Avoid Creative Pitfalls

In the creative industry where everything is go-go-go and do-do-do you may find yourself at the mercy of deadlines and the dreaded blocks that come with being a full time graphic designer.

Avoid some common creative pitfalls by doing some of the following:

1. Try re-redoing (or re-re-redoing, if you happen to revisit projects in your head frequently) an old piece with a new concept.
2. Move onto another project. Sometimes when working on one project ideas for another can arise which brings me to my next one:
3. Always have paper or a sketch pad available for doodling or jotting down various thoughts.
4. Listen to a different type of music to get some variations of emotions being communicated via audio, in order to open up some new possibilities. What would this piece look like if done to Alternative music rather than Country?
5. Get outside, or change your scene.
6. On a tight deadline? Put a time limit on brainstorming and drop as many good ideas into that sketch pad as you can.
7. Attempt using photography, and if that doesn’t work you can always using some iconography or some illustration.
8. Mess with different fonts and/of font orientation, alternate widths, try not including spaces or changing the paragraph alignment.
9. Don’t look at the clock and work that extra hour. There may be some ground breaking idea(s) that comes from that extra effort.
10. Take 5 minute “vacations” to the web for inspiration (there are some cool things out there from what I hear). This can be done in-between projects as ways to jump start your brain for that next task.
11. Be and think positive.
    Don’t look at the negative side of things and/or comments by any client, manager, or peer. We are all in this together, and some of the most successful projects are a labor of collaboration.
12. See something you really liked, but never actually tried something similar? Why not try it and see what happens when applied to a particular project?

One of the best things about Graphic Design is that it is vast and covers a LOT of ground both digitally and physically. Most designers may encounter a road-block or two through their career.

Feel free to add or subtract from the list or simply ignore this one and make one of your own. A great thing about this career is it is constantly evolving, so go with the flow & move with the changes.

Feature artwork for this post, created and provided by Tim Higgins