How to Combat Creative Block?
What do you do for creative outlets? You may be an artist, a woodworker, a graphic designer, or maybe a photographer. As a graphic designer I enjoy creating within Illustrator and Photoshop. Whether it’s a photo manipulation project or an illustrated logo , It’s fun to just start from scratch or with only a few images and see where my brain takes it.
What happens when you just can’t think of anything. How do you respond to creative block? If you believe in that sort of thing.
Over the last few weeks I have been hitting a wall on what to create and what to post on Instagram. I just felt stuck and doing the same old stuff just didn’t do it for me anymore.
At the beginning of the week I watched a Skillshare course on blogging and it got me thinking. I should start to blog and journal more. It’s a great way to utilize another part of the brain and to express yourself in more than just art and design. I started writing on various topics from creativity to health and fitness. Writing is addicting and I have enjoyed spending each evening writing my thoughts down in a journal. Sometimes it's random journal stuff about the day, and other times it turns into a full blown article about something I’m passionate about.
DayOne Journal
One tool I use is DayOne. DayOne is a journaling app for iPhone and Mac. The one feature that I love is the writing prompt feature. If you don’t know what to write, start writing about the topic given. The cool thing about writing prompts is it sets boundaries that you have to work within and challenges you to think in new ways. The prompts are random and change everyday.
Bible App
Another place I start to go for writing inspiration is my Bible. After reading I like to journal about what I just read and ask questions like “what does this tell us about God?” and “what does this tell us about ourselves?” It’s a way to apply it to my daily life and meditate on it more deeply both while I write and later as I reread it. It’s also a great way to share what I have been reading and encourage others.
Lastly, thing I usually would do when I hit designers block is I would grab my camera, or sometimes just my phone and head out for a walk. Even if I walk in the same neighborhood as I always do I try to find interesting things and interesting angles to take pictures from. The trick with photography is to always change perspective. Shoot low, shoot from above, or shoot through something.
So next time you get a creative block, just change outlets. Write something instead or go take photos somewhere. Bonus, maybe you can use your photos in a design instead of more overused stock photos. Stay creative no matter what.