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My Sketchbook
A fascinating book on Psychology and Philosophy I’ve been reading, recommended by Alex
Designer’s block and writer’s block affect everyone at some point. It’s difficult to recover from a creative drought — I’m pushing my way out of one now. For those who follow my blog, I apologize for the month and a half of silence.
One path I find frequently leads to a slump is the pursuit of perfection. One successful project pressures me to make the next one a hit. That fear and expectation hinders my creativity. That fear leads to procrastination and even a desire to undermine my design efforts.
So how do you break out? Here’s three ideas to get you started…
Keep a sketchbook.
My Sketchbook
I’ve kept a sketchbook intermittently for the past two years, but only recently have I been drawing in it every day. Simple drawings, concepts for projects, even tracing typefaces I enjoy — it all goes in the book. I can’t draw to save my life, but that doesn’t matter in the slightest. I don’t keep the sketchbook to showcase my drawing talents to others — it’s a capture device for inspiration. But you don’t have to go out looking for inspiration — just start drawing what you see. The act of drawing opens up your creative side — ideas will come. Get one and draw every day.
Write a five minute journal.
Every day, write for five minutes in a journal. Time it — no more than five minutes, no less. It doesn’t matter what you write about, just keep your hand moving. You could recount the day’s activities, plan for tomorrow, write out the lyrics to a song stuck in your head, or even write to-do notes to yourself. The idea is to siphon the thoughts out of your head. Design can often be a subtractive process. You may have the perfect idea in your head, but your thoughts are too crowded for you to recognize it. Writing down the noise helps you focus on the real gems. Even if you walk away without inspiration, you’ll at least have a clear head.
Branch outside your area of expertise.
A fascinating book on Psychology and Philosophy I’ve been reading, recommended by Alex
Read something outside of your comfort zone. At the very least, this can be a distraction from the concern and pressure of a looming deadline. At best, you might find a great idea that you would never have encountered had you not strayed outside your zone of experience. Looking outside your industry is the only way to bring something new to the table, and you may pick up an interesting hobby to boot.
What do you do to break out of a slump? Leave a comment and let me know.
Photo by AKorour under Creative Commons
Sound Off!
One thing that has been keeping (usually) me into a creative flow state is to do a whatever-not-related thing to my job, like working out, taking random pictures, shopping… Anything to get distracted, and more relaxed - then the ideas suddenly appear.
You said the real problem: “Design can often be a subtractive process.” IMO, we have to relax, giving our mind time to acquire (add) some experiences, then design again.
Just another couple of ideas on how to escape writer/designer’s block:
A few months back I read an article about some research done at the University of Minnesota on the effects of ceiling height on thinking. The researchers found that “[Someone] in a space with a 10-foot ceiling, … will tend to think more freely, … whereas a person in a room with an 8-foot ceiling will be more likely to focus on specifics.”
I’ve noticed a similar effect in the way I respond to the design of my website. Over time I seem to encounter limitations to what I can and can not do within the confines of the design I have created. As these limitations pile up I begin to feel confined and that sensation leads to less output.
It seems that the goal of every redesign I have ever done on my personal site has had the goal of “lifting the ceiling” and creating a more flexible, abstracted context to create within.
Playing music. It’s huge for me. If I am hitting the block then I just pick up my guitar or sit down at the piano and play… anything… it doesn’t matter. I just need to engage my brain in another creative way.
The other is to go for a walk. I find that getting out of the house and moving gives me the break from the physical surroundings associated with the block and then I start to process in a different fashion.
However, I think the 5 min journaling and sketching everyday are outstanding ways to avoid hitting the block at all!
Hi Rob.
Me, I try exercising or working very early (or very late) in the day. When I can’t write anything that sounds good, sometimes I just write and let the words flow. Invariably, I’ll sort of create a thought or thread that has legs, and I’ll make that into something and edit the rest of the stuff out. Sometimes, go get a fire going, you need to endure some smoke.
Talk to you soon.
I work less hard.
When I find myself getting very stressed and not getting closer to finishing a project or essay, I take a break and say to myself “there has got to be a better way”.
I will work on something else or watch some TV. Maybe I will go for a run or take a shower. Often times the best thing is to get in to conversations with people and “skim” the issue without talking about it in too much detail. Focusing on the specifics and not the big picture is often the problem.
By working less hard, most of the time I’ll find a quicker, smarter, better way to design/write/code whatever it is I’m stumped on.
You say: “…That fear and expectation hinders my creativity…”. I had the same experience once, years ago. At the time of my writersblock, I also lost having fun in the process of making something.
At one point I figured “Since I can’t make anything great anymore, I am going to make something completely ugly, which I will show to nobody”. And strangely enough: it got me over my writersblock.
I forgot about the endresult of the thing I was making and just focussed on having fun with and the standard of quality of the process of making something (in this case: something useless and ugly). And believe it or not: it worked for me. Due to the fact that I had fun in the process and assured the quality of the process was good, I came up with something nice (to my own suprise: not ugly). Once I got the joy in making stuff (and the joy of descovering new stuff -> looking -> thinking -> coming up with new stuff) back, I overcame my writersblock.
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Love the advice. Thank you.