

I do not know what to write. I am sitting here staring at the screen, running sentences in my head, and turning my music on and off. Earlier I went foraging for food (in hopes of sparking some magical words), but ended up getting distracted by Arrested Development for 20 minutes. This happens just about every time I sit down to do anything. I’ll probably go play the guitar between this paragraph and the next.

Of course this is a familiar situation. Often referred to as “writer’s block”, the concept of an inspiration rut is unfortunately very familiar to every creative in any field. Sometimes ideas just don’t show up to work. Given this, we all develop strategies to combat such a scenario. Not all are foolproof, but it’s safe to say that most creative people have some battle plan for dealing with the dreaded “blank page”.

Knowing this I decided to ask some of today’s most exciting artists and creators what they do when the ideas aren’t flowing. I left the question fairly open ended and asked, What do you do to inspire your creativity when you find yourself in a rut? As expected, I was presented with an array of strategies, ranging from listening to Boards of Canada in a forest alone, to cooking up a storm (recipe provided) and waiting for the mind to clear.

What follows are 25 strategies from these creatives to spark your inspiration; hopefully you’ll find something helpful in there. I encourage you to list your favorite strategies as well in the comments. We can never have to many of these…

Nicolas Felton



I try to alternate the tenor of my years, like crop rotations. In odd-numbered years (eg, 2009) I travel more and concentrate on personal projects and initiatives, while in even-numbered years (eg, 2008), I try to do more work and make more of a profit. In the odd years, I try to take a long trip. In 2005 I spent 5 weeks with a round-the-world ticket, while in 2007 I went to China, Tibet and Nepal for 3 weeks. After both trips, I returned to my desk filled with thoughts and initiative to create.

My other strategy is to keep my plate as full as possible. I tend to say yes to more than I can do, and the fear of failure keeps the work flowing.

When I’m really at a loss, and feel as if my designs are simply circling the drain, I will leave the office. There’s no point in trying to blindly bump into a solution, so whether it’s sketching in the park or reading a book, I avoid trying to use brute force to get out… it’s a bit like trying to get rid of the hiccups.

Tom Muller



Anyway I got the idea for the typeface by looking at some older type design work I had done (yes, sometimes your own work can be a source of ideas — thats what sketches and notebooks are for), and looking at vintage book covers and Wim Crouwel’s Hiroshima poster. So its always a factor of things in the end.

Which reminds me of something I saw on TV: Years ago I saw a documentary on a Belgian comic book artist who had adapted Joe Haldeman’s Forever War into a graphic novel, and a journalist asked him where he got all ideas for the designs of the space ships, and the artist pulled out a piece of a plastic hull for electric wiring (he had an background in architecture) and said he spotted that thing lying around one day in his studio and thought it would be ideal to design a spacecraft.

So there you go. Ideas are everywhere, especially when you’re not really looking for them.

Audrey Kawasaki



Khoi Vinh



Kalle Gustafsson



Build



Slice and chop 2 medium onions into small pieces.

Put a medium sized pan on a medium heat with a few glugs of Olive oil.

Add the onions to the pan, and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Chop finely three varieties of fresh chilli (Birds Eye, Scotch Bonnet & Green/Red).

Add the chilli’s to the pan, stir together and cook for eight minutes.

Add about 500g of extra lean Beef mince to the pan.

Stir in so that the Beef is coated and lightly browned (should take approx. 2 minutes).

Add salt and pepper.

Add Red Kidney Beans and tinned chopped Tomatoes.

Stir well.

Add a pinch of Cinnamon.

Cook on a low heat for approximately 20 mins.

–

Measure a cup and a half of Basmati Rice into a medium pan.

Add two and a quarter cups (the same cup you measured the Rice in) of cold water to the pan with the Rice.

Boil on a high heat until the lid rattles.

Turn down the heat to about half way and cook for eight minutes.

After eight minutes turn the heat off the rice, leave for four minutes (with the lid on).

–

Plate up the Rice (on the side), add the chilli.

–

Large glass of Red wine (preferably Australian or New Zealand).

–

Now the important problem solving part–

Take the plates & pans to the sink.

Run a mixture of hot and cold (not too hot) water.

Add a smidgeon of washing up liquid (preferably for sensitive skin).

Start washing up, the mundane kicks in.

The mind clears and new thoughts and ideas appear.

–

Enjoy a second glass of wine to savour the moment.

Mark Weaver



Chad Hagen



Jasper Goodall



Kim Holtermand



Often the melancholy of the music I listen to gets me in a certain mood and from their the ideas start coming.

Erik Spiekermann



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…

Si Scott



Chuck Anderson



Deth P. Sun



Ji Lee



• Take long showers. Somehow I can think little differently while I’m in the shower. It washes away my old thoughts and I feel renewed.

• Clean my surroundings. I cannot think clearly when there’s a mess around me.

• If it still doesn’t work, I go for a bike ride and I try not to think about the project at all.

Somehow things always work out in the end.

Designunit



Mike Perry



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.

Airside



2.

Don’t all sit in a meeting and somehow expect that something will pop into your collective conscious. Don’t read the design press, don’t go to google images or youtube. Don’t force it – get out of the studio. Go to the theatre, go to gigs, go to museums, take time off work, go for a walk, stop looking at your computer, turn off your mobile and the tv, Have a chat with your mates about something meaningful.

3.

Diversify your interests. The broader your interests and your absorption of culture the more relevant your designs become for your clients. Put yourself in your clients place and try to imagine how they will receive your thinking. Throw up lots of ideas, exchange opinions with your colleagues, road test your thinking with them, think around the subject, look at it from all angles then apply relentless rigour in creating your design. OR not. Go with your gut instinct because you are so bored of laborious over-worked responses it takes all the joy out of life and you can’t remember why you started in the creative industries if everything is designed by committee and compromise. Draw a lot just for the sake of it. Ignore style. Have the courage of your convictions provided you are extremely talented, if not, listen. Listen in any case.

dress code



A: When it comes to daily creativity, I try to break down all of my tasks in a rough schedule everyday. I work on projects from 2-3 hour chunks at a time. I do not spend an entire day on one project alone unless its absolutely necessary. I turn off email and IM or check it every hour on the hour. Breaking down time helps me because when I have 2 hours to complete a task I’m solely focused on elements or details that might otherwise been overlooked. I think it makes me more creative because I look forward the next time I will get to work on a project and forces me to take some time off and think about what I will do next time. The schedule also helps me shift gears between different mediums. Multi-tasking doesn’t work for me, I can’t be having an IM conversation while writing a contract while talking to an intern while waiting for an email while trying to design something too. Getting rid of those small distractions and focusing on a single project helps.

D: The way our studio is set up though we try to have some overlap in who works on what, so there isn’t a ton of pressure on any one person to carry all of the creative weight, which can be kind of daunting and lets us be a bit more free with things.

D: But for the larger macro in a rut stuff we try to keep moving our business in new directions so we can stay happy creatively. To do self initiated work that balances out the day to day client stuff but in the end comes back and informs it.

A: On a macro scale, creativity comes and goes for me. I can’t predict when I will be excited about a project. I just try to be happy in my personal life which in turn makes me productive at work. And being productive at work also makes me happy in my personal life. So I try to do as many things that make me happy: playing soccer, reading books, playing video games, hanging with my lady, getting drunk, whatever I’m in the mood for. I find it tough to be creative when I’m worried or angry at something.

D: Also we work a lot of different mediums which helps keep things fresh, since one day we can be doing motion and the next a tee shirt or a branding project.

D: Teaching helps too because it exposes us to up and coming talent and fresh ideas every week. We are learning from them just as much as they are from us.

almost Modern



Besides our work method being dynamic we also love to create work of our own. To keep our focus clear and to grasp our working method even better. So we keep ourselves busy to keep the progression going.

Atmostheory



When I find myself in these situations I notice that the more I push myself to get results the more I tend to come up short. Regardless, I have several weapons in my rut fighting arsenal; walks, conversations, drawing, reading, records, magazines, vintage shopping, window shopping, digging in old sketchbooks, staring off into space, yoga, TV, red wine, scotch, weed, etc, etc, etc. I definitely try to avoid trolling the web in search of inspiration. It seems to easy and it has been come to commonplace in my opinion.

At the end of the day, most of what I feel are my strongest ideas just hit me when I least expect it… When I’m bed, the shower, on the subway, or a meeting or something. When I am not focused on the quest for ideas. It’s like all the energy I release looking for them causes a cloud to build around me that has to clear before then can get to me.

Kevin Dart



Invisible Creature



In general, these fresh (out of the office) reflective moments – whether they be full days, half days or even a brief few minutes – can be very fulfilling. In fact, we’ve started scheduling them into our regular work days each month – something we should have done long ago.

National Forest



Whenever I need inspiration I get up and step away from my computer. I find that starring at an image, or even worse a blank canvas, can become very frustrating after a while. I like to take a walk or run outside and look at everything around me. I tend to find solutions to difficult problems when I’m not thinking too hard about it. I find interesting patterns and imagery just looking around and observing everything, like an ice cream truck driving by or the concrete I am running on. And usually when I have not thought about the project for a little while I come up with a new idea. – Tess Donohoe

Conclusion



My sincere thanks to everyone for participating. I’m sure if anyone out there is having trouble creating, SOMEthing in the above will get you back on track. A popular solution seems to be to get out of dodge and get out and about…so I’m off to Starbucks to figure out a better way to write a conclusion.

– alex cornell

Don’t forget to list your own favorite strategies in the comments. The more the merrier.