- As designers, there is one thing we can all relate to.
That one thing we all try and avoid.
That one thing we all hate to experience
that gets in the way
and causes as much anxiety.
that little menace, creative block.
How do we overcome this
and get rid of it?
Over the years,
I have noticed that this seems to be
an extremely common question in the design community.
Every webinar I watch to all the Q&As,
this question seems to pop up a lot.
In this video,
I'll be answering a question
from Simone who asks,
"What do you do when you lose your creative flow?
"I've had days when I just stare at my screen
"knowing I have work to do,
"but just don't know how to start
"because I have this creative block."
Now, it's not often I lose my creative flow
and I rarely experienced creative block.
And there's a good reason for this,
which I'm going to get into in this video.
And I'll also be discussing ways
that may help you
if you sometimes experience this.
Now, my conclusion is that creative block
is the consequence of one
or a combination of four things.
One, exhaustion.
Two, lack of insight and ideas.
Three, lack of inspiration.
And four, need time to digest.
Now, if you're watching this
and experiencing creative block,
then I imagined you probably suffer
from one of these four.
So in this video,
I'm going to discuss what you can do
if you suffer from one of these four challenges.
One, exhaustion.
So chances are,
if you're having creative block,
it could be because you're overworking yourself
and you've hit a wall.
In this case,
the consensus here is to simply take a break.
Being creative and pushing your mind to generate ideas
can be quite demanding.
Don't just push through
for the sake of it,
to make yourself feel like you have achieved something
or like you're being creative.
It's a waste of time.
Don't work hard, work smart.
Accept that you are tired
and step away from the computer.
Try to take your mind off the work
and recharge your batteries.
After a few hours,
or even a good night's sleep,
you can return fully motivated and fresh.
Now, if you're full of energy,
raring to go
and you still suffer with creative block,
this could be down to other reasons,
which I think are more common,
especially amongst new and young designers.
And for me,
this is where it gets more interesting.
Two, lack of insight and ideas.
Now don't mistake creative block
for lack of creativity.
Chances are, you have all the potential,
just not the direction.
If you find yourself looking at a blank canvas,
not knowing what to create or where to start,
then this may be a consequence
of just not having much of an idea
or understanding the subject matter
of what you may be working on.
If you're trying to force an idea
and can't think of one,
then you may feel you are
experiencing creative block.
Creative block is simply the lack of ideas
or knowing what to do.
If you knew what to do,
you would not have any block.
So to overcome is to take a step back
and take more action
to learn, research, and discover.
And as a result,
ideas will sooner or later
show themselves to you.
Now I'm an advocate that good design has meaning,
and should be based on good reasons
and answers to complex questions.
Put forward by a brief.
As a designer,
you are solving problems
and you will want to produce
the right answers to the questions.
It's rare that ideas,
especially profound ideas and fresh ideas,
will just pop into your mind.
As a designer,
you want to avoid making arbitrary design
and making things up as you go along.
As I said earlier,
I rarely experienced creative block.
And this is because I always put
a lot of time and energy
into research, development, and planning
before attempting to develop
creative work and solutions on the computer.
I always aim to generate and discover
a good idea, or a bunch of ideas,
I want to take forward on having a master plan
before getting onto the computer
to do the artworking
to bring them to life.
So what I always like to have in place
before creating work is,
one, a good idea or a few ideas,
two, a master plan
and, three, a decisive direction.
These three things guarantee
that when I come to the computer,
I already have in mind exactly
what I need to tackle.
So I rarely experienced block.
So if you're experiencing creative block
due to the lack of ideas,
then you can take steps to overcome this.
One, accept that you are stuck
and don't have an idea.
Two, take a step back from
the creating part of the project.
Three, go back to the research and discovery phase.
Four, put time into research
and learn as much about the subject matter as possible.
Five, from what you have learned,
seek to connect the dots to unearth ideas.
Six, plan what you need to do,
what you are going to do,
and what you will want to achieve.
And seven, this will present a decisive direction,
which will keep you motivated.
In the process of doing all this,
ideas may start to jump out at you.
Capture these ideas,
and make a note of each
until you feel you have exhausted
your research and understanding.
With ideas in hand,
you can then take them to the making table.
You'll find that before you start
to artwork and create,
you will have several ideas
you will want to explore.
Then as you explore and develop these,
more sparks will fly.
And soon, you will have the trouble of having
too many ideas instead of too few.
Now on occasion,
you may know everything there is to know
about the subject matter,
and still not have an idea
or how to approach a solution.
If this is the case,
then you may be suffering from
another common creative block issue.
Three, lack of inspiration.
Another common struggle for designers
is having an idea,
but struggling with how to implement it.
If you are struggling with
how to implement your ideas creatively,
then I would recommend
undertaking more visual research.
If you are struggling with
a particular creative problem,
then it may help to look at
how others have tackled
the same or similar problem.
Remember, this is not to copy,
but to take inspiration.
Seeing what others have done can offer inspired options,
which have not been done,
which you can explore and develop
into a more fresh and alternative route.
Remember, you want to spend this time
learning, discovering,
and getting inspired by what you see.
Hopefully, through visual research,
it should inspire you.
So if after doing you research
and doing your visual research,
there is still no idea that comes to mind,
then it could be the case where
you need a little time
to digest everything you have.
Four, need time to digest.
Now the ideas generation process cannot be rushed.
This is why it's wise to allocate
adequate time to discovery and creativity,
and not put too much pressure on yourself
to deliver ideas on the spot
or at a specific time.
Just like we need to digest our food
to absorb its nutrients,
so do we need time to digest
the information we receive
to absorb the nutrients in information to create.
We need time to both
find information and inspiration,
and to digest information
and inspiration to create.
Typically, when I'm working on a project,
I will spend a lot of time
researching, learning, and discovering
and not put too much pressure on myself
to come up with an idea quickly.
I'll generally allow myself
a few hours or even days
to digest what I have learned.
And then without intention,
an idea will come to me.
It is common amongst designers
who expose themselves to lots of information
to have some of their most
bright and creative ideas
when they are not trying or even thinking.
So before you sit down to start creating
design on your computer, ask yourself,
what are my goals?
What's my master plan?
And what are my ideas I want to develop?
Make sure you have adequate answers to these questions.
If you don't,
then chances are you may run into creative block.
Make sure that you are well prepared
before you start creating design on the computer.
Remember, planning is key.
So if you ever have creative block,
take down the following list,
pin it up,
and go through it.
And I hope it will guide you to greener pastures.
Suffering with creative block?
Don't just push through for the sake of
feeling like you are achieving.
Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself
as anxiety will kill creativity.
Don't mistake creative block for lack of creativity.
Chances are you have all the potential,
just not the direction.
Accept you are stuck.
Take a step back and rethink your approach.
Undertake further research on your subject matter
to learn and discover.
Undertake adequate visual research
and give yourself time to digest.
So what are your thoughts on creative block?
Do you have anything else to add
on how to overcome creative block?
Be sure to share your thoughts in the comment section.
And if any of you have any other
questions regarding design,
be sure to pop them in the description
or email me at creative@garethdavidstudio.com
and I'll look to get back
to you with a thorough answer.
Also, be sure to hit the subscribe button
as there will be more design Q&A videos
like this in the future.
Until then, have fun guys
and I'll see you next time.
(upbeat music)