3 tips to break a Creative Block
“Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. ”
Creative blocks happen — sometimes right from the beginning of a project. They are frustrating and difficult to deal with; the good news is that there are tricks to overcome them.
I was working on a project around a wallet design. We were set to make our best-selling wallet from just one piece of leather. What we came up with looked great, but the value wasn’t there. We tried and tried, but we couldn’t get out of this value proposition problem. We were stuck until one day, someone asked us, “Does it need to be made out of one piece of leather?” We all looked at each other and bam! We realised that we had been focussing on the wrong thing. It was so obvious in hindsight. The need to make a wallet out of one piece of leather had become more important than the aspiration to make something less complicated — something that would be true to the Cradle to Cradle principles that we were following. Simplicity by using a single material was our objective and we had become distracted. We used 2 pieces of leather and some thread to make the wallet and that was it! It was one of the most functional, beautiful, slim wallets in existence at the time. Reframing the problem has got us out of the creative block we were facing.
So, how can this apply to you and your projects? Next time you get stuck in a project and can’t get to the other side, or you can’t start, try my three tips for beating creative block:
1- Reassess Assumptions
With what you know about the project since it’s beginning, it is possible that some parts of the brief need to change and evolve. Reassessing your objective with what you know now is a good way to prioritise what’s important. This exercise often allows the designers to objectively rethink the project and find new potential solutions.
2- Break Assumptions
Sometimes we get stuck because we can’t solve one aspect of a project; a technical problem emerges and prevents us from moving forward. When this happens, it can be very helpful to stop and imagine that we have resolved the issue, then visualise what happens next. In a waterfall design process we would stop until the issue is resolved. In a more agile way of thinking, we don’t stop; we break the project into smaller parts. In doing this the project continues to move forward and we are able to deal with roadblocks in parallel. Envisioning what the end result of the project will look like often triggers new ways of thinking about the problem and breaks creative blocks. However, sometimes we might realise that even with this roadblock resolved, the project isn’t likely to reach its desired outcome and we need to change direction. This is not a failure but rather fast learning. And it is actually added value to your design process because you know what’s not going to work.
3- Seek Clarity
A creative block can happen early on in a project; this is known as the blank page problem. Where do you start? This happens when we are not clear about the project objectives. We often then attempt to focus on specific parts of the project and we get lost. An interesting strategy is to ask yourself, “What is this really about? What are the parts that really matter?” Prioritise these parts and off you go. Another way to check if you understand a project well enough to break your creative block, is to pitch the brief to someone else. You can very quickly hear how clear or vague the objectives are during your pitch. If you are unclear, seek clarity so you know where to focus first. If you are leading a team of creatives the SCRUM. Standing meeting first thing in the morning. They have 1 minute each to state their 3 objectives for the day. It is a good way to make sure the members of your team are clear about what they are trying to achieve. You might often hear either project updates or tactics instead of clear objectives. If they are clear about their projects goals then they can find the right tactics to achieve them. Otherwise they will get stuck.
There you have it. These are our three tips for overcoming a creative block. The key is to train ourselves to reframe problems, learn quickly, seek clear objectives and decide what tactics can get us to successful outcomes.
Do you have other ways to get out of creative blocks? Leave us a comment below. We are always seeking better ways to be more creative and have better impact. Thanks for sharing.