By Alan Coleman on 28 Aug 2014
We’ve all been there:the agony of creative block. Your brain just says a big fat no to any kind of idea. For me, it actually feels like a physical block in my head. Like a really heavy Lego block. Sometimes it’s purple, sometimes green. Never yellow. Just sitting there, stopping me from doing anything. A friend of mine once startled me with this little statement: “You’re a creative, you’re paid to be creative, and therefore you don’t have the luxury of having creative block.” At first this scared the crap out of me. I questioned what it meant if I couldn’t come up with an idea. I even wondered if I wasn’t made for the design business at all. But quite quickly I realised, well, clearly my friend was being insane. You can’t just escape creative block simply because you are being paid to do it as a job. Much like a footballer can’t help having a terrible game and not scoring… or saving things... whatever his footballing job might be. Perhaps you are just having an off day, or maybe you have a brief that has entirely stumped you. Not all is lost, there are things you can do to try get around it.
1. Step. Away. From. The. Screen.
Listen to your good friend DJ Kormac. Sometimes it’s good to get away from your screen. Play with inks, textures, paints, pens, cut shit up and stick em to other shit. Flick through magazines or books in your library. Getting away from your screen can really help with finding new ways of playing. When you open your mind to playing, the creativity can’t help but come to you.
2. Talk to someone.
I don’t mean drop in on your psychiatrist for an emergency session during the workday. In the Wolfgang offices, there is always someone to have a chat with., If you find yourself in a dead end, you can nip down to the kitchen to make some tea, and talk it all out. . Recently a brief 5-minute chat with a fellow Wolfganger snapped me out of a daylong creative block. The topic of said chat is not important. Let’s just say we came up with a new tagline: Wolfgang Digital: Where lady parts inspire creativity.
3. Daydream.
This one is a risky game to play, as you can get lost in a daydreaming spiral. But allowing your mind to wander away from what you’re concentrating so hard on, can really help you think about things in different ways.
It’s also nice to rest your brain for brief moments to think about silly things. Like what might a lion’s handwriting be like if they possessed the skill. I’d say really fancy. And in case you don't know how to daydream, here's a simple guide to get you started. Seriously... they made a wiki on it. You'll be atop a giant cat crossing a rainbow in no time.
4. Read through your notebooks.
Never mind college, ever since secondary school art class, you’re taught that keeping a notebook is the most important thing to an artist/designer. Bringing notebooks with you everywhere you go and scribbling down thoughts, ideas, quotes, lyrics, silly things, and mundane things will never let you down. You never know when these things will come in handy.
5. Cry.
Have a bit of a weep. Lols. I’m kidding. No I’m not. Cry. Basically don’t panic. We all suffer from creative block, change things up and get on with your day. But it’s also important to realize that sometimes your poor over-worked brain just needs a holiday. Designers are notorious workaholics that work on both extra work and personal projects outside of office time. So take the damn holiday. Ya eye is twitching, bro.
