Skip to main content

How I stay creative and inspired



Losing creativity as a designer is one of the scariest things known to us, it’s a worrying time where you wonder if you’ve lost your superpowers as Peter Parker did in Spiderman 2. Fear not, there are ways to stay creative and I believe every person finds their own little method of keeping those creative juices flowing.

Everyday without fail I look for inspiration, from the moment I sit down with a coffee in the morning to the time I leave the office, I’m always scanning for new ideas. Now that we live in a digital world there are so many resources for me to look at, from Pinterest to Behance then darting over to Design Week, it just never stops. My eyes rolling faster than my brain can register, trying to find the next big thing.

It’s very easy to spend hours, days and weeks trawling through the internet but there comes a time when you have to sit back, peel your fingers off the keyboard and just reflect on what you’ve seen. I soon realise if I’ve taken any of it in, or if it was just a waste of time and I’ve been looking at pretty colours for an hour. The key is to train yourself to take everything in, even if it is tiny aspects of different designs.

I’ve just looked at 54 logos, 23 website designs, 37 packaging styles and 11 random images of Kanye West photoshopped in different supermarkets, and only got 1 idea…

However that one idea is crucial to me, because that’s my starting point, that’s my golden nugget which leads to the creative river where all the possibilities sing and dance in harmony. That idea is now my driving force and sparks other ideas, which then essentially sparks more ideas what then break down into loads of other ideas. It’s a chain reaction…

Now on the other hand if the digital method didn’t work, there are still things in the world called “books” – they are amazing things, every creative should check them out. This may blow many people’s minds but yes I do go sit down and read a book, this could be published by Creative Review, The Drum, The big book of fonts, literally anything. It’s still a very crucial aspect of finding inspiration and because of the digital universe we now live in I think it’s very easy to neglect the good ole paperback style.

If none of this has worked, and you’re thinking this is it, I’m going to have to hang up my creative cap and try something else just stop yourself there. Simply go outside. Yes it’s that easy, for me it’s crucial to leave my workspace, even if it’s to go make a coffee. Refresh your mindset, don’t think about anything other than not spilling the coffee beans all over the kitchen floor and blaming it on a poorly designed spoon. If the creative juices aren’t flowing, staring at a screen like a zombie forever sure isn’t going to help. So get up. Leave the screen. Refresh the mind.

Word by Max Gill