as creative people we all love those special moments when we are creative, inspired and in the zone. but there is a dark side to everything. this occurrence has many names; one of them being “designers’ block” (although i personally tend to call it something in the line of “!@#$%^&*” or simply just violence directed towards any given object in my vicinity).

nonetheless it is important to cope with this designers’ block. therefore i have created a simple 3-step guide to identifying and relinquishing this block and regaining your creativity. (note to reader: writer is not responsible for any physical or mental damage in any way possible.)

step #1 what is this evil holding me back?

find yourself trapped in a phase of dullness? unable to come up with any new ideas? trapped in your own mind? then you could be experiencing a designers’ block. make sure you are not just experiencing a bad vibe, using the counter-measures provided could create quite an unnecessary disturbance in your day-to-day operations.

step #2 what kind of evil are we dealing with?

after having identified a designers’ block you have to analyze its size. there are many types of blocks, but for your ease, and mine, i will categorize them in 3 main sizes.

the first of these is the small designers’ block. it is easily noticed when your creative flow starts to diminish and you are only able to draw squares instead of circles. these blocks are most common and usually tend to last a couple of minutes to hours.

the second type is the big designers’ block. these are rare, annoying and can last numerous days, even months. you can identify a big block when you are utterly convinced the only cool color is cupertino white and that wet-floor-effects should be applied to every graphic style.

the third and last of these evil spirits is also the most dangerous: the triple-xl designers’ block. we know but one thing of this type: it kills people. evidence for that grim statement? let me just say andy warhol didn’t exactly die of a gallbladder problem. (note to reader: i cannot elaborate, “they” are already watching me…)

step #3 evil spirit be gone!

now that you know what you are dealing with it is time to show this evil the door. there are different methods, or cures, as i like to call them. keeping step 2 in mind i am going to talk about the matching cures.

finding a cure for the small obstruction is easy. just take a little distance from your work, leave it as it is and relax for a little while. creativity will strike you once more, just be patient. try not to force yourself to keep on being creative, this will lead to bad results and bad quality.

curing yourself from the big designers’ block is something in another league. this requires immense training or heavy stimuli. due to the fact training requires you to be on a mountaintop in southern tibet for 2 years we will stick with the stimuli for now. using energy drinks might help. (note to reader: don’t overdo it, stomach ache on the other hand does not stimulate creativity.) drugs offer better results, especially methamphetamines. but i must insist you mind possible side-effects including mental damage and the five-o.

now you might be wondering: “what am i going to do about the triple-xl designers’ block?” well, simply said, there is no cure. at least, not yet. at the moment many researchers around the world are experimenting on rhesus macaques (monkeys, for those of you not familiar with animal testing), but promising results have yet to be discovered (mostly due to the fact researchers are not able to be creative and need to find exact answers to every question, resulting in a language no “normal” person can understand). all i can say is: if you happen to be one of those unfortunate people suffering from this obstruction; this might be a good time to start thinking about your will.

“so that’s it? that’s all? no icing on the cake” well, i can’t end without leaving you, the entertained reader, with some food for discussion.

what if we can’t rely on our trusted researchers to save us when this dreaded triple-xl strikes? we must not panic! we will stand up for ourselves and fight! that’s why i say: “unite! creative people who-made-it-this-far-down-the-column.” and ask you to share your creative cures for triple-xl block in the comment section. and don’t give me that “i don’t wanna/world of warcraft awaits me/my mother doesn’t want me commenting on columns”-crap. remember, you could be next in line getting smacked by good old mr. triple-xl.

so get those synapses firing and post away! (and perhaps save a few rhesus macaques in the process.)

jan van der asdonk

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 6th, 2006 at 0:01 and is filed under Column. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.