Designer's Block - Selina S. Lee

Do you ever sit in front of blank piece of paper and pencil and let your mind just wander off into

no-where-land? You have an idea, you have a concept but can’t quite seem to visualize into an
image. Do you get tired of looking at beautiful, well-designed layouts and images but don’t get
inspired at all to create something original of your own? It happens to me all the time….
a designer’s block.

No doubt there is so many beautiful things already out there. You have a design in mind, most likely

has been created by someone else before and published somewhere. You look at an images and get

wowed, it’s only natural that those images will make its way to influence your design.

How do you find inspiration? What do you do when you just can’t seem to come up with anything

original? Here is just few recommendation from a forever struggling artist, designer…myself.

+ FIND INSPIRATION ELSEWHERE (other than already design outputs) –

Sometimes, I get an inspiration from just looking at black and white photos. I don’t know what it is but

bw photography always gets my attention when it comes to telling a story. Going out to see the

nature, flipping through some fashion magazines, play around with freshly cut flowers, try a whole new

innovative recipe that you haven’t tried before. Open up all your five senses!

+ GO BACK TO BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN – color, line, shape, texture & space. Good designs

always go back and true to its basic elements.

+ TALK TO OTHER DESIGNERS about what inspires them. Daniel Patrick Simmons @danielpatrick
on instagram opens conversions with other designer and artists on “Tip Tuesdays“. He also has
some great write-ups, tips about design and doing business. You can read more on his
blog.+ SPEND AN HOUR AT LOCAL MUSEUMS OR GALLERIES. If you don’t have time to visit all the
museum or just can’t afford to travel to Europe (like me), take a virtual tour in Google Cultural Institute! –
to see the exhibits and collections in high resolution tour, anywhere around the world! Find something
that triggers you esthetically from looking at all the masterpieces.+ NOT ALL DESIGNS HAVE TO BE CLEVER. It doesn’t have to have a visual link to your concept.
It can be as simple as beautiful typeface that you found. Design work may not even need a concept
as long as it works visually for you and for your client.+ STOP. Don’t design anything. You don’t have to be pressured to create something constantly.
Just walk away from the design realm for a while and enjoy doing something else. But please do
remember to come back to your sketchbook and pencil. It took me a while to come back!I hope you find these tips useful. I hope you don’t let the designer block stop you from keep creating!

Designer’s Block

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