Monday, March 8, 2010

25 Ways to Overcome Creative Block

Creative block can happen to the most dynamic musician! Scott Hansen from ISO50 has gathered ideas from 25 creative professionals across the industry to share how they get over their creative blocks. The advice is applicable any creative medium.

We found great inspiration from  “Dress Code” designers who do the following to get their creative juices flowing:

“D: During the micro day to day stuff if I am in a creative rut I surf the web, go for a walk, check out a movie, shop for books, go to a museum or do other largely cliche things to fill up my brain with inspiration. Sometimes though I get sick of looking to other sources and try to clear my head by just getting out of the office and ideas come when I least expect them.

A: When it comes to daily creativity, I try to break down all of my tasks in a rough schedule everyday. I work on projects from 2-3 hour chunks at a time. I do not spend an entire day on one project alone unless its absolutely necessary. I turn off email and IM or check it every hour on the hour. Breaking down time helps me because when I have 2 hours to complete a task I’m solely focused on elements or details that might otherwise been overlooked. I think it makes me more creative because I look forward the next time I will get to work on a project and forces me to take some time off and think about what I will do next time. The schedule also helps me shift gears between different mediums. Multi-tasking doesn’t work for me, I can’t be having an IM conversation while writing a contract while talking to an intern while waiting for an email while trying to design something too. Getting rid of those small distractions and focusing on a single project helps.

D: The way our studio is set up though we try to have some overlap in who works on what, so there isn’t a ton of pressure on any one person to carry all of the creative weight, which can be kind of daunting and lets us be a bit more free with things.

D: But for the larger macro in a rut stuff we try to keep moving our business in new directions so we can stay happy creatively. To do self initiated work that balances out the day to day client stuff but in the end comes back and informs it.

A: On a macro scale, creativity comes and goes for me. I can’t predict when I will be excited about a project. I just try to be happy in my personal life which in turn makes me productive at work. And being productive at work also makes me happy in my personal life. So I try to do as many things that make me happy: playing soccer, reading books, playing video games, hanging with my lady, getting drunk, whatever I’m in the mood for. I find it tough to be creative when I’m worried or angry at something.

D: Also we work a lot of different mediums which helps keep things fresh, since one day we can be doing motion and the next a tee shirt or a branding project.

D: Teaching helps too because it exposes us to up and coming talent and fresh ideas every week. We are learning from them just as much as they are from us.”

Be sure to check out the full list of 25 Ways to Overcome Your Creative Block”

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