Break Creative Block – How to Unleash Your Best Design Ideas

Digging Yourself Out of a Creative Black Hole and Getting Back on Track

(How’s that for a mixed metaphor?)

Sometimes you just freeze up. No matter how much you try you keep recycling the same failed idea over and over again as if somehow you’ll find the magical tweak that will save it.

I say sometimes because if this happens often, you’re in the wrong field. Designing for the most part should be exciting and relatively easy. This is equally true for writers, painters, sculptors and any other creative field where you make something from nothing. If you find yourself struggling more often than not, then you should find something else to do. However, no matter how passionate and excited you are about your job, sometimes it just doesn’t go as smooth as you’d like.

Problem: The Idea That’s Too Good to Abandon

We’ve all been there. A sudden bolt of inspiration hits you and it’s just brilliant. This is the idea, the one that will define your client’s brand like no other.

The trouble is though, when you try to executive this amazing idea, it just falls flat.

Since you’re convince of your idea’s brilliance and you’ve already invested emotionally in it being the solution, you waste countless hours trying to polish what is essentially a turd.

Solution: There is only one way out of this and that is to just stop, toss the idea and look at other options. This will be followed shortly by another moment when the real solution pops into your head and you’ll wonder why you never thought of it before.

Lesson Learned: Know When to Quit

Problem: Going in Circles

This one is depressing because the design you’re working on is fundamentally decent but it just lacks a proper ending – that ah-ha moment that tells you you’re done. And you desperately want to be done.

Now, because the design is sound but anemic, you keep tweaking around the edges – afraid of disturbing the core. The trouble is the tweaks are just more of the same – booooring! And the results are the same – a design that is just shy of complete.

Solution: This one’s counter intuitive but you need to make a copy of that file and then just go ape shit on it. Try every ridiculous thing you can think off. Push the envelope as far as possible. Don’t worry, no one will see but you.  Too many fonts, ugly fonts, gigantic fonts, fonts on angles or bleeding off the page, one word per line, once character per line, bad line breaks, all lower case, all uppers, mix and match, left justified, right justified, asymmetrical layouts, hideous color, tangents – it’s all good. However, in the process of creating intentionally bad design you will free your mind and see things that you previously dismissed as unworkable. Then you can go back to the original and implement the best ideas culled from the mound of crap you just created.

Lesson Learned: Loosen Up and Try The Unthinkable

Problem: Good, But Not Really Good

You understand the specs. You have a complete handle on the objectives. Intellectually it’s a no brainer. Unfortunately your designs are stiff and uninspiring. Technically there is nothing wrong but it’s not going to win any awards, and more importantly, make money for your client.

Solution: Go see what other designers have done to solve a similar problem. Nothing is created in a vacuum. We all draw our inspiration from everything we’ve ever seen, heard, felt or touched since the time we were born. So add some more inspiration to the pile. Don’t worry about copying someone else. If you’re reading this you probably know the difference between inspiration and theft. Then, wait a day or two, and tackle the project again with a deeper reservoir to draw upon.

Lesson Learned: Expose Yourself to the Best and the Brightest, So You Can Be the Brightest and the Best

Problem: Total Brain Freeze

This should be rare but sometime you just blank out. You stare at the monitor and just drift aimlessly in your mind. Perhaps you’re too sick or too tired. Maybe it’s burnout. Whatever it is you know that to continue working would be a farce.

Solution: Go to a movie. Go hiking. Take your kid to the park. Read a book. See a concert. Take a nap. It doesn’t matter as long as it’s not related to design.

To the average person it will look like you’re goofing off, but the artist in you knows better. You’re best work is often done subconsciously in the background. Just because you’re not at your computer pushing pixels, doesn’t mean you’re not working. The creative mind doesn’t take vacations. Doing other things allows you brain to practice free association and create the epiphanies. The ones that make you pull off the road, bolt out of bed, or stop in mid conversation, so you can jot down that perfect idea that just suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Well, it didn’t just appear out of nowhere. While you were hiking, playing, or watching that movie, your brain was quietly working on that problem that had eluded you for days. When it  finished, it pushed it forward so you could do something with it. Having fun and “goofing off” really is essential to the creative process.

Lesson Learned: All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Designer

File Under: 4 Techniques for Breaking the Most Common Types of Creative Blocks. How to Break Creative Block for Writers, Artists, and Designers