruins the integrity of any type of thought the writer is trying to build. Honestly, it's problematic anyway you look at it.

Not all thought rests in a contradiction. Thoughts and ideas have arguements that support or deny them, they're not in this constant state of flux. For instance, the color black doesn't contradict the color white, black is black and is in itself an idea with total integrity. ( I can't wait to hear what you have to say about that )

One last note, underconsideration is nothing like designwritingresearch.org, the only similarity would be the subject matter.

Stop talking, start thinking.

Kevin,

I tend to think most people on this forum are past the point in their design life where they feel they're not doing the right thing with their time.

I think a lot of designers lack a sense of purpose. Many are dissatisfied with their profession, as it is full of fa�ade and manipulation, if not tedious restraints to their creative energies. And I think that is a good sign. It shows that they have taken the ideals of communication to heart.

Of course, once you become immersed in your profession, if you totally buy into it, you stop questioning things. This is what professionalism often demands. It is significant that graphic design’s own rhetoric of communication is what causes a latent dissatisfaction in the minds of designers. They often cannot in good conscience do what they do at the same time as they say the things they say.

You never mentioned that there is a possibility that this was the wrong project, nor introduced the idea of getting around a project that a designer may not be best suitable for. Delusional.

I said, “It is this desire to focus our creative energies, to secure a place for them as a visual product, which can keep creativity from flowing. We want the security of knowing that our creative process will be in line with social and economic demands. But no such security exists.”

What I meant by this statement is that a creative block may be caused by premature assumptions about the nature of the product. To label oneself as a “graphic designer” and to uncritically buy into professionalism is asking for these blocks to come. The most creative of designers have not limited themselves to 2-d visual projects, and have not willingly allowed issues of finance to lead them where they do not feel comfortable going, as it is unnatural to do so.

I found the link to this website on designwritingresearch.org . I never said anything about this and that site’s similarity.

I think creative blocks, of the short-term variety, occur for me when I'm trying a new aesthetic approach (read: style). To use the metaphor of visual language, I've experienced blocks when trying to properly enunciate the visual language. I guess this can also be described as moving/evolving beyond a creative plateau. When trying to move to newer or different ground, you realize that there are steep hills to climb (or decend); and so creative passage becomes difficult until navigable pathways are found. I consider these blocks to be somewhat constructive.

I've also experienced the kind of block that M. Kingsley refers to. I used to do lots of photography: mostly B&W and Polaroid stuff. Back in '95, I had a terrible apartment fire which destroyed many of my possesions, including all of my negatives and most of my best Polaroids. I really haven't allowed myself to get back to my former ways, basically because I think I must still be mourning the loss. Happily, I've been thinking about imagery again recently and I hope to get back into it again soon, when my finances get better.