5 Tips for Staying Creatively Inspired

Being a freelance graphic designer affords you the opportunity to only work with the best clients, on the best projects and for the best money out there. That’s the idea anyway, but if you’re just starting out, chances are you’re going to take on some less than glamorous projects to make ends meet and to make yourself more well known as a freelance graphic designer.  Sure, designing a website for a local mold removal company might seem like a less than special task, but with the right mind set and inspiration, it’s possible.

Here are 5 tips to staying creatively inspired:

1. Take a break
Seems a little counter productive but getting up and away from the computer can sometimes lead to the most inspired designs. If you’re feeling frustrated with a project, get up and take a break. Do the dishes, take the dog for a short walk, play the guitar (this is a personal favorite). Taking a breather and revisiting a project a few minutes later makes all the difference in the world and helps give a fresh take on the the task at hand even if you’re only away for 10 minutes.

2. Get Outside
It’s cold a dreary here right now, but one snowy day I decided to get out and take a few photos of the snow covered trees and out buildings in my backyard. It felt great to take advantage of what some would say is “crappy weather” and use it as a source of inspiration. If you’re feeling creatively stifled, take a walk, sit on your porch with a cup of coffee and draw in inspiration from nature.

3. Read Design Blogs
Draw inspiration from others by reading/subscribing to graphic design blogs. Actively read and comment on design blogs. Any serious blog has an RSS Feed, so there’s really no reason not to be up on what’s happening in the graphic design community. Seeing what other designers are up to can open up new doors to your creativity.

Here are a few blogs I love:

Cmd Shift Design
The Design O’Blog
Grace Smith
Spoon Graphics Blog
CSS-Tricks
Smashing Magazine

4. The Oatmeal

I recently came across this site and spent a good hour LOLing at just about everything on this site. Humor aside, The Oatmeal is very well designed and will spark your creativity whether your an illustrator or a web designer, all while giving you a good laugh.

5. Sketch Sketch Sketch

This really goes without saying but I’ve met some designers that rarely open a sketchbook so it’s worth bringing up. You should always sketch out ideas before starting a project but sketching as a leisure activity can put down ideas that you can use in the future. It’s also fun and can generate ideas for the projects you have coming up. So, grab that Moleskine and get sketching!

Speaking of Moleskines, this site showcases amazing Moleskine art that will get those creative juices flowing.

In Conclusion:

Inspiration really is everywhere. The tips above are what works for me and is a great start to getting the creative juices flowing and will reopen your creative mind.

A Day in the Life

When I first started freelancing/working from home my first concern was my uninhibited coffee intake. Is a pot of coffee an acceptable serving size for one person? My second concern, and possibly more imporant than coffee related issues, was my productivity. If I have a project to complete or a task on a tight deadline, 99% of the time I can get what I need to done in a timely fashion. I was worried about the 1% that I get distracted and find excuses to procrastinate. I knew I couldn’t be the only designer to be bitten by the procrastination bug occassionally so I started reading other great design blogs like Blog.Spoongraphics.com and cmdshiftdesign.com that delve into how to be productive and the day to day “schedules” of graphic designers.  I loved reading these blog posts when I was first starting out so here are my day to day graphic design operations:

• I rise around 7:30 or 8:00, depending on my schedule for the day, and I get ready, grab myself a cup of coffee (yes, I set my coffee maker so it brews the sweet nectar I thrive on before I’m even awake) and I seat myself at my desk infront of my iMac and start reading e-mails. Sometimes I check my e-mails on my phone before I even leave my bed. Obsessive? I call it prepared.

• After checking/returning e-mails I start working on projects. Exciting right?

• Around 11:00 or 12:00 I grab something to eat and usually have lunch at my desk. I would recommend taking a break for lunch, maybe checking Twitter or Facebook, or watching some TV. Sometimes I walk my doggie or take a minute to clean or workout. I find that getting away from your desk a few times through out the day helps productivity and fights off burnout.

• When 2:30 or 3:00 rolls around I warm up what’s left of my morning coffee for a much needed pick me up. By this time I have an idea how my next day will look so I start to compile my to do list. Thank you Evernote.

• I usually try to quit working around 4:00 or 5:00 PM. At this time I switch to working on personal projects, like this very website, or reading design related books or blogs.

• By 6:00 I can’t stare at a computer screen anymore and usually make dinner or go out with friends. I still check e-mails through out the evening (not something I encourage) because I like to stay on top of things at all times. I really like to know what I’m going to be doing the next day.

Of course, there are days where this schedule is all out of wack, but that’s the beauty of being able to make your own schedule, and that’s one of the reason I really love what I do. There are times I work on the weekends but that’s in rare cases. I think having set hours (at least as far as your clients know) is a healthy way to balance your work life and your free time.

Establishing a relatively set schedule is a great way to improve your productivity.

Digging Into Wordpress, the Book!

I just started reading this book, and so far I love it.  Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr have done a great job compiling Wordpress information that is both useful and applicable. I plan to do a full on review once I’ve finished reading, but I’m pretty sure I can safely recommend it now.

Find out more information about this book here.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2010 treats everyone well. I have a few goals I want to reach 2010 (refuse to use the word resolution) pertaining to my graphic design business. One being, striving for more stable clients, i.e. agencies and larger companies. I love working with small businesses but sometimes they’re flaky and I think I can better myself as a business person if I start working with larger companies.

That’s just one of my goals, what’s one of yours?

Great package design, can you resist?

It’s happened to all of us. Say you’re strolling through the isles of your average grocery/whatever you need store (for me it’s Target) and bam! The packaging of an ordinary item catches your eye. Candy covered peanuts aren’t on your grocery list, but man look at that packaging! So clever and creative that whatever the product is it must be amazing. This happens to me more often then I’d like to admit. I don’t like to be too easily swayed by something as trivial as packaging, but what some consumers might over look, I gravitate too. The “wine juice boxes” below are a recent purchase that was motivated by the package design and novelty.

Just look at them! They’re adorable, and while the wine inside isn’t actually all that good, I was willing to suck it down. That’s the power of great package design. I find myself falling pray to great packaging often, especially beer, candy and other food items. The world is so saturated with stuff, stuff we dont really need, and companies know this so they have to strive harder to make their products more appealing to consumers to stay alive. As I mentioned before, the wine tasted like crap, but the boxes are so cute that I bought them, spent time photographing them, editing the images and uploading then to this blog post. In the end I’ve not only purchased this product, but promoted it!

That’s great package design.

Getting the blog rolling

Wordpress is a pretty amazing CMS. I pretty much work with it daily on the website I help maintain so I’m pretty familiar with its functionality and power. Which got me to thinking how it compares with other content management systems like Joomla or Expression. I recently worked with  a development company that uses Expression exclusively when a CMS is needed for a site, and I’m curious how it stacks up against Wordpress.  Not to put Wordpress on a pedistal, but this site is powered by it and I personally love it. Just a quick thought (possible blog post topic for the future) before I call it quits for evening. Have a great weekend!

Feels like the first time

Finally! While this is not my first attempt at blogging, this is my first attempt at taking blogging seriously. I have an idea for the direction of this blog, but who knows how it will turn out. With most creative ideas of mine, they usually take on a mind of their own. I want this blog to be informative and fun. I recently started my freelance career and have learned a lot from other bloggers and feel obligated to share my experiences with other freelance graphic designers that are just starting out as well and to impart what I’ve learned over the last few months about freelancing and the graphic design industry.

So stay tuned! I’m still getting this page setup with my graphic design portfolio as well and that will probably be my main focus for now. I’d like for this website to serve as a blog and online precense for myself.  Thanks for stopping by!