When You Get a Lapse in Creativity

If you are an aspiring designer and you're taking the time to read this you probably have, just like myself, experienced some form of block in creativity along the way.  You may turn to sites like twitter or pinterest or tumblr (or even some joe shmo's blog, wink wink) to find that source of inspiration and find something you like but then it stops there.  So how do we combat that horrible feeling of not being able to create something original? ...Well, if you are looking for an answer to that question, I can't tell you today, for I myself am at a loss of ideas right now.  But Francisco Inchauste might be able to help you out with that.

Is this you? The 'Photo Coming Soon' guy?

Francisco writes an honest article on how people are inspired by others' ideas to come up with something creative.  He notes that the line between stealing work as opposed to being inspired by work is a "hard one to draw".  In his article, The Creativity Trigger, he goes on about this guy, Stefan Sagmeister, who changed how his company works.  His employees would work for cycles of seven years at a time with one year off in between cycles.  Sounds pretty good to me! The point is, he does this because it gives his employees time to explore the world for the purpose of developing their creativity.  It sounds to me like the people who are developing various versions of the same mobile device should take a one year hiatus to develop some creativity. Zing.  ...But that's just a thought.

In terms of developing your own creative self, I agree with Francisco when he says turn off the computer, go out and get active ...and read a good design book from time to time.

Check out Francisco's oldie but goodie article at: http://www.getfinch.com/2010/07/the_creativity_trigger/