Call me superstitious but it seems that designers are off to a bad start for 2005.
It all started with Jason's fighting off design stagnation. Then Dave went public with some wisdom for getting unstuck. Only a few days later, Dan shared that he has found that wine consumption can help enhance the creative process. And this morning Nazarin greeted February with his methods for pushing past a blank Photoshop screen.
What's going on here? Is there a strain of creative malaria going around that AiGA hasn't warned us about? I suppose tomorrow the news will report that all the designer vaccine form Canada has gone bad.
Join the fray by reading through and commenting at the end.
Not me. I've had a great creative year so far. Too bad I seem to have a problem following through with things... maybe one of these days my designs will become an actual website!
I'm not even creative enough to find out what to write about in my blog. I guess there can be a possible creative slump, were you not in-fact totally photocopied on your site-design just before? -.-
What's this? You speak of website design and then title the article Frontpage? Okay so maybe it wasn't just website design but STILL... :)
Yes... I like to go into the basement and bust out Frontpage 98 on my ancient Windows machine when I feel in a slump. Those Microsoft Frontpage Templates are just to die for. Now how do I do the markup for a sarcasm point?
Dave: <¡>
Well, that didn't work. Try this (with no spaces) & i e x c l ;
That should give you lots of sarcasm points (oh, and you should always increase the font size just to emphasize it).
@Ray W.: I think Frontpage is an funny image instead of a bad start of the new year for designers... ;-)
Sorry, I had done a better job by refreshing this page, just ignore my previous comment...
I wish I had the time to be "stuck". I have a 100 medical illustrations to do in one week. Minimal creative freedom. All will be good afterwards, as it's back to the good design jobs.
I've actually had pretty high creativity over the past few weeks - just peek into my moleskine - but no time to actually code/design the stuff I've thunk-up...
gonna turn the world upside down! (ok, maybe not)
The answer is obvious. Those of us that are being that have the creative juices flowin' are busy. Those that are blocked up are writing 'I'm Stuck' type blog posts.
So this might be far out , but here goes: Maybe the rise in getting unstuck articles is a response, somewhat serendipitous, to the rash of people stealing other's designs. When the guy stole this site one of his excuses was that he was stuck.
Okay it’s just a thought—Greg put down my HellBoy collection…
Ryan, exactly my thought. I just wonder whats causing so many to have blockage issues, which I myself suffer as well. Perhaps we're not getting enough pencil fiber on a daily basis.
For me at least, part of it is stagnation. In the sense, that i could whip out something decent in a few hours that was relatively solid but isn't breaking new ground.
You become your greatest critic. If you appreciate your craft, you don't want to retread old ideas, old concepts, even if they work well. I've always strived or at least tried to do something completely different from what I last did, to try to take it into a new direction. What this means is a variety of things: perhaps working with colours you haven't used before, scrapping the grid system (to an extent), using type that's not in your usual library.
It's about getting out of your comfort zone. It's not so much as stuck as it is rehashing the same ol', same ol'.
I try to go for groundbreaking and if I can get halfway there, to a decent place, then I can live with that. It isn't going to work all the time, but you can get to a place where you're statisfied and the client is as well.
That said, out of the 4 projects I'm working on: I'm happy with two, okay with one and stuck/conceptualizing the other. Out of the two I'm happy with, one of them is one of the very few where it all came together. It was just on.
Stagnation and comfort is what I'm fighting - I've often had to go all the way to the other side to come back to what I know best. In essence, if I go 100% the other way (outside of my comfort zone), but end up coming back 50-70% then I'll have pushed towards something new/different (for me) by 30-50%.
I would have to agree with Nick. I've been having lots of ideas. Just finding the time to do them has been difficult since most of my day is spent being "creative" in my day job (which is good but isn't the same as working on my own things).
I get antsy and hard-to-live-with when I have the ideas but no time do actually do them. My poor wife. ;-)
" I just wonder whats causing so many to have blockage issues"
Sympathy block. Back in high school the girly whirlys on the cheer leading team would get something similar. One would get sick (cough cough) and the rest would follow like lemmings over a cliff.
BTW, when did Barbie and Ken split up?
I was actually thinking about writing a post about how hard creativity can be.
But then I got writer's block.
But seriously, I've had lots of great ideas I just haven't had time and have too been distracted to get them out. Much like many others by the look of it.
And yeah, it could be sympathy block as well...
Or World of Warcraft.
“Distraction is the key component in the ideation process.†-- Art Chantry
Hey, who sez I've been stuck just cause I'm writing about it? New stuff coming soon.
When I have time to actually think, I'll have time to come up with new ideas and become unblocked. Right now I have some really good projects sitting aside.
The major reason for stagnation? Two words: SPRING SEMESTER.
A major part comes from laziness. I get a block and say, maybe I'll just read Airbag for a little bit. Just one post. Then an hour goes by and so does the deadline.
Maybe that should be the sister site — pillowbag. Soothing music 24/7 with a nighty-night palette of colors that makes a blind man get sleepy.
Come to think of it... *yawn*
I agree with Mikolaj.
Bottom line, at times being stuck and moping about it is easier than doing what it takes to get unstuck. Declaring yourself stuck is a great way to not deal with the stress and pressure of solving a difficult problem (see Kottke's post this morning on how not to choke. Getting stuck isn't like catching a cold. Getting stuck is running out of gas and then hoping that new inspiraion or some good samaritan with a gas can will come with no effort of your own. Doesn't happen often.
Now the blog world, that might be stuck in general because there's certainly not too much interesting from a design standpoint going on. It's fairly ridiculous (but I know Greg has a good sense of absurd hyperbole) to say "designers" are off to a bad start from observing a handful of designers who happen to have a presence online (most don't of course and there's a big wide world of design going on offline—most of it in fact). Maybe it's a problem specifically related to designers who blog? You can take a blog holiday you know. (There in fact might be evidence, Kottke=exhibit 1, Dean Allen=exhibit 2, that blogging and the surfing necessary required to keep a well-stocked clever link list might itself be the problem. Jason seems to have atrophied as a designer and become a 99.9% full-time blogger and Dean seems to have turned in the other direction and put the blog to bed. Interesting).
Whatever the case may be, allow me to toss out a bit of advice for stuck designers/bloggers: Get off the web and off your computer and go to a museum. Use your computer for work and not for play. Go see a movie that has art direction in it, not just product design. Turn off the TV. Don't surf the web looking for inspiration for web design (you'll just find more of the same, over and over). Step away from the Xbox, pick up a musical instrument. Cook a new recipe. Get in the flow of life—it's where good design comes from. Think about how a creative person's approach to non-design endevours might influence your approach to design. Do things that engage your brain and your senses, not just your eyes and fingers. You'll be much closer to unstuck, take my word for it.
Aargh, took the words right outta my mouth, Tom. Another good thing is to talk to people. People you admire, people who aren't in your field, friends, weird Uncle Teddy with the glass eye...You just never know, they may say something totally unrelated to what you are preoccupied with that gets a synapse going and sparks an idea/solution.
And it's true, sometimes you just have to step away. Look to another creative field unrelated to yours for great solutions and re-interpret them to be appropriate for the task at hand, which in turn may lead to something even better.
fight off that creative stagnation by laying a block.
and by entering links properly.
Design Stagnation - Superbowl Commercials - Could Creativity as a whole be suffering?
I just go play some music with virtual online musical instruments
http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/feature_partch.html
here you can play Harry Partch VMI.
I think I'm the first musician in history to record two 45 minute symphonies I composed, using only Virtual Musical Instruments.
Try it. Gits yer creative waffles toasted like red aunts in August.
why don't your links open up on a new page... thats bad design, you are just asking people to leave your website and venture on else where through out the WEB...
It's invents gigapixel camera. I wish I could event something. :)
Nice catch. I was a little side-tracked when I noticed Airbag took a dive. I should have stopped adding links I suppose.
nice sense of sarcasm greg....
It's still a design flaw to have your links open up and lead people away from your site.
Thats like the fundamentals of webdesign
It's still a design flaw to have your links open up and lead people away from your site.
Thats like the fundamentals of webdesign
If links were supposed to open in a new window that would be the link's default behavior in every browser out. It's not. If you want new links you could always middle-click, right-click, shift-click, or whatever your browser does to force a new window.
and how and why would you force a new window to open if you don't already know it is going to take you away from that site...
so the point still stands that unless you are not wanting people to stay at your you should make the links open up in a new window.
When people click something they arent always conciouse that they are opening up a whole new site... they are just skimming through things and before they know it they are off in cyber space and your website is far far away... and if by chance your site was one that they found through links their is a chance they will never find their way back to your site again.
Also on almost all other links on airbag industries they open up in a new window... so all I wsa stating is that they all should.
opening new windows is a distraction to the visitor.
The number one button used on the internet is the "back" button. If they like your site, they... go back.
It's still a design flaw to have your links open up and lead people away from your site.
Hey $killz, after checking out your work I have to say that everything about your website is a design flaw. But I'll give you 'eprops' on your poetry (Which opens up in a new window? What the shizzle my $killzlel?).
Though I hate to do it, I'll quote from Jakob because I agree with him on this point, number two of his Top Ten New Mistakes in Web Design:
"Opening up new browser windows is like a vacuum cleaner sales person who starts a visit by emptying an ash tray on the customer's carpet. Don't pollute my screen with any more windows, thanks (particularly since current operating systems have miserable window management). If I want a new window, I will open it myself!
Designers open new browser windows on the theory that it keeps users on their site. But even disregarding the user-hostile message implied in taking over the user's machine, the strategy is self-defeating since it disables the Back button which is the normal way users return to previous sites. Users often don't notice that a new window has opened, especially if they are using a small monitor where the windows are maximized to fill up the screen. So a user who tries to return to the origin will be confused by a grayed out Back button."
Perhaps you should just stick to 'filling up chlorine tanks and refilling trucks with other pool treating chemicals'.
I blame Bush.
that is awesome man... I love hwo in defense of yourself you start to belittle the other person... you are so good at taking criticism...
IT all made me lauph thanks for checking out my site, and for the critique I would like some more in depth criticism... not just the whole thing is a design flaw... I need more details, and not that I should stick to refilling chlorine tanks I want real advice ...
The only reason I even brought it up is because is you are going to go by what you quoted... which if you do that is fine... but why not be consisntant. I brought it up because some of your links open up to a new window, and then others open up in the same window...
But like you said what do I know my whole site is a design flaw...
Good thing I am in print graphics and not webdesign right...
or better yet good thing I can always fall back on refilling chlorine tanks right...
People, people, people! I think all the peace in the Mideast is causing all this harsh design criticism... all this tension should be harnessed for the good of mankind!
Sorry, I blame Bush, too.
See what happens when you get published in CommArts and people start coming out from under rocks? Greg obviously subscribes to the LBJ-era theory of Massive Retaliation, but I'd personally like to mention I think the best moments of Airbag come when a mouth breather pushes the G-man one inch too far and then (as Billy Jack would say) he "... just ... goes ... insane!"
This also was noted at CafeLisa.com. I think it's just another trend, kind of like the "wicked worn look" trend.
Let's leave "web" out of the equation and see if the problem still exists. Sorry, but I get the feeling that people spouting off about designers block likely aren't strong designers. If opening software is the first thing you do to realize something, maybe creating things isn't for you. I tend to listen to those creating and doing, not those stuck in ruts, making their illness public on a blog. How deconstructive.
And people—please—stop it with the "wicked worn look." I contributed to the guest series and I'm awfully tired of everyone painting us analogue users into a tight corner. It was just an article—creating parallels between the real (hey! it's entropy) and the cold chips of digital isn't a style fad. And it doesn't always involve masking tape. Or Photoshop. And sometimes it's appropriate to the content. Get over it please. Let's find something more constructive to create, other than dialogue about non-creative people doing non-creative things.
Hey $killz, after checking out your work I have to say that everything about your website is a design flaw.
Excellent comment Greg. I'm sure he'll take that in-depth criticism to the bank and turn his site around. You may or may not have a point with your stance on links that "pollute" desktops and confuse users who are incapable of switching between open windows. But, what I really liked was how you backed up your point by attacking him personally. Nothing really proves a point like backing it up with personal insults. It worked in the sixth grade – why not now?
After the dust has settled, Shane still has a point: some of your links pollute my desktop, and some of them don't. (And Shane didn't call on personal insults to reinforce that point.) If you have a point, state it. Just don’t go off on irrelevant banter.
Feel free to browse my tiny site and point out its flaws. Dig up some dirt on me while you’re at it. Of course, I don't really care what critics say. All I care about is that my mom and the other 12 people that see my site have fun while they’re there.
When it rains, it pours.
Opie Cunningham, go back to funland and have a good time with the seven dwarves, the Jackson Five and your mom.
Damn. Why are you so nasty? Don't turn your posts into after-school fistacuffs.