Nearly everyday there are ideas floating all around us and not nearly enough people taking action on them or using them to their full potential. Think about it, there are thousands of products, objects, and information out there. Probably the most obvious ideas are the ones where ask yourself, “Why don’t they…”. If you’ve ever asked yourself that, then you’ve come up with an idea that has potentially never been thought of or executed. Go with the flow and always consider these ideas as opportunities. Just as an example, the other day I thought about music/dance inspired photography. Not photos of music or dance but portrait style photos of people’s personality based on their dance and motion in space. Thinking about it a second time, I probably wouldn’t have been the first to come up with the idea, but my approach and subject and style would make it unique.
To harness your mind’s creative power it is important to let go of restrictive thinking. Know and understand that there are limitless possibilities and nothing is ever impossible – now I can’t speak on behalf of things that are scientific and mathematical, but when it comes to design, development, and the web (or print), the possibilities are endless.
To add to this, designers should never limit themselves to what developers (sorry guys) say is possible. I’ve experienced enough different programming languages and technologies to know that anything can be done and its not a matter of whether it can or cannot be done but rather if there is someone that will or will not want to do the work involved to make something happen. The idea that design and marketing should be bending over backwards to meet the requirement of technology is backwards thinking. We tell computers what to do, not the other way around – where they tell us what they need. We want a rollover, then thats what we tell technology to do and thats what it does. Of course there will always need to be someone to do the work though, but thats what developers are for!
Now regarding the typical problem of creative block…we all get it. But would you believe me if I told you the best idea is probably the first, second or third idea that you thought of? Part of the reason some designers get creative block is because they rush to execute the idea that they’ve envisioned and when 1 hour of design doen’t result in what they expected sometimes the laziness kicks in and we want a quick good looking graphical fix for the problem. My advise, resist the urge to stop a work in progress. Sometimes all it takes is a second sitting and the idea you had would more easily come into fruition both terms of time and final results.
Like we’ve all probably heard before, you must “Free you mind”, The Matrix
