Creative blocks happen to everyone.
Maybe you’re sweating a deadline, or there are too many competing projects on your plate. Whatever the reason, every Creative has experienced a moment where inspiration is lacking but your deliverable’s due date is quickly approaching.
Next time you’re banging your head against the desk hoping for creativity to spark, keep the following tips in mind to help you break through a creative block.
1. Take a Step Back
This one only works if you have a little bit of time still left on the clock.
If you do, I strongly encourage you to take a step back and focus on something else for a few hours. It may seem like the opposite of resolving the problem, but often, a small break from a challenge can help you come back to it with fresh eyes.
Even if the problem isn’t front and center in your mind, chances are it’s still ticking over in the back of your head somewhere.
For me, inspiration comes randomly, often when I’m working on something else entirely, so this is a tactic I turn to often. My team knows when I grumble “I’m marinating” it really is code for “I’m actively working on other things while I wait for the spark—come back in an hour.”
2. Call a Team Meeting
Don’t have the time to walk away and come back with fresh eyes? That’s okay, maybe it’s officially time to call in fresh eyes to look at the problem with you.
In my career, I’ve never encountered a challenge that couldn’t be overcome with some good old-fashioned teamwork. When you’re scraping the proverbial bottom of the barrel and coming up empty, it’s wise to turn to another creative mind you trust.
A creative challenge is easily overcome if you open it up to more than one creative mind. You’ll spark off each other and an off-hand comment another writer (or designer) may make while reviewing the brief could be the catalyst you need to get your creative-fire roaring away again.
3. Surf the Internet for Samples
Pablo Picasso famously said, “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” Am I advocating plagiarism? NO! However, searching for samples of similar projects posted online can help you identify the design and messaging elements that work in application—and those that don’t.
Plus, checking out how other industries convey similar messages can help you refine your concept and develop it further. Reinventing the wheel is not always necessary. Seeing how other creative teams have solved a problem and applying those principles to your project can only benefit you.
JUST BE SURE TO MAKE IT YOUR OWN!
4. Get out a Pair of Scissors
I often hit my wall on a creative project after the second or third round of creative feedback from the client.
When you open a project to differing opinions, it’s common for the original brief to no longer fit what the project has become. In other words, they may have asked for X, but along the way, it has grown two heads, a tail, and a strange hump. Basically, it no longer resembles anything that could possibly work and seems like there is no hope to save it. Your first instinct might be to toss it out the window and start from scratch, but resist! Don’t do that. Instead, grab a pair of scissors, a glue stick, and your best “arts and crafts hour” enthusiasm and start cutting away!
By breaking a piece into individual parts (intro, case-statement, evidence 1, evidence 2, evidence 3, CTA, and conclusion) you can start to see all the moving parts that make up your message. You’ll be able to play with the different ways you can put that piece of collateral back together to tell the story you want to tell. Or you’ll see what element is missing to make that collateral work.
5. Go Digging for More Details
The clock is ticking, you’ve tried everything you can think of, and you’re still stuck, it’s time to go digging for more details before your window closes.
The client (or your Creative Director) is your resource for a moment like this—and now’s the time to start pressing for details on what their vision truly is. The questions you should start asking aren’t broad, in fact, they are as narrow as they get. You want specifics.
At this point, see yourself as a miner with a pick axe…and start mining the information you need from them through conversation. Ask for critical feedback, specifically about what isn’t working, what doesn’t resonate, and why they feel it’s lacking. You’re not being combative, you’re trying to nail down precisely what’s wrong or lacking from the concept (or with the collateral) you’ve produced in their mind.
Clients can’t often paint a picture for you of what they want, but they are capable of articulating what they don’t like, so dig in there and start crafting your next draft based on what you know didn’t resonate.
When all else fails, zeroing in on what wasn’t liked and why it didn’t work, can give you a new perspective to go back to the drawing board with.
6. Bonus: Start from Scratch
Yes, I know I said that you should resist starting from scratch.
But we’ve all been there. In a lack of proper judgment, we’ve worked through a long document or made countless edits to an In Design file, and out of nowhere, the computer crashes.
All that hard work perfecting that piece is out the window.
What have I learned in these instances? One, save your document constantly!
But second—all that hard work wasn’t really perfect. This forced “redo” gives us a fresh perspective and, more often than not, builds a stronger piece.
Don’t be afraid to start over. You’ll have learned from your mistakes in the first round. Just don’t miss that deadline.
Rhiannon Pickus 