Friday, February 26, 2010

25 Ways To Overcome Creative Blocks by ISO50


Scott Hansen asked 25 "artists and creators" how they get through a creative block. Below I have posted some excerpts, but you can find all 25 of them here.

Jasper Goodall
I have a couple of things I do –
Take time away from the computer/sketchbook; visit a new city and just mooch about ( I once sat in a cafe in Berlin and had more ideas than I knew what to do with). I go to the Local University arts and design library and pour over back issues of graphic design and photography journals, snapping things that spark my imagination, then go home and print them out and stick them in a scrap book, I always have loads of ideas after this.

There are 6 strategies for this situation:

1. Avoid
Do something else, wash the car, back-up your data, do errands…
2. Think
Sit back and think about the issue, just let your mind go…
3. Research
Look up stuff, go through your old projects, but avoid Google — it takes too long to find anything useful…
4. Collect
We all have lots of stuff; there must be something in there that is waiting to be used…
5. Sketch
Drawing is great, even if you have no talent. Just visualising the simplest things makes them come alive…
6. Deconstruct
Take the problem apart, look at the parts and then put them back together…

MINE

To me there are three factors that contribute to creative block: One, believing you’re stuck. Two, knowing you’re stuck but not knowing how to get out. And three, knowing you’re stuck and knowing how to get out, but doubting your ability to do it. Here are my solutions, respectively:

1. I ask myself, am I really stuck? Sometimes we think we’re stuck or we want to think we’re stuck but we’re actually on track and just don’t know it. Some paths are inevitable. Remember, a rut is also a groove.

2. I do nothing. Being stuck is usually a matter of not seeing the problem clearly. The best medicine for that is perspective. I measure perspective in units of time and distance. Getting a away from a problem helps give me better view of it. Instead of flailing away I’ll do something unrelated — like go to a museum or watch a movie. Inevitably, something in that other experience presents itself as the answer to the problem I’m trying to ignore.

3. I become awesome. Sometimes I’m faced with a problem to which I know the solution, but executing on it just seems too hard. One trick I use to get over that feeling is to work on other, easier tasks. They don’t have to be related — finally touching up that paint above the office light switch, finishing a blog post, organizing the garage are all fine examples. Taking on a bunch of little things that I can do quickly (and well) puts me in the mindset of being able to accomplish things. Then when I come back to that insurmountable problem it’s just the next task to check off the list. No more anxiety.



Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Vintage Packaging


Core77 posted the link to a "goldmine" of vintage packaging. You can check it out for yourself here.

My New Favorite Inspirational Movie

Thanks Rich, for reminding me to help keep this dang blog alive :)

Rethink Scholarship at Langara 2010 Call for Entries from Rory O'Sullivan and Simon Bruyn on Vimeo.

Tom Geismar Interview at DesignBoom


The entire interview between Tom Geismar and DesignBoom can be found by clicking here. Logos and identities he and the rest at Chermayeff & Geismar are responsible for include Mobil, Xerox, Chase, National Geographic, PBS, etc... Below are some tips for "young designers," whatever that may mean. (It may mean all those younger than Tom Geismar, which would definitely include all of us...)

what mistakes or 'traps' should a young designer avoid when working on a logo design?
- not properly analyzing the real need
- trying to convey too much
- being too concerned with making something 'pretty'
- designing something that’s too much like other logos, and therefore not distinctive
- not taking into consideration the range of media in which it will mostly be used
- not being critical enough of your own work