Feeding the inner designer

In Psychology there is the talk of the inner child. i like to think of an inner designer where it needs to be fed otherwise you get designer temper tantrums where pixels are thrown, fonts beaten up and designs that belong in the recycle bin created. My own inner designer is one that needs to get input on and offline to create the best work. Designer block and burn out is an all too common theme amongst web designers. I think there are (for me anyways) two key times of the year for this – the July – August time and the December – January time. For me, these months are always the hardest to keep on top and enegised about designing. Aside from the seasonal effects, there will inevitably come a time when after going from design to design you reach saturation point and just need to take five.

Every designer has their own ways of dealing with this. The worst I’ve found is the bashing head against it until the block goes approach. Of course, you may have to do this if there is a deadline – working around the block is not always possible. You can avoid repetitive block by some simple assessment of the way you work and looking at putting in aswell as taking out of your creative pool. The thing with design is it can be fickle. People talk about the ‘zone’ and it is true to a certain extent. I tend to think of it more in terms of a bank. If you take too much out and don’t put enough in you quickly go into the red. Putitng back in can be as simple as inspiration pooling, discovering new techniques and even just turning off the net for a while. Everyone has their own recharging they can do and remembering to do this is key to lasting in the industry.

Everyone who is a designer has had burn out at one point or the other and to varying extents. Keeping a check and balancing the account of creativity is something you have to build into your life to keep going. it doesn’t matter if this is the only job you ever wanted to do – at some point you will face this block and recognising and working around it is a key survival technique. You know yourself best so work with yourself and nurture your creative pool with input and recharging. Take time to feed the inner designer and your work will be all the better for that break. It’s got to be better than bashing your head against it or producing lower quality work because you are wiped out.